Will the RIM Profession become obsolete?

I've been dropping wisdom bombs all over the internet, and I wanted to share some of the posts and my thoughts with you. This week, let's talk about the future of the records and information management profession. 


Will the RIM Profession Become Obsolete? by Mark Mandel. 


Mark writes "One discussion point revolved around how this will change the RIM profession.  One board member made a very thought provoking statement: "In five years there will be no more RIM profession!"

She said this because she sees our profession evolving significantly with the advent of electronic records management, changing requirements for retention based on electronic storage and the cloud, auto classification and the like."

I responded:

"The amount and volume of information that we have to manage is still growing at an exponential rate. You don't have to be a genius to figure that one out, just look at your inbox / growing repositories. As the volume of information increases, the science of managing it becomes even more important. If you can't find something, how useful can information be?

I think a better summation is that in 5 years, the RIM profession will have evolved into something different, but it won't be dead."

Do you agree? Disagree? Wonder what the heck RIM is? Leave a comment below and join the discussion. 

Why can't everything be like Pandora One?

Mark this date down- today I finally decided to to pay for music again. Yep, I've decided to subscribe to Pandora One.


For the last few years, I've been using streaming services, podcasts, and regular Pandora and Slacker to listen to music, and it's been OK, but nothing impressed me. Last night, I decided it was time to take the plunge and upgrade my music listening experience to something that looks and sounds good. A few of you wondered why, so here is the quick list of reasons  why I'm now a happy paying customer. There are some really good take aways here.

1. Any device, anytime. Between my desktop, laptop, iPhone, PS3, home theater and TV, Pandora is everywhere. It's like having a personal DJ following me around, offering music on demand to suit my mood. With background processing on IOS4, it's killer.
2. User experience. The user experience is the same on Windows 7 my phone, or Linux using Adobe Air, meaning it just works. Really well done.
3. The "freemium" model works. I've been sampling Pandora off and on for a year or so, and finally decided to take the plunge. They let me become a customer on my own terms.
4. Social integration. Their partnership with Facebook really opened up the possibilities of how data is shared, and it's awesome to see what my friends have bookmarked and shared. It's helped me discover some really great new artists that I never knew exited.
5. Ease of upgrading. I had seen the button "upgrade" for a few months before clicking on it. When I finally clicked on it, it was a 30 second process to convert me into a paying customer. It just worked, and worked really well.

This got me thinking about my work in the ECM field, and wishing that more interactions could be so simple. Let people try before buying, offer a great customer experience, and connect with the devices people already use. This certainly gives me things to bring up with some of the vendors and resellers I work with, and now I have some good music to listen to in the process. 


If you are on the service, add me http://www.pandora.com/people/daniel.oleary

W11 HIRE Act Form automated with LincDoc

Have you recently hired someone that was unemployed for 2 months before they were hired? If so, as part of the HIRE Act passed in 2010, you are entitled to a pretty nice tax credit of $1,000. This form is fairly simple, and can be easily integrated into the hiring and screening process. Visit the IRS for more information. 


Currently, the IRS estimates that the form will take 25 minutes just to prepare the form! I set this up using LincDoc, and the new process takes less than 30 seconds. We can also pre-populate information in the form using a simple search of an employee ID or social security number. Finally, it can be seamlessly integrated into your ECM and HR systems like Laserfiche and SharePoint. 


If you would like to automate and use this form at your company, please contact me in the comments, or e-mail me using the contact link and I'll set it up for you.

Kick Start your ECM project with the Human Resources Department

Everyone from the janitor to the CIO of any company or organization has to go through similar things involving HR:

• Applying for a job 
• Submitting to a background check 
• Filling out tax and insurance forms 
• Taking vacations 
• Handling performance reviews

All of these processes typically involve a cruel amount of paperwork and have ingrained, often outdated processes that drive them. As you look to expand and grow (or start up) your content and records management plan, the HR department is always a safe bet.

What do almost all HR process have in common? Paper forms. Loads and loads of ugly, long, confusing paper forms that must be filled out and updated. Do you need to fill out a timecard? Here use this form. Oh, need to request time off to attend a conference? Use THIS form. Am I tugging any painful strings yet?

As end users, we encounter these forms infrequently enough that they are a mild inconvenience. For the HR department and the staff, a majority of their time is spent processing, tracking, and handling the forms and paperwork that we all create!

So here is my summer advice in between your BBQ’s and fireworks- think about how you can use your existing ECM system to handle the workflow for things like sign offs and approvals. Plan on eliminating the actual paper HR forms with electronic forms, and consider how you can integrate everything into your existing HR system to reduce duplication of information and manual data entry.

For more information on how other organizations have done this, visit www.lincware.com and sign up for a free webinar, or leave a comment, I'd be happy to hear your ideas.