Important News about our Closing Keynote Session 26
Judge Paul Grimm will not be participating in our closing Keynote, titled “The Disposition of “Stuff” – Three Judicial Perspectives” due to an illness.
We are delighted to report, however, that Judge Peter Flynn has agreed at the last minute to step up and serve the panel in Judge Grimm’s place. We are very much looking forward to welcoming Judge Flynn on Wednesday.
Hon. Peter A. Flynn
Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Chancery Division
A graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, Peter Flynn practiced civil litigation (mostly complex business and commercial cases) for 30 years. He was appointed an Illinois Circuit Judge in 1999, elected in 2000, and retained by the voters in 2006. As a judge, he served in the Commercial Calendar section of the Cook County Circuit Court’s Law Division from 2000 through 2002, and has served in the Chancery Division since December 2002. He is a member of the American Law Institute. He is vice chair (and a founding member) of the Chicago Bar Association’s Commercial Litigation Committee. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Searle Civil Justice Institute at Northwestern University. Since 2002, he has taught Illinois Civil Procedure at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago. He has been a panelist or speaker in numerous judicial education and practitioner CLE programs, focusing most recently on discovery (including e-discovery) concerns. He is a member of The Sedona Conference® Working Groups 1 and 2.
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A “MERmento” Compliments of HP
Thanks to our friends at HP, each MER 2011 registrant will receive the latest edition of “Information Nation”-gratis-as a “MERmento”.
Randolph Kahn, Esq. is presenting the opening Keynote session at this year’s MER, titled “The Action Imperative: Make Your ‘Everest’ Sized Volume of Junk into a ‘Kilimanjaro’”, and Barclay T. Blair is presenting Session 24, “The Big Organizational Void: Why RIM Programs Will Continue to Fail Until We Rethink Who is Really Responsible for Corporate Governance”.
Randolph and Barclay are the co-authors of this very insightful book.
Book Description:
This fully updated edition demonstrates how businesses can succeed in creating a new culture of information management compliance (IMC) by incorporating an IMC philosophy into a corporate governance structure. Expert advice and insight reveals the proven methodology that adopts the principles, controls, and discipline upon which many corporate compliance programs are built and explains how to apply this methodology to develop and implement IMC programs that anticipate problems and take advantage of opportunities. Plus, you’ll learn how to measure information management compliance through the use of auditing and monitoring, following the proper delegation of program roles and components, and creating a culture of information management awareness.
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Session 26 – Closing KEYNOTE: The Disposition of “Stuff” – Three Judicial Perspectives
Hon. Peter Flynn, Hon. David Waxse, Hon. James Francis IV, & Kenneth Withers, Esq.
There are three operational reasons why the disposition of Stuff (no longer needed e-content) is a very important issue.
- There is so much e-stuff – with an ever-increasing rate of growth,
- The cost of storing e-stuff is skyrocketing – with unsustainable budgetary impact, and
- The operating risks of having unwanted e-stuff are unacceptable – and contrary to good governance.
From the legal perspective, there is a corollary challenge:
- There is so little legal guidance – due to digital world’s relative newness.
This pioneering Keynote Session brings the operating and legal issues together before three federal magistrate judges with extensive knowledge and case law experience regarding electronically stored information (ESI).
The judges are going to address a special “hypothetical”:
The general counsel of a company – which is regularly sued and has accumulated lots of Stuff – presents to the judicial panel an escalating series of “real-life” operating issues that have legal implications and, as such, would benefit from legal input/guidance.
This hypothetical has been specifically created for this MER’11 Keynote session. The goal is threefold:
- Present the judges with challenging operating issues that organizations (especially businesses) are experiencing,
- Foster a public dialogue that results in a better understanding of the legal and operational problems created by Stuff in the new digital world: how Stuff has been created, why the Stuff problem is so complex and large, and what are the real costs of preserving and accessing Stuff,
- Discuss the operational and legal options available – respecting both the law and the operational risks/needs. Are solutions to be best found in future case law or the next revision of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or do they exist today?
In the tradition of MER keynotes, registrants will have an opportunity to ask questions and share thoughts with the presenters.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 26.
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Session 25 – Utilizing Marginal Utility to Assess Legacy Data Sets
John Jessen
All organizations have Stuff – data they no longer use, no longer need, or can no longer access. Accumulations of such legacy data create storage, records management, and legal risks and costs for the organization.
Most organizations would like to solve their legacy data problem, but are often put off by the potential cost and complexity of undertaking such a project.
Fortunately, there now are tools and processes available to assess legacy data sets and to make retention and disposition decisions that are defensible from business, legal, and records viewpoints. In particular, there is a growing focus on legacy data in the legal discovery arena and both adverse parties and the courts are setting a higher standard for the handling of legacy data.
The objective of this session is to provide participants with an outline for a comprehensive and sampling and marginal utility model that can be used to assess and defend retention and/or disposition decisions related to legacy data. Through the development of this model, participants will learn how to:
- Identify and organize legacy data sets,
- Develop a sampling plan,
- Assess sampling data to develop a marginal utility argument,
- Utilize a marginal utility argument to defend retention and/or disposition choices
- Utilize a marginal utility argument in the development of a legal discovery plan
- Develop a defense-of-process plan for defending the sampling/marginal utility process
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 25.
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Session 24 – The Big Organizational Void: Why RIM Programs Will Continue to Fail Until We Rethink Who is Really Responsible for Corporate Governance
Barclay Blair
Existing structures have not kept pace with the complexity and difficulty of managing information.
Each year, although we spend more on hardware and software, we continue to wallow in a plague of information mismanagement.
Why? What’s broken?
The problem is foundational: corporate governance.
Although the title “CIO” contains the word, “information,” CIOs in most companies are in fact are not responsible for information. Rather, they are responsible for the systems that just happen to contain the information.
If the executive with the word “information” in their title is not responsible for the management of information, then which executive is?
At most organizations there is nobody responsible for overseeing the management of information. And that’s the problem.
This session will examine:
- How the breakdown in corporate governance has lead to a failure in information governance.
- How current attempts at many organizations to create enterprise “data maps” illustrate the gaps between the way business, IT, and legal view information.
- How newer technologies, like social networking, only make the challenge greater and more complex.
- How technologies, like SharePoint that put more control in the hands of the user, may create new compliance and business problems even though they reduce the IT burden.
- The business and legal consequences of the current gap in corporate governance?
An alternative governance structure will be proposed – founded in court cases, anecdotes, and statistics. In this regard, the primary options for solving this problem will be detailed:
- Changing the role of the CIO,
- Creating a new C level position, or
- Expanding the responsibilities of another member of the executive roundtable.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 24.
Session 23 – CASE STUDY: Towards the Future – City of Toronto Digital Preservation Initiative
William Ballard & Lori Ashley
This session is a case study of the 2010 City of Toronto (www.toronto.ca) initiative to address long-term preservation of and access to the city’s growing volume of digitized and born digital records and information assets. The City of Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario, and the largest city in Canada.
The City of Toronto recognized that digital information technologies and electronic records were transforming the way the city’s information was being created, used, and preserved. As a result, the City undertook the development of a long-term digital preservation strategy that could be aligned with the City’s infrastructure for enterprise information governance.
The City began the long-term preservation of digital information initiative by engaging outside professional expertise to:
- Define relevant standards and requirements from the worldwide community of memory institutions and government archives,
- Apply a capability maturity model to assess the City’s electronic records and information management capabilities, and
- Define target capability levels and a five year implementation “roadmap” to ensure the long-term preservation and access to the City’s digital assets.
This session is a case study that includes:
- An overview of City of Toronto’s information management goals and enterprise governance structure,
- An assessment of the digital preservation capability maturity model used during the project,
- Perspectives on the City’s five year strategy to integrate digital preservation practices into business processes, technical infrastructure and the enterprise information management governance framework,
- A progress report on implementation efforts and plans.
This session will benefit organizations that realize they need to develop a long-term plan for preserving and accessing their digital assets, but may not know how to begin. It presents the City of Toronto’s “how to” experience of facing the challenges of technology obsolescence and developing a strategy for integrated, incremental investments in its people, core business processes and enterprise information management systems and technologies to establish and sustain trusted levels of digital preservation capability.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 23.
Session 22 – What’s the Use? Managing Records of Social Media
Ken Thibodeau, PhD
All organizations and individuals use social media to communicate in a variety of ways:
- From… disseminating information – in an essentially Web 1.0 manner,
- Through… using that information interactively – which can range from two-way communications between the sponsor and a targeted community to actually transacting business,
- To… using the technology to enable new ways of doing business – and even new businesses.
Regardless of the way social media are used, using them in the conduct of affairs creates a need for identifying, preserving, and managing the records produced or acquired in connection with social media applications.
Independent of the specific social media technology used, the requirements for retaining and managing records should be based on and also responsive to the business’s needs and objectives.
