Is it prudent to ignore the tangible benefits of records management?
As mentioned in previous sections in recent years regulatory compliance has been seen as a key vehicle for promoting the need for records management, increasingly joined over the past year by the ever-growing profile of information security (particularly in relation to personal data). This has certainly been true in the last ten years where the key drivers for records management programmes have been legislation and corporate governance, particularly as the Section 46 Code intrinsically links records management to compliance. Articles relating to compliance appear in both the professional magazines and journals with great frequency and will continue to do so as the legislation continues to change. The benefits derived from good corporate governance are generally thought to be intangible (that is not easily measurable) although the literature does include reference to measures concerning how effective the records management programme is, which can be used as a measurable indication of standards of corporate governance. Notably the 'Complying with the Records Management Code: Evaluation Workbook and Methodology' produced by The National Archives provides a yard stick to measure records management functions that support good corporate governance.
In recent times, particularly in the area of IT projects, intangible benefits have generally become more prevalent in the business case methodology and this has also been the case in the area of records management, particularly functions that require technological solutions. Cimtech (2009, p.64)4 put forward that 'Indeed, the strategic benefits are often vital and hence outweigh any tactical considerations.'
Based at the University of Glasgow, The espida Project has developed a methodology to support the process of creating business cases for information technology proposals that may offer more intangible benefits rather than immediate financial benefits to an organisation. The methodology assists project proposers to tease out the benefits that arise from information projects.
Clearly a balance needs to be struck between the weight given to the intangible and tangible benefits within a business case for records management but this is not a balance that we have hitherto detected in the literature which over the past decade has tended to focus far more on the intangible benefits likely to be accrued.
