RMAA-What the vendors say...
RMAA-What the vendors say...
IDM-What do you think will be the main issues under discussion at this year's RMAA 2004 international convention?
Kodak-Craig Beattie, the marketing manager of Greater Asia for document imaging
We expect compliance to be a hot topic at this year's convention, based on the need to store documents and archive them according to legislative guidelines. There should be many discussions on the best ways available to protect this data, which would be necessary to use in court. Laws such as the Sarbanes Oxley Act will be highlighted in particular. This legislation requires that records are kept and audited constantly. The law has recently changed things drastically so that the buck actually stops now with the employee and not with the company as a whole, which used to be the case in the past.
Tower Software-Michael Cliff, general manager for marketing
Email management will be a very popular issue at the RMAA convention this year. Recent studies show that people are increasingly looking for new ways to capture important information via email and most people want a solution that can improve productivity and efficiency in business processes. Open source will be another big topic that will be debated frequently. People will talk about whether it presents a better and cheaper option than Microsoft. In addition, over the last two years, organisations have become very conscious of how to properly manage information so there should plenty of talk about how life could be made easier to cope with this in the future. Compliance should be another hot topic too.
80-20 Software-Frank Stranges, Founder & VP Australian Sales
We expect to hear stories from organisations that have tried to implement records management systems and have found it easy to manage physical documents but much more difficult to take care of digital assets. Many businesses are hitting brick walls and spending too much money on applications that are too difficult to fit within the organisations' record keeping culture.
Interwoven-Andrew Antal, marketing manager
I think the current issue that will be uppermost in their minds will be:"How relevant is RM to an organisation and how can RM people instill the value of records management, and associated systems and processes, into an organisation and have this adopted enterprise wide?"
Objective-Tony Walls, CEO of Asia Pacific
In light of the proliferation of information and content an organisation needs to manage, one of the main topics will be around the challenge organisations face in extending the scope and responsibility of records management to the entire enterprise.
This will also promote discussion around the business imperative for ensuring records management processes and systems are embedded into an organisation's business processes, rather than delivering compliance alone.
Hummingbird-Tony Hughes, Australia managing director
In the corporate world, corporate governance has become the topical issue. However, within the government sector, this translates to transparency. Records management has remained predominantly about achieving compliance, but the trend is moving away from simply achieving compliance to providing transparency of information throughout its life cycle.
Netcat-Bruce Wren, marketing director
We think that the ability to link document management and content management systems to storage repositories via the Intranet will be an exciting concept that will be frequently mentioned. This is quite a new concept and we expect a lot of people will talk about the potential advantages and also ask many challenging questions about it too.
IDM-What do you expect will be the key insights to be taken away from the convention?
Kodak-We would like to make people more aware of what they can use to fulfil their requirements. We would like to teach them about issues, such as the value of microfilm. Many organisations are not aware that this is still a viable alternative for storage. Our policy is giving, rather than taking. The beauty of microfilm now is that it can also be digitised these days and cleaned up. A lot of people think of microfilm as yukkie technology, but it is in fact a very useful and sturdy storage alternative.
Tower Software- We expect to be recognised as a strong supporter for the RMAA convention, because we believe very firmly in the same records management philosophy. This convention should also give us a chance to meet face to face with customers and understand more about what they are looking for in the market place. It gives us a chance to speak freely with them, find out what they are trying to do so that we can address their concerns to the best of our ability.
80-20 Software-We would like the opportunity to educate end-users, but not hijack the conference. It would be great to teach them about how to take fresh approaches to managing physical and digital content in the new age. Some of these conferences are anchored in the old world, so at some point you have to pull up the anchor and sail into the new world. We would like customers to see that they can be taught how to implement new practices cheaply, cost effectively and quickly, which add value to their organisation, without expecting staff to become records management gurus.
Interwoven-Most organisations are moving towards electronic document management with the need to integrate with RM. The question or theme is how does RM move into or integrate with the new world order of electronic information management?
Objective-Key insights for delegates will be derived from the presenters' experiences in meeting the challenges I described earlier, and the valuable lessons learned from those who have embarked upon and succeeded in delivering enterprise records management for the vast quantities and formats of content that drive organisations and their processes.
Hummingbird-We are hoping that delegates will take away the fact that records management does not work, and the next step is to manage their information life cycle. However, too often, information management is translated as "storage management". That is, a process of cycling data through a tiered system of less expensive storage options. However, Hummingbird believes that information life cycle management is about managing the value of information throughout its life cycle, rather than managing the cost of storing it.
Netcat.biz-We are looking forward to learning about the specific needs of organisations and how we can serve their records management needs around the country much better. We would like to find out how we can provide improved solutions for them in the future, although I expect many of our solutions already meet their requirements.
For further information on the Convention please contact:The 2004 Convention Secretariat, 2 Westside Avenue, Portside Business Park, Port Melbourne, Vic 3207. Tel: +61 3 9646 6400 Fax: +61 3 9676 2588 Email: atkinsoncci@bigpond.com
Alternatively, check out the RMAA website: www.rmaa.com.au
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