Common ECM Mistakes

As SoftFile has worked with numerous federal, state, local public agencies and the general business enterprise environment. We have seen many electronic content management mistakes. Such mistakes might not be noticeable at first, however they can compound over time leading to total ECM failure. These mistakes typically include any of the following (partial listing):

• Not enough document profile fields captured
  
• No records retention schedule expiration listed
  
• Use of too many folders (instead of a ECM database)
  
• Use of students or interns to scan and index documents
  

Document Profile Fields

Metadata is generally considered the data that is automatically collected when a document is scanned (e.g scan date and file size). Document profile field(s) are those fields that are captured in order to electronically retrieve (look-up) a document. Most records management experts assert that three (3) document profile fields should be captured (in case one or two are collected in error). For example,if you are scanning historical newspaper articles, the document profile fields might be the article's: title, author, date, source.

No Records Retention Schedule Expiration Listed

It is an error to assume that, simply because it has been scanned, an electronic document should be saved forever. We save documents - usually in reaction to some legislative requirement to do so (e.g. a medical record for seven years). Otherwise, if the record is destroyed prior to the legally required retention period, a patient might be able to successfully sue. However, say there is some sort of mistake in the record, if you keep a record longer than you are required to do so and the mistake is discovered in say, year nine - when the record could have been deleted after year seven, you are still legally responsible for what is recorded.

Use of too many folders

Psychologically, the use of electronic folders (and sub-folders) makes us feel comfortable in terms of saving electronic files. However, those same folders often hinder our ability to perform a global search by keyword or phrase. It is important to think in terms of a common database with the use of document profile fields instead of the use of folders and sub-folders.

Use of students or interns to scan and index documents

Really, this is a very bad idea on numerous levels.