This pioneering presentation introduces concepts and criteria that all types of organizations (federal agencies, state and local governments, as well as businesses) can use to determine:
- What records need to be captured and
- How records should be managed when social media are used for organizational purposes.
This presentation will include illustrations of how these concepts and criteria can be used to determine a records management approach in different contexts – based on an analysis of dozens of social media applications implemented by the National Archives and Records Administration.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 22.
Session 21 – Mock Hearing on the Disposition of Computer Tapes – You Render the Verdict – American Idol Style!
Hon. James Francis IV, Anne Kershaw, Steven Teppler, Esq., & David Lewis, PhD
The Case: Class Action Wage/Hours Claim vs. Big Company.
Plaintiffs claim:
- They were improperly denied overtime pay for the time spent on the job waiting for their computers to start up and shut down and
- Their jobs never should have been non-exempt in the first place (entitling them to considerably more lucrative salaried positions) – given the on-call nature of their positions.
Issue before the Court: Disposition of Backup Computer Tapes
Background:
At the deposition of John Witness (the CFO of Big Company and previously its VP of IT):
- Plaintiffs’ counsel asked whether Big Company had disposed of backup tapes/drives since learning of the complaint in this action. John Witness answered that yes, Big Company routinely disposed of tapes/drives as part of its backup disaster recovery process.
- Plaintiffs’ counsel also asked whether Big Company had ever “pulled” or saved backup information outside the usual disaster recovery process. John Witness responded that indeed backup data had been suspended from normal disaster recovery rotation for certain legal or investigative situations as needed, but that these tapes had since been disposed of.
- Plaintiffs have made a motion for sanctions, claiming that Big Company failed to preserve relevant information.
Arguments:
- Big Company argues that it advised Plaintiffs at the outset of the litigation that it did not use backup tapes for preservation or collection purposes for litigation, absent information that tapes existed that contain unique information.
- Plaintiffs argue that Big Company failed to make a proper inquiry as to whether any of the tapes existing at the time contained unique information.
- Specifically, Plaintiffs claim that Big Company should have checked all of the tapes through a sampling process to determine whether or not they contained unique information.
Proceedings:
At a hearing on the motion, Plaintiffs call data expert David Lewis, Ph D. to answer the Court’s question as to how the sampling could have been accomplished, the cost and the type of information the process would have elicited.
Verdict:
Judge Francis will discuss his deliberations, the legal issues at hand, and then ask for assistance from the audience in reaching a decision.
The MER registrants in attendance will render their verdicts (via cell phone) and the results will be tabulated in real time on the screen as the votes are received – American Idol Style!.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 21.
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Session 20 – CASE STUDY: 3M Company’s Enterprise Email and Records Management Solution – Reducing the ECM Landfill!
Laura McKenzie & Scott Burt
3M Company spent years searching for the right ECM, email, and e-discovery solution to accomplish the company’s goals for compliance, as well as reducing discovery and IT costs. With 30,000 users who will eventually use the system, ensuring user acceptance and minimizing user disruption were critical requirements. Learn about the solution 3M selected.
The core concepts of 3M’s solution are:
- Managing the retention of non-records “in place”,
- Reducing the volume of transient information that may create unnecessary risk and management cost,
- Providing easy declaration and classification of email – for proper retention and control in an ECM system and
- Enabling efficient e-discovery.
In this session, you will learn how 3M’s solution will enable:
- Email lifecycle management based upon the value of the email content,
- Easy classification of email against the corporate records file plan,
- Central management by an enterprise records management solution,
- E-discovery improvements – both process and cost-reduction – through proper disposition of non-records,
- Reduction of unnecessary content to be reviewed,
- Improved IT operations and reduced storage costs.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 20.
Session 19 – A Practical Approach to Managing Social Media Content as Records
Jesse Wilkins & Sara Meaney
Many organizations have moved beyond experimenting with social media tools to incorporating them into business processes. As a result, both commercial services and enterprise social content tools are significantly changing the ways organizations do business and interact with their constituents. As the amount of content generated by these tools increases, so does the need to manage them successfully.
This session will describe specific steps that organizations need to take to manage their social media content as part of their established RIM program.
The objective of this session is to provide a practical, action-oriented approach to managing social media content as records. This session will provide attendees:
- An up-to-date understanding of the current state of the social media market,
- Common use examples of how social media tools are increasingly used in business and government,
- The legal and operational challenges that social media tools present to organizations, especially in the areas of privacy, productivity, and preservation,
- A comparative analysis between legacy content creation tools and social media tools,
- The emerging social media tools: custom social networks, location-based services, social media platforms, and analytics, and
- The specific steps necessary to declare and manage social media content as integral component of an established RIM program.
Attending this session provides a core foundation for both understanding and taking professional leadership in addressing the management of social technologies – what promises to be one of the most significant legal and operational challenges that social media tools present to organizations, particularly in the areas of privacy, productivity, and preservation of electronic records over time.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 19.
Session 18 – Managing Personal Data in International Retention Schedules, Discovery, and Transfers
M. James Daley, Esq. & Stephen Bennett, Esq.
Last year, the European Commission, and a number of other non-U.S. legislative and administrative bodies around the world issued guidelines impacting management of records classified as “personal data.” This session will provide guidance for your organization to navigate more safely the cross-currents of global data privacy and transnational records management and disclosure.
Specifically, this session will examine:
- Key legal and policy developments impacting international records retention schedules and legal holds;
- The need for more specific international records retention schedules in the proper management of “personal data”
- How to measure and mitigate cross-border risks associated with records management and data flows; and
- The unique challenges of social networking, cloud computing, and other emerging technologies on international records management and disclosure.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 18.
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Session 17 – Records Management Improvements in SharePoint 2010
John Holliday
SharePoint 2010 introduces several new features which together represent the next generation of document management capabilities for the platform. This session, will be composed of five parts:
1. Examine the following new features in the context of electronic records management:
- Document sets, persistent
- Document identifiers,
- Metadata-driven routing and
- The new “content organizer”.
2. Show how these new features solve traditional records management problems such as electronic record authentication and the deployment of integrated data validation controls.
3. Explain the new “in-place” records management features that promise to simplify the management of content type-driven document retention schedules. You will learn how to use the content organizer and setup content organizer rules to create detailed file plans for managing how official records are organized within a given site.
4. Detail new and improved SharePoint 2010 information management policy architecture. This will include both location-based and multi-stage information policies.
5. Take a detailed look at the improved Records Center site definition and see how it simplifies the creation of a locked-down records vault.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 17.
Session 16 – Cloud Control: Achieving the Right Level of Information Governance
Galina Datskovsky, PhD, Marcia Zweerink, PhD, & Hon. Ronald Hedges
So many organizations are already in – or headed for – “the Cloud”. By 2020, more than a third of the digital universe will live in or pass through the Cloud.
Unfortunately, most organizations are unprepared to meet the new RIM risks associated with the Cloud – and mitigating these Cloud risks is more difficult than for internally managed information. The difficulty is two-fold:
- Mitigating Cloud risks depends on internal information governance processes and most of the Cloud exists – to some extend – on external servers; and
- Many organizations internal information governance processes are less than perfect.
For most organizations, achieving “perfect” Cloud control may be either impossible, or too expensive.
In reality, neither the courts nor your organization’s leaders expect perfection. Thus, the key to achieving RIM success vis-a-vis the Cloud is to define:
- Where your organization must achieve great Cloud control, and
- Where Cloud control can be good enough.
The right balance of great and good enough varies by industry, as well as by business area within industries. Achieving the right balance of these two performance standards will lower risk, increase benefits, and enable your organization to meet two all-important legal tests:
- Good Faith – have the actions be done in good faith?
- Reasonability – were the actions reasonable given the circumstances?
Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles (GARP®) provides objective measures of records and information governance and RIM performance. GARP® also enables organizations to determine how they ‘stack up’ relative to peers.
Assured Records Management (ARM) provides methods to help you identify the high risk / high value areas for your organization, to determine where you need a high level of performance, and gives you the tools to improve.
This session will detail how to use GARP® to evaluate the strengths and gaps in the current state of information governance in your organization and, specifically, how these measures of successful governance relate to control in the Cloud.
Specifically, this will include:
- Using elements of the Assured Records Management methodology, you will learn how to identify which gaps are most important, and how to improve where you need it most.
- Each step of the way, we will ‘ask the judge’ for examples and commentary on Cloud risks, and whether achieving the right mix of great and good enough would be viewed as ‘reasonable’ by the courts.
This session addresses these questions:
- What is the Cloud and what RIM risks are associated with it? Topics will include:
- Information retention and disposition
- Legal risks
- Vendor Information management practices
- Privacy
- Data location (including subcontracting and transnational issues)
Specific examples will illustrate these issues.
