Record management systems help ensure that documents are quickly retrieved, easily shared and almost impossible to lose. The net result is increased productivity and increased customer satisfaction.

Offices are awash in paper and electronic documents, from email, invoices and forms to marketing and sales collateral, product development plans, patent and copyright filings and notifications, contracts, and manuals, to name just a few. Consistently backing up servers to preserve the collective knowledge amassed in electronic documents is standard operating procedure in most companies. But, is backup enough, or are there reasons to consider record management systems? Here are some differences between backup and records management:

Records Management Much More than Disaster Recovery
Backup can be thought of a like a vacuum cleaner; it sweeps everything up and stores it in one big bag which is later taken to the trash. When the trash is picked up, the bag is gone forever. Backup policies are usually simple: backup at specified intervals, often nightly, and move the backup offline, then reuse storage media every week or month or year. Backups can be done on the fly too, when circumstances warrant and time permits.

Records management, on the other hand, is selective and rule-based. Record management policies determine which documents from each days business are to be included, and what to do with those documents not included (for example, backup only, backup and shred, shred only). Included documents are tagged individually and then kept for a specific amount of time as determined by document type.

Backup is primarily a disaster recovery precaution. Record management is primarily a reference system where documents are meant to be easily searched and retrieved. Of course, record management systems are backed up too, just like any other business system, whether at the client or host site.

Records Indexing, Accessing, and Security
Backups are usually indexed or labeled by date. Should a crash or lockdown occur, the backup dated closest to the event is the one that is chosen to restore the system. Restoration can be full or partial; for example, a billing system might go down and need to be restored, but the rest of the business is not affected. In this example, records within the billing system are restored as a batch, not individually. Since system interruptions happen unpredictably, access to backups must be almost immediate. System and application restores are handled by IT professionals who have the proper software credentials and access to secured data centers.

Like backups, record management systems index by date, but do so at the record level. The indexing schema in document management systems also includes document type, author, and revision number and may include other criteria as well. These documents are meant to be accessed easily by the people who normally work with them. It is for this reason that documents are indexed at the record level and are available with proper logon and passwords through a user-friendly interface

Best Management Practices
One of the biggest benefits of a record management system is that its implementation requires that a policy for retaining and disposing of documents be established. A well-written policy establishes standard business practices that help leverage information and reduce costs while going a long way toward assuring regulatory compliance.

Source
ARMA.org