Records has had EDRMS for so long we've forgotten why we have it.

Keep any tool in place for long enough, and one of two things will happen (or both).

1. Memory will fade about what it was like to do without the tool.

2. The reasons the tool was put in place will no longer make sense - even if the tool persists out of habit.

The role of the EDRMS is under assault in records management at the moment.

The pressure to manage records where they are is incredibly strong.

Mostly, we're treating the potential loss of an EDRMS like it's an assault on the records profession, and we can't do without it.

Which is peculiar - given that EDRMS has only really existed for about 40 years.

The truth is that mostly, we don't know how to operate without an EDRMS - because most of us have had them for our whole working lives.

Which raises a question about how much the role of EDRMS is to provide gains, and how much it's about psychological safety for people in records.

To keep them, and keep funding them, they have to be more.

There is no question that EDRMS provide extra features over a file server.

There is no question that storing objects in an EDRMS rather than a business system provides extra capability vs. the business system.

So what?

What's the gain?

What's the loss?

What are the risks?

Who benefits?

What does the additional performance cost us vs. the gains, losses and risks?

When we get good at answering that, I think three things will happen.

1. We'll treat them like any other tool - they produce a gain, the mitigate a risk, the gains and risk mitigations mean they're either worth investigating or now.

2. We'll start using a much larger slice of the capability they provide - because we have to, if we're going to keep justifying them.

3. People will start seeing records as more than just the records system.