- What is GARP®, and how can the GARP® maturity levels be used to assess your current information governance in the Cloud?
- How can ARM be used to evaluate whether your current GARP® maturity level is ‘good enough’ and where you need to improve based on specific risks and benefits to your organization.
- How this approach reduces risk, increased benefits and supports good faith and reasonability.
During the session, we will leverage together GARP®, ARM, and the judicial perspective to demonstrate information governance of the Cloud in action. You will learn:
- The judicial perspective on Cloud computing and the importance of information governance practices using specific examples.
- The value of using a consistent “industry agnostic” metric to evaluate how your organization’s RIM performance “stacks up”.
- How to develop a clear vision of where your Cloud information governance should be great and where it can be just good enough.
- How to translate that vision into the GARP® maturity model, and define the maturity levels that are optimal for your organization.
- How to implement ongoing information governance that will help your organization improve Cloud control year over year.
Whether you are just getting started in the Cloud, or you face the challenges of mitigating existing Cloud risks, this session will help you learn how the appropriate application agnostic standards and methodologies – specifically GARP® and ARM – can be used to achieve the right mix of great and good enough and support the legal tests of good faith and reasonability.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 16.
Session 15 – SharePoint: From Unmanaged to Managed – How to Get There
Jennifer Baker & John Holliday
So many organizations are already in – or headed for – “the Cloud”. By 2020, more than a third of the digital universe will live in or pass through the Cloud.
Unfortunately, most organizations are unprepared to meet the new RIM risks associated with the Cloud – and mitigating these Cloud risks is more difficult than for internally managed information. The difficulty is two-fold:
- Mitigating Cloud risks depends on internal information governance processes and most of the Cloud exists – to some extend – on external servers; and
- Many organizations internal information governance processes are less than perfect.
For most organizations, achieving “perfect” Cloud control may be either impossible, or too expensive.
In reality, neither the courts nor your organization’s leaders expect perfection. Thus, the key to achieving RIM success vis-a-vis the Cloud is to define:
- Where your organization must achieve great Cloud control, and
- Where Cloud control can be good enough.
The right balance of great and good enough varies by industry, as well as by business area within industries. Achieving the right balance of these two performance standards will lower risk, increase benefits, and enable your organization to meet two all-important legal tests:
- Good Faith – have the actions be done in good faith?
- Reasonability – were the actions reasonable given the circumstances?
Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles (GARP®) provides objective measures of records and information governance and RIM performance. GARP® also enables organizations to determine how they ‘stack up’ relative to peers.
Assured Records Management (ARM) provides methods to help you identify the high risk / high value areas for your organization, to determine where you need a high level of performance, and gives you the tools to improve.
This session will detail how to use GARP® to evaluate the strengths and gaps in the current state of information governance in your organization and, specifically, how these measures of successful governance relate to control in the Cloud.
Specifically, this will include:
- Using elements of the Assured Records Management methodology, you will learn how to identify which gaps are most important, and how to improve where you need it most.
- Each step of the way, we will ‘ask the judge’ for examples and commentary on Cloud risks, and whether achieving the right mix of great and good enough would be viewed as ‘reasonable’ by the courts.
This session addresses these questions:
- What is the Cloud and what RIM risks are associated with it? Topics will include:
- Information retention and disposition
- Legal risks
- Vendor Information management practices
- Privacy
- Data location (including subcontracting and transnational issues)
Specific examples will illustrate these issues.
- What is GARP®, and how can the GARP® maturity levels be used to assess your current information governance in the Cloud?
- How can ARM be used to evaluate whether your current GARP® maturity level is ‘good enough’ and where you need to improve based on specific risks and benefits to your organization.
- How this approach reduces risk, increased benefits and supports good faith and reasonability.
During the session, we will leverage together GARP®, ARM, and the judicial perspective to demonstrate information governance of the Cloud in action. You will learn:
- The judicial perspective on Cloud computing and the importance of information governance practices using specific examples.
- The value of using a consistent “industry agnostic” metric to evaluate how your organization’s RIM performance “stacks up”.
- How to develop a clear vision of where your Cloud information governance should be great and where it can be just good enough.
- How to translate that vision into the GARP® maturity model, and define the maturity levels that are optimal for your organization.
- How to implement ongoing information governance that will help your organization improve Cloud control year over year.
Whether you are just getting started in the Cloud, or you face the challenges of mitigating existing Cloud risks, this session will help you learn how the appropriate application agnostic standards and methodologies – specifically GARP® and ARM – can be used to achieve the right mix of great and good enough and support the legal tests of good faith and reasonability.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 15.
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Session 14 – CASE STUDY: “Manage in Place” – Information Governance Strategy for Taming the Wild West
Darren Lee & Teresa Drabenstadt
What does it really mean to “manage records” using Sharepoint? Is it “good enough” to leave responsibility for the environment in the hands of the records creator/recipient? In this session, learn how to effectively deploy SharePoint to get the most out of the technology and move from an unmanaged (or user controlled) environment to one that deliberately incorporates records management principles by design.
Learn what it means to actually apply good records management principles within a SharePoint environment.
Discuss why incorporating these principles is a critical element of achieving success.
Learn about implementing key SharePoint records management components, including:
- Information Policies and Retention
- Content Types, Document Identifiers and Managed Metadata
- Records Center and the Content Organizer
- Records Management Workflows
FYI: John Holliday authored the book, Records Management and SharePoint.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 14.
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Session 13 – Information Management Architecture
Jim Coulson
To find solutions for managing massive volumes of information, organizations are increasingly using an Information Management Architecture (IMA).
Historically, information management, including records management, has been primarily defined by existing and planned technology capabilities. With IMA, information management solutions are the product of a two part process: first, define the information needs of the organization’s business processes and second, overlay those needs on the technology architecture.
IMA is designed to accommodate both a diversity of business needs for information and also the many different types of information-related risks that organizations have. The key benefit of IMA is that it directly connects the management of information to the work being performed by the business – at the enterprise, business process, and local levels.
Regarding RIM, as part of the normal work process, IMA automatically culls obsolete information, declares records, and stores knowledge for future reference. Consider these examples of benefits:
- Legal receives a simple guide to where all of the organization’s information is located,
- IT gets valid and consistent guidance to business rules and technology opportunities and,
- Senior Executives finally see results from their information management investments.
Learning about IMA will help your organization save valuable deployment time and improve the probability of success.
Participants will learn how to design and implement an IMA. This will include:
- Segmenting component business processes and building out the information needs of each,
- Overlaying this architecture over the existing and planned technology architecture and,
- Analyzing and developing priorities for better aligning technology and information management needs with the business processes of the organization.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 13.
Session 12 – Separating Fact From Fear: What the “Spoliation” Cases Really Mean
Kenneth Withers, Esq.
During 2010, several federal courts issued lengthy, detailed opinions in which parties were severely sanctioned for failures to preserve data subject to discovery in civil litigation – one party was briefly threatened with jail.
At the same time, other courts have pulled back on sanctions.
The opinions demonstrate that this is a very complex and confusing area of law, breeding uncertainty and fear for organizations that do business across the country and may be held to conflicting standards.
This session analyses the legal contradictions apparent in the case law and focuses on the common elements on which organizations can reliably base their data preservation decisions and avoid spoliation sanctions.
Specifically, this session will explore:
- The landmark Pension Committee, Rimkus, and Victor Stanley decisions,
- The anticlimactic Qualcomm and Philip Adams decisions,
- How judges hear dogs that can’t bark, and how juries decide if those dogs can still bite,
- Orbit One and the paradox of proportionality,
- “Cost benefit” versus “risk management” in making preservation decisions,
- How to absolutely, positively, avoid spoliation charges (some of the time), and
- How to minimize the danger of spoliation sanctions (the rest of the time).
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 12.
Session 11 – SharePoint Success – It’s All About the Users!
Karen Strong
The number one driver for enterprise software value realization is user adoption. This session addresses managing change in end user information management behaviors and influencing user adoption of SharePoint.
Organizations need to take the time to:
- Define the changes needed to achieve the desired “future state”,
- Assess their readiness to make the necessary changes, and
- Develop an approach which addresses both logic and emotion.
Those that do this will have the most success regarding:
- Improved adoption rates,
- More effective utilization,
- Improved morale and personal commitment and,
- Achievable and sustainable change.
The objective of this session is to offer practical solutions for addressing the people side of change when introducing SharePoint as an enterprise solution for collaboration, information access, and content/records management.
Participants have an opportunity to develop a change profile for your own organization – that that addresses: organizational, process-related, system or technology tool, and role-based changes.
Key topics include change management, adoption and long term sustainability of SharePoint, as well as the policies, processes, and roles that lay the foundation for success.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 11.
