How to talk to IT and your executive about records storage

Every now and then, I get asked to present on innovation in records management. It's something I love to do - because I really think now is the most exciting time in history to be in it.

A question came up about storage and how to talk to your executive about it. The person who asked the question was an IT stakeholder, but I've had lots of discussions with people in records about storage as well - so I thought it would be useful to share.

For me, this is where the DIKAR model shines.

Data, Information, Knowledge, Actions, Results.

Storage is an information quality factor.

If it's on paper, and the paper is in offsite storage that's 24 hours away. The fastest you can produce a result for a process consuming that storage is 24 hours.

If there's also a $15 cost to return a box, the cheapest result you can produce is $15 - that's before anyone actually does anything.

With digital storage, it's both more and less complicated.

Just like email, the challenge is that the service gets consumed by many processes and produces many outcomes.

The core thought remains the same - how does this investment change our ability to produce results?

If it changes the quality of your information, it changes the quality of the results you can achieve.

The only question left to ask is whether the change in quality of results is meaningful for the cost?

When it comes to digital storage, often it just isn't. Sometimes though, it can be transformative. It's up to us to know when that is, and how improving information quality can improve results.