Getting everyone in your company, from the executives to the end-users, on board with a records management project is always a challenge. Why? One of the biggest reasons is that records management technology by itself is not a complete solution.

What Information Management (IM) activities should we focus on? Are we ready to take the next steps to evolve IM?

Gimmal, the world’s leading provider of records management and information governance software, is excited to announce that Gimmal Records Management, which already provides DoD 5015.2-certified for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and 2013, is now extending its certification to Microsoft 2016. Gimmal has always been the first to offer this certification for Microsoft’s SharePoint platform and has become the standard when implementing DoD 5015.2 solutions.

The below is a report from the field. Abby Moore, Principal of Services at Gimmal, recently helped a client understand how to navigate the gap between where they were and where they wanted to go. In this post, she demonstrates why a neutral third party can be just what an organization needs to manage competing priorities and navigate the silos that inhibit coordination between business units.

Physical records management has always been tricky, especially as complex systems have grown up around it. As more of our business information is created and stored electronically, physical records tend to become increasingly siloed. Normally, organizations need a segregated, on-premises system, or manual process that is not well-integrated with the electronic side of the business. Custom legacy platforms have a tendency to hamper the growth of an organizations infrastructure, and are difficult to replace.

So, what makes a record different from any other piece of information - electronic or physical? How does one identify something as a record? Who gets to decide? Is there an approval process for verifying business records? Does every piece of content need to be investigated for record quality? How about voice messages, text messages, and chat threads?

In a few recent blog posts, we talked about the survey we did with ASUG of SAP professionals. Now, let's dive into the data a little deeper.

The below blog post comes from a white paper produced by ASUG and Gimmal: Cruising Along the Information Highway: Understanding your SAP EIM Environment. It discusses the results of a recent survey of the ASUG community surrounding information management best practice awareness. The data is crystal clear: Almost everyone uses SharePoint. The near-optimal penetration of Microsoft Office 365 as a productivity suite means SharePoint is often the first line of defense when it comes to storing and retrieving documents. Those engaging in EIM would be foolish to ignore its role among most companies, especially those who run SAP technology. Any software solution provider with EIM support products would be wise to integrate well with SharePoint. After all, it’s much easier to leverage and optimize an already-existing product than to try and replace it with a new one, right?

The below blog post comes from a white paper produced by ASUG and Gimmal: Cruising Along the Information Highway: Understanding your SAP EIM Environment. It discusses the results of a recent survey of the ASUG community surrounding information management best practice awareness.

At Gimmal, we spend a lot of time talking about all of the cool things our software can do - and for good reason. Modern records management software can do a lot to make it easier to govern content and execute defensible dispositions. But despite that, we should also remind our readers that there's no such thing as a "magic bullet" when it comes to business processes - there is no panacea that will ever replace proper planning, measured project execution, and realistic change management.