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Session 10 – CASE STUDY: Records Management Embedded into Business-as-Usual Operations
Angela Amrine & Carol Stainbrook
Discover how Discount Tire Company leveraged its culture and implemented an enviable business-as-usual (BAU) records management program that most organizations only dream of.
They started with an Inviting, Easy & Safe culture that focused on what they do best – taking care of people, and asked “What is records management?” ECRM now is deployed in several business units, and employees are discovering value in the program beyond just “managing” their records!
Going from zero to 100 and bypassing detours is challenging for any organization.
In this case study, discover how Discount Tire transformed its RM practices by fully deploying ECRM.
Learn how Discount Tire:
- Gained and held senior management support.
- Built a solid records management program that was designed to win with an ECRM solution that fully manages unstructured content.
- Employed effective change management to replace reluctance and “fear of change” with competitive enthusiasm, streamlined business processes, and embedded records management principles.
- Deployed an effective ECRM solution to fully manage its unstructured file share and email content and reduced current and future costs of managing electronic content.
- Exploited each individual’s natural competitive spirit by tracking key metrics (volume, percent completion, etc.) and comparing individual and department-wide performance.
- Sustained momentum through internal forums, sharing tips amongst power users, measuring and monitoring progress, and keeping the competitive spirit alive.
- Integrated a continuous improvement loop into the Records Management Program.
This session focuses on the practical actions of Discount Tire to implement an effective records management program – with an ECRM solution – which hooked the organization on the benefits of fully-managed information and transformed their organizations records management practices!
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 10.
Session 09 – ERM Case Law: The Latest News, Trends, and Issues
Kenneth Withers, Esq.
In 2010, court decisions about spoliation sanctions grabbed the headlines – over shadowing scores of other cases in which state and federal judges addressed other issues of particular interest to electronic records managers. These other issues ranged from the efficacy of using automated text retrieval technologies, to defining the limits of employee privacy, to corporate response to subpoenas and search warrants for computer data.
We will look at how the courts have handled such issues as:
- Using automated technologies to respond to preservation and discovery obligations
- Using new court rules to reduce discovery costs
- Protecting privileged and confidential data in discovery
- Employees’ personal use of employers’ computer systems
- Preservation and discovery of social media
- Criminal search warrants and regulatory agency subpoenas for corporate data
- And, of course, spoliation and sanctions
This fast-paced session will bring you up to speed on how the courts have been addressing electronic records management issues in the past year, and look ahead to some developments on the horizon.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 09.
Session 08 – Managing “Stuff”: Technology & Management Options for Addressing ERM’s Largest Problem
Richard Fisher
Stuff: the ever increasing mass of mostly unorganized electronic content that reside on shared drives, C-drives, USB/Flash drives, archive or backup files/media . This session addresses three key issues relating to stuff:
Defining Stuff of Value: In all of the stuff that organizations have, there is content that has business or regulatory value – which should be retained and managed as records.
How is it determined?
Selecting the Best from the Rest – Like the proverbial “separation of the wheat from the chaff”, how is “stuff of value” separated from the non-significant stuff – so it can be can be retained and managed as a record?
Retaining or Disposing – Solutions providers today offer systems with capabilities for keeping or disposing of “stuff of value”. What are the technologies and tools for identifying, classifying, and managing “stuff of value”?
Meeting Compliance Requirements – Will currently available systems track and manage all “originals” (“final” files) and copies in place as well as copy or transfer them to other systems for collaboration, ECM or ERM?
From this session, registrants will take away:
- An understanding about what “Stuff of value” may exist and where it may reside in your organization’s electronic content and storage sources,
- An improved understanding of the methods and techniques for identifying record and non-record content in the Stuff,
- An overview of the functions and features of the tools and technologies that solutions providers offer to identify, classify and manage Stuff.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 08.
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Session 07 – CASE STUDY: Applying Retention Schedules Successfully – To Both Paper AND Electronically Stored Information
Christine Burns
Despite their best efforts, many companies haven’t been able to devise retention schedules that can be applied to both their paper records and electronically-stored information (ESI).
Records categories that are too broadly written can lead to unnecessary records retention, make finding specific information time-consuming, and result in higher recordkeeping and discovery costs.
Conversely, retention schedules that are too detailed aren’t easy to maintain or use. Having the right blend of specificity and universality isn’t impossible – it just takes understanding some key considerations.
This “how to” session will address:
- Integrating conflicting statutory and regulatory requirements from different jurisdictions in ways that address different organizations’ unique cultures and needs.
- Learning when to limit the number of different retention time periods.
- Recognizing different options to handle “event-based” retention periods.
- Incorporating helpful tools so that employees can easily find the retention periods that apply to their most frequently used records.
- Balancing IT’s seemingly contradictory needs: Fewer retention periods that can be applied to broader groups of records and sufficiently detailed retention specifications that can be applied to specific tables of data within large, integrated business systems.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 07.
Session 06 – A Talk with the Wolf – Before He Gets into the Hen House: How I Would Attack Your Electronic Records Management Program in Discovery and Trial
William Butterfield, Esq.
The goals of opposing counsel are in many respects the same as those of RIM professionals: ensure that records are accessible and produced on a timely basis. On behalf of my clients and as part of the discovery process, I will ask for records that are relevant to the lawsuit. In cases I litigate, this typically involves production of many millions of records.
Our interests are very different because, as a RIM professional, you seek to serve your organization. I represent the opposing side in a dispute with your organization – a dispute that has elevated to litigation. One of the primary goals of discovery is to obtain records that will benefit my client’s case and hurt your organization’s case. I seek those records retained by your organization that will support the allegations of my client and “theme” of my case against your organization.
The process by which your organization manages its records is of great interest. The extent to which your organization has difficulties responding promptly and completely to my discovery requests will generate ever-greater interest and focus on the life-cycle processes by which your organization manages its records.
Today, with more than 90% of all records being born digital, the volumes of potentially relevant records to a specific piece of litigation can be enormous and the processes by which those electronic records are managed are exponentially more complex.
In discovery, the responding party usually must bear the cost of producing records. Given the staggering volumes of electronic records being retained by most organizations, producing records in discovery can be a major, and expensive, undertaking – one that RIM professionals must be prepared for.
While some people may believe the there is more than sufficient time to produce records, the reality is that in most cases, time can be very tight given the job to be done. The judge managing the case defines the time to respond to records requests. In litigation, your organization has a legal obligation to respond in accordance with the schedule imposed by the court.
The inability of an organization to produce requested records on a timely basis is often a signal that there are problems in the organization’s records management processes. Upon further examination, such problems frequently reveal flaws in the processes. This will generate an ever-increasing interest by opposing counsel in examining ever-greater details about the RIM processes.
In litigation, the legal consequences of a party not meeting its discovery obligations can be very significant: from reprimands, to fines, to sanctions – which can be so draconian as to be case dispositive.
In most cases, records will be discovered with contents that favor the other side’s interests. RIM professionals are not responsible for such content. However, RIM professionals are the center-point for overseeing the processes by which records are managed following their creation. It is their responsibility to “get the management processes right” for their organization’s retained records. This oversight will be a focal-point of my inquiry. I will want to know:
- When the organization imposed a litigation hold, and details about the scope of the litigation hold directive,
- Where the organization keeps records of the “custodians” who created, received or controlled records that might be relevant to the case,
- The organization’s records retention policies and whether they are followed,
- The organization’s policies regarding records back-up procedures and the media containing back-up records,
- Whether the organization stores records with third parties, and if so, what control is maintained by the organization over those records,
- Policies and practices regarding the use of all forms of communication by the organization’s employees, including instant messaging, personal computing devices, text messaging, removal storage devices, blogs, and the use of social media applications for business purposes,
- What records may be deemed “inaccessible” and why they are inaccessible.
During the past year, there were several noteworthy court decisions regarding evidence spoliation. One of the primary ways to avoid spoliation, and the sanctions that follow a spoliation finding, is for organizations to be better prepared – from a records management perspective – for future litigation
Examples will be presented where records process problems made the difference between having a fighting chance and no chance to win the case.
In this session, you will learn:
- The importance of RIM processes in litigation,
- The compelling need for your organization to be better prepared for future litigation, and
- The need to be proactive in getting better prepared.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 06.
Session 05 – Enterprise Content Management, Information Governance, and the Future of RM
Julie Gable
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) has evolved over the past few years to become more than a glorified document management system. Many organizations see ECM as a holistic, enterprise-class management solution capable of integrating a wide variety of information types.
A number of governance as well as risk and compliance (GRC) related issues also are driving corporate users toward ECM. They include including information integrity, process integrity, controlled access, and information retention requirements.
ECM has become a means to limit the access and distribution of proprietary and private information outside the organization – thereby helping to ease security concerns.
ECM also is seen as playing a key role in automating governance practices through the use of content analytics and other advances that will have implications for the future of Records and Information Management (RIM).
