Forms Management As Part of a Records Management Strategy

Organizations understand that having an effective Records Management Plan is crucial to nearly every aspect of executive a business.  At Doc1, we have been working with our clients at law firms, corporations, and government agencies to help develop and implement their records management strategies.  It can certainly be complicated with the different tasks like developing and updating policies, creating the rollout plans in conjunction with HR and Legal, making decisions regarding categories of records and the associated life-cycles, not to mention the communication and awareness initiatives, implementation with IT, enforcement and training.  However, one of the areas that sometimes will get overlooked is Forms Management.  Within so many organizations, each department has such unique responsibilities that forms are generated in a vacuum and there will be multiple versions of forms across each department.  What's more, there can be conflicting information collected across these forms and result in confusion or misinformation within the organization.  We have recognized the great value of collaboration among departments during a Records Management Audit to create uniformity of forms and consequently some consolidation of information and centralization of knowledge and records.  This effort has the multiple advantages of making information more easily accessible and discernible, creates a more efficient data storage and collection protocol, and fortifies an organization's ability to be better able to defend itself in litigation and investigations.