Rethinking record capture as procurement
The terms we use to describe something really do determine how we think about it.
Next time you start thinking about record capture, try calling it record procurement - even if it's just in your own head.
It really is a procurement type relationship.
Capture makes it feel like we're just catching it.
Procurement forces us to realise that it's an action that someone has to take.
It has a cost.
It has an opportunity cost.
It has alternatives.
It involves an exchange of value - and if we want to procure that record from its creator into a place where we can manage it, we'd better be offering more value than the other options.
One of our challenges is that we have traditionally handled all information the same: whether it's high or low value, high or low risk - it all gets the same gold-plated treatment. The question is whether we can continue to do this. The alternate view is that we don't really know now the value of some of this information - it may be that in five years, things that we currently see as low value or risk have become incredibly important.
This ties in nicely with the concept of information as an asset. We're finding more people looking at data as an asset, so we need to make sure they see information through the same lens.