In this session, you will learn:
- The business issues involved in information governance, risk and compliance,
- How ECM has evolved to include tools that have significantly contributed to moving information governance initiatives forward in many organizations, and
- The future direction of ECM and its impact on managing electronic records.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 05.
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Session 04 – Electronic Records Management Boot Camp
Laurie Fischer
For those new to electronic records management or not sure where to start, this session provides an introduction to ERM. For seasoned practitioners, this session provides a pulse check, providing “key consideration” checklists for electronic records initiatives for structured, “semi-structured” and structured data systems. It concludes with a risk-based approach for project prioritization.
This overview session will help participants to:
- Develop a comprehensive view of their organization’s systems and applications,
- Categorize the systems and applications in a manner that facilitates comparison,
- Develop an integrated framework of ERM initiatives.
This session will provide participants with an “ERM checklist” of topics including:
- Structured Data Systems: The discussion of structured data will focus on the suitability of information processing systems as “official” electronic recordkeeping systems.
This part also will also explore how to work and communicate collaboratively with IT.
- Unstructured and Semi-Structured Data Systems: Possibly the greatest challenge facing the RIM professional today is the management of unstructured data and documents stored on shared drives, in document management systems, in SharePoint and other collaborative tools, etc.
This part will focus on the records management governance requirements critical to managing this ever-growing volume of content.
- Messaging Systems: After 15+ years of struggling with email management, it is still the scourge of records management for many organizations.
In addition to email, the management of instant messaging, text messaging, etc. will be discussed.
The session will conclude with considerations for developing a prioritized, strategic plan with the objective of comprehensive ERM throughout the organization.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 04.
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Session 03 – Making it Real: Getting Buy-In for your RIM Vision, Budget, and Implementation
Jonathan Redgrave, Esq.
You recognize that your organization:
- Has embraced social media and collaborative technologies like never before and
- Has accumulated vast volumes of unstructured data in file shares and on distributed devices continues unabated.
You also know that the traditional view of Records and Information Management leaves many programs undervalued and, as a result, underfunded.
While you may have charted a course to implement improved processes, you need more people and more technology.
How do you communicate your understanding of what is needed for a healthy and defensible RIM program to senior management – in a manner that leads to influence with C-level support and a budget behind it?
This session provides concrete ideas and “lessons learned” to help RIM professionals gain traction to implement new Records and Information Management programs, policies and practices across the enterprise and in today’s ever-evolving, fast-paced environment.
This session’s objective is to energize and empower RIM professionals to seize the unique opportunities that are currently available to unlock the key benefits resulting from successful records management – enhanced compliance, meaningful risk reduction, and improved governance for an enterprise.
Participants will be provided with a variety of options and unique approaches for establishing RIM relevance within their enterprise today – be it private or public sector.
Specific topics to be addressed:
- How do you create a RIM “vision” that is compelling?
- How do you tell a persuasive RIM story to C-Level executives?
- What trends are emerging from case law that help make the case for RIM budgets and action?
- What legislative and regulatory trends help make the case for RIM budgets and action?
- What are the latent risks of over-retention and how are those magnified today?
- How do you partner with other constituencies (e.g., legal, compliance, risk, IT) to make your case?
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 03.
Session 02 – The Future of the Sharepoint Journey: New Research Aimed to Help Achieve Users’ Evolving Needs
Ryan Duguid
All too often, technology is purchased and deployed, but is still underutilized. How does the business influence an Information Technology deployment? How are end users impacted? Do users continue to interpret ECRM tools as a burden? If so, how do we ensure that the benefits are exploited and recognized?
Discover how Microsoft queried its clients to learn about the SharePoint journey and to identify opportunities to encourage use of key features. – Why are some organizations using only rudimentary functionality that replaces the file share; yet other organizations are leveraging the records management and workflow capabilities?
Whether or not your organization has deployed SharePoint, this session will enable you to benchmark your organization by comparing the sophistication and ease of use of your toolset, compared to the journey of other organizations. – Is your organization ahead of the game or still trying to catch up?
In addition, this session will explore visions of a future-state environment with more robust capabilities and an increasingly mobile user community.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 02.
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Session 01 – Opening KEYNOTE – The Action Imperative: Make Your e-Junk Everest into a “Kilimanjaro”
Randolph Kahn, Esq.
The Generally Accepted Record Keeping Principles (GARP®) developed by ARMA, provide an objective, industry-neutral description of operational standards for RIM. The GARP® maturity model enables organizations to characterize their current RIM performance according to five maturity levels for each of the eight GARP® principles. The ‘right’ level of GARP® maturity varies by organization, and even by area within an organization.
Assured Records Management (ARM), in turn, is a facilitator for defining the GARP® maturity levels that are right for your organization, and achieving improvement where it is needed most. To that end, ARM provides a formalized, methodological bridge between current daily operating performance standards and GARP®’s principles of excellence.
The ARM methodology seeks to facilitate the wide-spread acceptance of GARP®. Think of ARM as the “wheels” to implement GARP®.
Important Background Information:
Records are retained and institutionalized as corporate memory. As the life blood of every organization’s operations, they facilitate all aspects of commerce and government. It is through their records that organizations review, analyze, and document the specifics of their past actions and decisions, optimize their day-to-day operations and define their plans for the future.
Because the accuracy, reliability, and trustworthiness of records is essential in the resolution of disputes, judges, regulators, and auditors have, over time, developed a set of principles to assess those qualities. Every day, these tests of “good faith” and “reasonability” are applied to both the processes by which records are managed, and the processes by which organizational management demonstrates commitment to ‘good faith’.
Assured Records Management is a performance improvement methodology founded on these long-standing legal tests of “good faith” and “reasonability”. ARM is comprised of a set of tools and techniques to help organizations achieve the right level of operational performance standards for the lifecycle of records, based on demonstrable organizational commitment to good faith. The specific lifecycle performance standards are tailored to the business needs of each organization. At the highest level, the specifics of these standards are widely manifested in the legal case law of courts, “how to” parts of laws, regulations (IRS, SEC, FDA, NARA, etc.), best-practice standards (ANSI, ISO, etc.) and professional guidelines (such as the Sedona Principles).
In the application of these performance standards, an organization will create “management evidence”, — policies, procedures, audit results, and program enhancements associated with an ongoing commitment to continuous improvement. This management evidence can demonstrate, at any time in the future, that the process by which the records were managed embodied best practice, and therefore, inherently manifests accuracy, reliability, and trustworthiness and should be viewed as credible evidence. By following these principles, an organization’s management can have a high level of assurance that its records will be found credible, that it can show compliance, and that its ultimate goal, better governance, is a reality.
This MER Tutorial:
In this preconference tutorial, you will learn how to use ARM to achieve the GARP® maturity levels that are right for you. The information you will receive will facilitate implementing GARP® in the operations of your organization’s RIM program – and thereby meet the all-important legal tests of “good faith” and “reasonability”. The focus of this workshop will be the up-front process of aligning performance standards with business priorities.
You will leave the session equipped with an understanding of how GARP® together with the ARM tools and processes can be used to create a credible and effective RIM strategy and program that:
- Establishes evidence of the “good faith effort” the courts and regulators expect,
- Increases business value,
- Reduces business risks,
- Secures the support of legal, compliance, IT and business management, and
- Ensures reasonable and sustainable improvement over time.
Participants of this workshop will enjoy an interactive day – real-time exercises to experience the methodology in action.
As a participant, you will receive a copy of the ARM methodology workbook as well as GARP® materials. Throughout the workshop, you will learn how to use the ARM tools to define and achieve the GARP® level of performance that is right for your organization.
Make your comments and ask your questions with regard to Session 01.
MER ’11 Conference Sessions Focusing on Legal Issues – An Inside View
At the MER conference, the sessions are focused on the legal, technical, or operational issues associated with the management of electronic records.
This blog post focuses on the nine MER’11 sessions specifically addressing legal issues.
The number preceding the title of each session is the actual session number.
Note: Following the session description, you will find (in italics) my comments regarding why each of these sessions is included in the MER’11 conference program.
Additional information about these (and all of the other) MER sessions are available at: www.merconference.com/details/schedule.php
1. Opening Keynote: The Action Imperative: Make Your “Everest” Sized Volume of Junk into a “Kilimanjaro”
Every organization has a “mountain” of electronic information – vast quantities of which no longer have any business value. Good governance calls for reducing the risks and carrying costs associated with this no longer needed legacy data and now technology can readily address this problem/major risk. Learn how to tackle your legacy data (“stuff disposition”) problem – without increasing risk to your organization.
I always like to have the opening MER session be both very informative and also presented in a way that is really interesting and memorable. This year, renowned speaker and consultant, Randy Kahn, Esq., will “set the stage” for this MER conference’s special focus on “Stuff”. So many do not understand the problem, it’s phenomenal, ongoing growth, and the extraordinary risks/costs associated with it. This session will be a real “wake up call”.
6. A Talk with the Wolf – Before He Gets Into the Hen House: How I Would Attack Your Electronic Records Management Program in Discovery & Trial
Today, litigation is pervasive and very expensive. With litigation, comes legal discovery: requiring access to your organization’s records. Increasingly, the RIM and ERM processes used to manage your records also are part of discovery.
In the MER’s 18 year history, this session was among the all time favorites. This year, it was time to hear the message again – updated to include new issues, rules, and case law. The speaker, William Butterfield, Esq., is one of the nation’s most successful plaintiff’s attorneys – having obtained many $100+ million settlements. His “wolf” message is one every RIM professional should hear! Learn from the perspective of a plaintiff’s attorney: what are their goals, what are the flaws in the ERM/RIM processes that a plaintiff’s attorney will seek to exploit, and what actions should RIM professionals take to be prepared!
9. ERM Case Law: The Latest News, Trends, and Issues
This session is an overview of how the courts have addressed a variety of electronic records management issues in the past year. The specific ERM issues to be discussed include: a) spoliation sanctions, b) corporate response to subpoenas and search warrants for computer data, c) employee privacy, and d) the efficacy of text retrieval technologies.
As the courts have tried to come to grips with the challenges of electronic records, understanding the operational impact of the latest case law has become a “necessity” for successful electronic records management professionals. The speaker’s superb knowledge of case law and his presentation clarity have consistently made this session one of the MER conference’s highlights. I am very proud to have “institutionalized” this session and speaker at the MER.
12. Separating Fact from Fear: What the “Spoliation” Cases Really Mean
During 2010, several federal courts issued opinions where parties were severely sanctioned for failure to preserve data. The opinions manifested conflicting standards – demonstrating the complexity and confusion in this area of law. This session focuses on the common elements that national organizations can rely on regarding their preservation of data and avoidance of spoliation sanctions.
Spoliation was the center point of many important electronic records court decisions in the past year – so much so that I decided the MER should have a special case study session focused on the spoliation decisions and the conflicting standards some of those decisions set forth.
18. Managing Personal Data in International Retention Schedules, Discovery & Transfers
International guidelines, regarding how records containing “personal data” are managed, have been issued by many non-U.S. legislative and administrative bodies around the world – including the European Commission and the EU Article 29 Working Party. This information provided in this session will assist organizations in navigating the complex cross-currents of global data privacy and transnational records management, and disclosure.
International retention schedules, privacy, and data transfers are ever-increasing in their importance to RIM professionals. I included this topic in this year’s MER program when a nationally renowned authority said: “One this topic, Jim Daley and Stephen Bennett are unequivocally the best in the country …and they are great presenters”.
21. Mock Hearing on the Disposition of Computer Tapes – You Render the Verdict – American Idol Style!
Learn about the legal issues regarding the disposition of backup computer tapes. This session is a live hearing before the Hon. James C. Francis IV – with attorneys, experienced in cases involving electronic records, arguing the issues supported by expert testimony. Judge Francis then details the legal issues. Attendees render their verdict – via their cell phone.
This will be a truly unique session because: 1) It’s a mock hearing before a Federal Magistrate Judge, 2) A special hypothetical has been prepared (detailed in this session’s web description), 3) The arguments and presentations will be made by practicing attorneys, and 4) you are the jury making the decision – if you attend.
24. The Big Organizational Void: Why RIM Programs Will Continue To Fail – Until We Rethink Who Is Really Responsible for Corporate Governance
Why do so many RIM programs fail? The answer is: because current corporate governance structures do not create C-level accountability for the success of RIM programs. This session examines the pervasive problem that exists in the relationship between governance and RIM. From the experience of failed approaches, a new path forward is proposed for RIM.
The MER conference has a tradition of bringing forward controversial ERM issues. This session addresses a critically important topic: how well does the C-level understand the close relationships between governance, compliance, and records management. This session is included because it will present insightful information that is both timely and controversial.
25. Utilizing Marginal Utility to Assess Legacy Data Sets
All organizations have data they no longer use, need, or can access. This Stuff creates storage and records management problems – as well as potentially significant legal and cost risks. Most organizations want to solve their legacy data problem. This session addresses new techniques to develop a defensible process for assessing and dealing with legacy data sets.
John Jessen is the only person who has spoken at every MER conference! His focus has been electronic records discovery. His presentations have consistently been among the very best – for content and delivery. As a result of John’s leading edge presentations, organizations now realize discovery costs are a compelling reason for proactively allocating resources to improve how they manage their electronic records are managed – BEFORE discovery problems arise. In line with the focus of this year’s MER conference, “getting control of your organization’s stuff”, John’s presentation will be a unique blend of “where we are” with “where we are going” and, as such, this session will provide you with much “food for thought”.
26. The Disposition of Stuff: Three Judicial Perspectives
This pioneering MER’11 Keynote is a dialogue on the operating and legal issues associated with the disposition of “Stuff”. Three federal magistrate judges will examine how organizations that want to dispose of their Stuff can meet the records retention and preservation requirements of the law. The dialogue will focus on a “real world” hypothetical specifically created for this MER’11 Keynote session.
The general counsel of a hypothetical company – which is regularly sued and has accumulated lots of “Stuff “ – will present the judges with scenarios of escalating “real-life” operating issues. The resulting dialogue will be an active discussion providing legal input and guidance regarding one of today’s most significant electronic records management problems.
In the tradition of MER keynotes, registrants will have an opportunity to ask questions and share thoughts with the presenters.
Discovery hold orders are typically very broad in scope and use words like “all” and “every” quite extensively. Some would say that the scope is so broad that it impedes the orderly, ongoing management of records. The consequences are vast volumes of records, especially the more voluminous records, are retained. But for some organizations, certain court ordered record holds include media that has no merit. Three examples:
- Old back up computer tapes – so old the technology to read them no longer exists (hardware and/or software).
- Back up computer tapes – where the only identification is the date of their creation – no information regarding their contents.
- Chaotic shared drives – where there is no stated or implied structure to the way content is organized because every user does what they want to do. Further, there is no capability to apply traditional retention schedules and therefore dispose of the electronically stored information (ESI) in the regular course of business.
This MER session seeks to advance the dialogue to find a redefined balance between, on one hand, longstanding judicial traditions and obligations and, on the other hand, the reality of today’s computer operating environments.
The three distinguished federal magistrate judges leading this Keynote session were selected because they are recognized judicial leaders on electronic records management issues. On the issues to be addressed in this Keynote, they reflect a spectrum of judicial perspectives.
To make this dialogue especially relevant to MER attendees, a special legal hypothetical has been prepared – to facilitate the judges’ consideration of the important legal issues in the context of the many “real world” issues businesses and agencies must address as they seek to satisfy their legal responsibilities and concurrently try to meet their ongoing obligation to successfully manage their operating risks.
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MER ’11 Conference Sessions Focusing on Operational Issues – An Inside View
At every MER conference, all the sessions have one of three areas of focus: the legal, technical, or operational issues that are associated with the management of electronic records.
This blog post focuses on the nine MER’11 sessions that specifically address operational issues. The number preceding the title of each session is the actual session number.
Additional information about these (and all of the other) MER sessions is available at: www.merconference.com/details/schedule.php
Note: In italics, following the session description, you will find my comments about why each session is part of the MER’11 conference program.
3. Making it Real: Getting Buy-In for Your RIM Vision, Budget and Implementation
Social media, collaborative technologies, and the huge accumulation of unstructured data in file shares are presenting unprecedented, major challenges for all organizations. Learn how to: a) gain C-level support, b) obtain an action plan budget to address these problems and c) implement needed new solution-based RIM programs– from proven ideas and “lessons learned”.
This opening plenary session is a companion presentation to last year’s session, “The Action Imperative: The New Role for RIM Professionals in the Emerging World of Legal, Business, and Technology Influence (which is available on RIM On Demand). Both sessions are presented by one of the MER’s most dynamic speakers, Jonathan Redgrave, Esq.
Together, these two sessions provide RIM professionals with an incisive agenda for action (last year) and now this year plan for obtaining needed financial support to take your ERM agenda into an accomplished reality this year.
4. Electronic Records Management Boot Camp
For those new to electronic records management or not sure where to start, this session provides an introduction to ERM. For seasoned practitioners, this session provides a pulse check, providing “key consideration” checklists for electronic records initiatives for structured, “semi-structured” and structured data systems.
The MER conference always has a “101 type” session addressing the basics. This session’s speaker, Laurie Fischer, is renowned for her “101” presentation skills that consistently make this session both very informative and very helpful – particularly for 1st time MER attendees.
7. Applying Retention Schedules Successfully – To Both Paper AND Electronically Stored Information (ESI)
Applying retention schedules to both paper records and electronically-stored information (ESI) is a major challenge. The key to success is having the right blend of specificity and universality – and this requires an understanding of certain key considerations.
Cohasset’s bi-annual survey have consistently found large numbers of organizations do not apply their retention schedules to their electronic records with the same precision as they do for their traditional media-based records – paper and microfilm. This session addresses this critically important issue – from the perspective of one the RIM industry’s most experienced and successful consultants, Chris Burns.
10. Case Study: Records Management Embedded into Business-as-Usual Operations
Learn how Discount Tire Company implemented a best-of-breed records management program that would be the envy of most other organizations.
Every year, a growing number of organizations make a commitment to implement a best of breed records management program. Not all of them succeed. This is a case study of a real success story – that not only accomplished the project’s goals, and did it on time – in less than a year.
13. Information Management Architecture
Today, organizations are using a new approach, Information Management Architecture (IMA), to design and implement systems that manage massive volumes of information. The reason: IMA is defined by the information needs of the organization’s business processes which, in turn, are overlaid on the technology architecture. Learn about the merits of IMA and its impact on RIM.
The MER has an ongoing commitment to present new perspectives and ideas. Jim Coulson, one of the RIM profession’s leaders, will detail the concept of IMA and why it is relevant to the management of electronic records.
16. Cloud Control: Achieving the Right Level of Information Governance
Hear the judicial perspective on the Cloud’s risks – and then learn how GARP® and ARM can control your organization’s governance risks by achieving the right level of ‘Cloud Control’.
ARMA International has developed GARP – an excellent set of principles to guide records management professionals. ARM takes those principles to a more specific and measureable level – where RIM program success can be documented. This session addresses the value of GARP & ARM in successfully utilizing the cloud – a really relevant topic for today’s RIM professionals.
19. A Practical Approach to Managing Social Media Content as Records
Many organizations have moved from experimenting with social media tools to incorporating them into their business processes. As the amount of content generated by these tools increases, so does the need to manage it successfully. This session details the specific steps organizations need to take to manage their social media content within their RIM program.
Social media content is both very new and rapidly-increasing in its importance to the RIM profession. The speakers for this session are the same as last year (which is available on RIM On Demand , but this year’s presentation will be all new – reflecting the speed with which this topic is moving. This session will be presented by two of the best social media experts.
22. What’s the Use? Managing Records of Social Media
This session addresses the management of the records in social media applications. Part 1 defines the key concepts and criteria for identifying what needs to be managed as records in social media applications. Part 2 details approaches for managing these records.
This session is based on a pioneering internal National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) study. Prepared by the recently retired head of NARA’s electronic records archives (ERA) project, the study’s incisiveness and clarity of thought makes the contents a “must” for all organizations – private and government – seeking to address the issue of managing their social media records. The study’s author will lead this session.
25. Utilizing Marginal Utility to Assess Legacy Data Sets
All organizations have data they no longer use, need, or can access. This Stuff creates storage and records management problems – as well as potentially significant legal and cost risks. This session addresses new techniques to develop a defensible process for assessing and dealing with legacy data sets.
Only one person, John Jessen, has spoken at all 19 MER conferences. He been a part of every MER because he has consistently brought cutting-edge insights and presented them in a way that everyone understood. Few people have the knowledge and experience John brings each year to his session. This session will be both of great interest. It also will provide a foundation for the closing keynote at this year’s MER conference..
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A Guide for 1st Time MER Registrants – Your Personal MERmap
Bob Williams (MER Founder & co-Chair)
OPENING MER QUESTION – at the beginning of every MER conference, attendees are asked: “Is this your first MER?”
Answer: Approximately 50% of the attendees answer “yes”.
CLOSING MER QUESTION: – at the end of every MER conference, attendees are asked: “Would you recommend the MER conference to someone else?”
Answer: for the last five years, an average of 97.6% said they definitely “would recommend the MER Conference.”
This post is meant to help those considering attending The MER for the first time.
This is a roadmap of sessions that will bring first time attendees a wealth of valuable information. As such, it is an action plan to deliver real world answers that address your needs, but not get you in “over your head”.
Below each of the recommended 13 sessions is the reason why that session will contribute to making first time attendees’ MER experience a real success.
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PRECON T3. AIIM Electronic Records Management Practitioner Certificate Program
This tutorial comprehensively addresses the complete lifecycle of electronic records. It is designed for those new to managing electronic records.
1. Opening Keynote: The Action Imperative: Make Your “Everest” Sized Volume of Junk into a “Kilimanjaro”
Every organization has a “mountain” of electronic information – vast quantities of which no longer have any business value. Good governance calls for reducing the risks and carrying costs associated with this no longer needed legacy data and now technology can readily address this problem/major risk. Learn how to tackle your legacy data (“stuff disposition”) problem – without increasing risk to your organization.
2. The Future of the SharePoint Journey: New Research Aimed to Help Achieve User’s Evolving Needs
A key leader of Microsoft’s SharePoint team spotlights the next phase of the SharePoint journey. Begin with a review of “how we got to where we are”. Examine how the full set of functionality and opportunities can be more widely used. Present a compilation of Microsoft’s recent research of SharePoint users. Conclude with insights on what lies ahead in the SharePoint journey.
3. Making it Real: Getting Buy-In for Your RIM Vision, Budget and Implementation
Social media, collaborative technologies, and the huge accumulation of unstructured data in file shares are presenting unprecedented, major challenges for all organizations. Learn how to: a) gain C-level support, b) obtain an action plan budget to address these problems and c) implement needed new solution-based RIM programs– from proven ideas and “lessons learned”.
6. A Talk with the Wolf – Before He Gets Into the Hen House: How I Would Attack Your Electronic Records Management Program in Discovery & Trial
Today, litigation is pervasive and very expensive. With litigation, comes legal discovery: requiring access to your organization’s records. Increasingly, the RIM and ERM processes used to manage your records also are part of discovery. Learn what plaintiffs’ attorneys seek – and the ERM/RIM flaws they have found and exploited. Avoid discovery problems. Act proactively. Get prepared!
7. Case Study: Applying Retention Schedules Successfully – To Both Paper AND Electronically Stored Information (ESI)
Applying retention schedules to both paper records and electronically-stored information (ESI) is a major challenge. The key to success is having the right blend of specificity and universality – and this requires an understanding of certain key considerations.
10. Case Study: Records Management Embedded into Business-as-Usual Operations
Learn how Discount Tire Company implemented a best-of-breed records management program that would be the envy of most other organizations.
15. SharePoint: From Unmanaged to Managed – How to Get There
In this session, learn how to effectively deploy SharePoint to get the most out of the technology and move from an unmanaged (or user controlled) environment to one that deliberately incorporates records management principles by design.
15. SharePoint: From Unmanaged to Managed – How to Get There
In this session, learn how to effectively deploy SharePoint to get the most out of the technology and move from an unmanaged (or user controlled) environment to one that deliberately incorporates records management principles by design.
16. Cloud Control: Achieving the Right Level of Information Governance
Hear the judicial perspective on the Cloud’s risks – and then learn how GARP® and ARM can control your organization’s governance risks by achieving the right level of ‘Cloud Control’.
20. Case Study: 3M Company’s Enterprise Email and Records Management Solution – Reducing the ECM Landfill!
3M Company spent years searching for the right ECM, email, and e-discovery solution to accomplish the company’s goals for compliance, as well as reducing discovery and IT costs. Learn about the solution 3M selected.
22. What’s the Use? Managing Records of Social Media
This session addresses the management of the records in social media applications. Part 1 defines the key concepts and criteria for identifying what needs to be managed as records in social media applications. Part 2 details approaches for managing these records.
25. Utilizing Marginal Utility to Assess Legacy Data Sets
All organizations have data they no longer use, need, or can access. This Stuff creates storage and records management problems – as well as potentially significant legal and cost risks. This session addresses new techniques to develop a defensible process for assessing and dealing with legacy data sets.
26. Closing Keynote: The Disposition of “Stuff”: Three Judicial Perspectives
The retention of Stuff (no longer needed e-content) is a pervasive and ever-increasing issue: unimaginable volumes, unsustainable costs, and unacceptable risks.
This pioneering MER’11 Keynote is a dialogue on the operating and legal issues associated with the disposition of Stuff.
Three federal magistrate judges will examine how organizations that want to dispose of their Stuff can meet the records retention and preservation requirements of the law.
The dialogue will focus on a real world hypothetical specifically created for this MER’11 Keynote session.
In the tradition of MER keynotes, registrants will have an opportunity to ask questions and share thoughts with the presenters.
Complete Session Descriptions are at: http://www.merconference.com/details/schedule.php
Questions? Please contact Bob Williams at: williams@cohasset.com
The MER’s Success Story & Why You Should Attend This Year
Bob Williams (MER Founder & co-Chair)
I’ve often been asked:
- Why has the MER been so successful?
- How does MER, year-after-year, attract the greatest speakers in the industry?
“What’s the secret?” they ask.
The answer has two parts:
- First, a creative vision, lots of hard work, and an ever-expanding team of really great speakers, outstanding solution providers, and very satisfied prior registrants; and
- Second, a unique and focused business model: The lifecycle management of electronic records.
I am initiating this blog to provide helpful information to prospective MER registrants – to help them:
- Learn more about the MER – its unique, business model, its 18-year success story, and the many attributes that have brought thousands to conclude: The MER was one of their greatest professional experiences,
- Make the right decision about attending this year’s MER, and
- Build a cost/benefits case to gain an approval to attend this year’s MER.
This initial post presents a “big picture” overview of the MER. Other, more specific topics will follow in the coming days.
#1 – Why the MER is Truly Unique and So Successful
The MER meets the need for a conference totally focused on managing electronic records.
The MER addresses the issues associated with managing electronic records from three perspectives:
- Legal,
- Operational, and
- Technical.
The MER’s success story is based on the conferences’:
- Consistent quality,
- Genuine personalization, and
- Success in providing problem-solving answers.
Quality – The MER is renowned for its consistently high quality sessions – outstanding speakers addressing relevant and cutting-edge topics.
The quality of the MER’s content is manifested in The Institute of Certified Records Managers’ accreditation of every conference session and pre-conference tutorial for Certification Maintenance Points.
This year, the MER will have:
- 43 carefully selected speakers,
- 26 outstanding sessions,
- 5 real-world case studies,
- 2 pioneering keynotes, and
- 3 pre-cons – 6-hour intense, interactive classes.
The MER’s quality is further enhanced by the many premier solution providers who exhibit – not as part of an exhibition; rather, in the more productive context of pre-scheduled, 1:1 meetings with just the exhibitors you need speak with – in private meeting rooms conveniently near all the conference sessions.
Personalization – The MER limits the number of registrants and exhibitors. This and the MER’s many designated opportunities for networking, result in registrants having:
- Unique access for you to the MER’s speakers,
- Private exhibitor meetings with the MER’s solution providers that focus on your needs, and
- Great networking opportunities with your peer professionals.
From its beginning in 1992, the MER’s organizers have sought to personalize every registrant’s MER experience and to make it special with a unique blend of graciousness, attention to detail, and creativity – from the…
- Three complimentary networking receptions; to the
- Formal lunches on Monday and Tuesday; to the
- Private 1:1 exhibitor meetings; to the
- On-site service for shipping your notebook home; to the
- The very special location of the MER.
The conference’s location – at The Westin Michigan Avenue on the famed “magnificent mile” in downtown Chicago – provides MER registrants with an exceptional opportunity to choose from scores of great restaurants as well as enjoy Chicago’s exciting cultural venues.
For many registrants, the MER’s great location results in bringing their spouses, having a night on the town, enjoying some shopping, or taking a vacation day to relax – either before or after the conference.
Problem-solving Answers – The challenges and problems associated with managing electronic records are extraordinary in their diversity, daunting in their quantity, and universal – in that all organizations are experiencing them.
For so many attendees, their “MER experience” results in real progress towards achieving needed solutions – which more than justifies their MER attendance. The MER is renowned for providing real insights, guidance, and answers to the key legal, operational, and technical issues associated with the management of electronic records.
Because the MER has provided consistent quality, personalization, and problem solving answers, many organizations send a team – correctly believing that electronic records management solutions require a “team effort” from legal/compliance, technology as well as their records and information management specialists.
ANNOUNCING: The Program for the 2011 National Conference on Managing Electronic Records (MER ’11)
DATE: The MER’11 Conference will be May 23rd – 25th. Full day pre-conference tutorials will be on the 22nd.
LOCATION: MER’11 will be held at the Michigan Avenue Westin Hotel in downtown Chicago – on the “Magnificent Mile”.
REGISTRATION: Register NOW for this year’s MER Conference at:
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?RIMOnDemand/aa1f414cf6/70dfabf917/a7b167db92
Complete MER’11 Conference information is at:
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?RIMOnDemand/aa1f414cf6/70dfabf917/0d45fabd2d
The MER is the only conference focused exclusively on addressing the operational, technical, and legal issues associated with the life-cycle management of electronic records.
This year, the MER is co-sponsored by infoBOOM-RIM on Demand’s topical social networking partner-and ARMA International-recognized as the premier association for records and information management professionals.
Now in its 19th year, the MER success story is providing consistent quality, personalization, and problem solving answers.
We look forward to personally welcoming you to MER’11 in May.
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3 of the 13 CUTTING EDGE TOPICS:
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Managing “Stuff”: Technology & Management Options for Addressing ERM’s Largest Problem
ERM Case Law: Separating Fact from Fear: What the “Spoliation” Cases Really Mean
Information Management Architecture: A New Way for RIM to Exceed Management’s Expectations
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2 of the 6 FEATURED CASE STUDIES:
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CASE STUDY: Applying Retention Schedules Successfully To BOTH Paper AND Electronically Stored Information (ESI)
CASE STUDY: Take it to the Vault: Building an RM Foundation with help from SharePoint 2010
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PRE-CONFERENCE TUTORIALS:
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Improving RIM Performance Using Assured Records Management (ARM) and GARP
Implementing SharePoint Successfully Meeting Your RIM Needs, Addressing Your File Shares Problem, & Avoiding Past Pitfalls
AIIM Electronic Records Management Practitioner Certificate Program
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2 OF 9 ERM OPERATIONAL TOPICS:
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Making It Real: Getting Buy-In for Your RIM Vision, Budget, and Implementation
Guide to Managing Content Generated by Social Media Tools as Records
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2 OF 9 TECHNICAL TOPICS:
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The Future of the SharePoint Journey: New Research Aimed to Help Achieve User’s Evolving Needs
CASE STUDY: Toward the Future: City of Toronto Digital Preservation Initiative
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3 OF 8 LEGAL TOPICS:
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A Talk with the Wolf Before He Gets Into the Hen House: How I Would Attack Your Electronic Records Management Program in Discovery & Trial
Mach Hearing on the Disposition of Computer Tapes You Render the Verdict American Idol Style!
Managing Personal Data in International Retention Schedules, Discovery & Transfers
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3 of 6 BASICS OF ELECTRONIC RECORDS MANAGEMENT
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Electronic Records Management Boot Camp
SharePoint Success It’s All About the Users!
CASE STUDY: Records Management Embedded into Business-as-Usual Operations
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19 of the 43 GREAT SPEAKERS:
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Chris Burns
William Butterfield
Jim Coulson
Laurie Fischer
Richard Fisher
Hon. James Francis IV
Julie Gable
Hon. Paul Grimm
Hon. Ron Hedges
John Jessen
Randy Kahn
Jonathan Redgrave
Carol Stainbrook
Karen Strong
Ken Thibodeau
Hon. David Waxse
Jesse Wilkins
Ken Withers
Marcia Zweerink
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SPECIAL FOCUS: Getting Rid of “STUFF”
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Opening Keynote: The Action Imperative Make Your “Everest” Size Volume of Junk into a “Kilimanjaro”
Using Marginal Utility to Assess Legacy Data Sets
Closing Keynote: The Disposition of Stuff Three Judicial Perspectives
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SOLUTION PROVIDERS AT MER ’11:
Access Sciences
Active Navigation
Cohasset Associates
Gimmal Group
HP TRIM
Huron Legal
IBM
Integro
NextPage
OpenText
Robbins-Gioia
Viewpointe
Zasio Enterprises
ZL Technologies
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THE MER EXPERIENCE: The MER Conference is recognized as a premier learning experience for RIM professionals.
COMPLETE MER CONFERENCE INFORMATION:
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?RIMOnDemand/aa1f414cf6/70dfabf917/698b085a00
REGISTRATION: You can register NOW for this year’s MER Conference at:
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?RIMOnDemand/aa1f414cf6/70dfabf917/f4f29b9c3f
NETWORKING: The MER Conference is “the BEST” networking opportunity of the year!
QUALITY: 98% of the registrants last year said they would recommend the MER.
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Learn why the MER has become “the trusted source” for information about managing electronic records, check out:
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?RIMOnDemand/aa1f414cf6/70dfabf917/23fda7123c
The MER Conference is organized, sponsored and presented by Cohasset Associates, Inc., ARMA International and infoBOOM.
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?RIMOnDemand/aa1f414cf6/70dfabf917/a60ff79e66
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?RIMOnDemand/aa1f414cf6/70dfabf917/399326664f
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?RIMOnDemand/aa1f414cf6/70dfabf917/6d28d4ea90
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The MER success story: consistent quality, personalization and problem-solving answers
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