From stone-age tribes to modern-day society, Records have served us a crucial purpose- Storing, analyzing & learning from the information around us. At the base of everything significant lies a pool of information. This pool can only be accessed through records curated in archives or stores digitally in a system. And, now we ought to be entering into the ‘new age’ Records Management. What was once thought to be an exclusive domain of ‘traditional records keeping,’ whereby one would imagine a spectacled person scanning endless shelves of files, was the rudimentary way. The future of Records Management is entirely different and the change is already manifesting.
In this post, we will see what does the future of Records Management look like!
Let us get going!
Futuristic Record Management Trends in Force
Let us see some major shifts in the Records Management paradigm in recent times. These trends have either left their impact or are currently disrupting this domain.
Digitization of Records
Trust us, one day, paper is going to be a thing of yesterday. And, this would be in the best spirits of our environment and bottom line efficiency. Many enterprises have already digitized their records and are using either in-house Digital Records Management System or have outsourced their needs to an off-site facility. Records Digitization saves a ton of space, mitigates any risk of loss of data, enables faster accessibility and gives better control over information workflow to the enterprises.
Cloud Storage & Digital Vaults
And you were thinking of dedicating another office room to store your records, huh? As the records across the world are being digitized, their storage methods are also evolving. At the forefront of Digital Records Management Storage lies the cloud storage & digital vaults. The Cloud Storage not just offers high-speed & secure information workflow, but also offers redundancy and location-independent access to your data. Cloud storage services that offer more security and custom access options are often labeled as Digital Vaults, and are trending currently.
Blockchain-based Records Management
You heard that one right! Block chain technology, a recent euphoria associated with cryptocurrencies, can do much more for the betterment of business, governance, and transparency in our day-to-day systems. It is the underlying principle of this technology that makes it so promising. Blockchain technology is basically a shared-decentralized system. In such a system, the administration authority is not governed by a single-point. The amendment, enforcements, and changes in a decentralized Blockchain system are achieved through ‘General Consensus.’ That means, a Blockchain Records Ledger can never be corrupted, hacked, or damaged and its contents will always remain transparent & immutable. As globalization is promoting transparency, trust and decentralization of authority, Decentralized Records Management systems stand as the ‘next big what?’ in the field.
Records Management Future- What is yet to come?
Future does not just mean automation and optimization of processes through technology. In fact, technology is only one facet of the future. There are other facets that include significance of the paradigm, adaptability, impact, underlying meaning, societal values, and so on. When we talk of such a future in context of Records Management, below mentioned disruptions are yet to come!
Information Governance is arriving!
‘Omega Point’ arises for everything in this world. The omega point in case of the future of records management is ‘Information Governance.’ In the simplest of terms, it means that wherever high-level decision making is required, it will be backed by the relevant data & records. Soon, the world will be out of assumptions. Businesses, organizations and individuals will be administering decision-makers with banks of data to pull the relevant information at the right time. If this notion is even half-correct, finance, insurance, retail and medical industries will be changed forever. Not only this, but the Information-driven governance will become such a norm that authorities will be shaping their policies and agendas based on it.
Records Management Automation
When talking about the future of a particular industry, automation cannot be overlooked. Technologically, automation is super-critical for every domain to achieve optimized processes, productivity, bottom line, delivery, research, profits, etc. In case of Records Management, Automation will be seen in;
- Capturing volumetric records effectively
- Classification of records
- Appraisal of Records
- Description, attributes & meta-data
- Updating the records
- Smart retrieval of the records based on situational context
And, it is highly likely that AI & ML will be the go-to technologies for implementing this automation.
While some disruptions on the records management domain are evident and some are speculative, it can be safely assumed that the future will make Records management a game-changing field. We will move from ‘Curating the past, preserving the present, looking at the future’ to ‘Learning from the past, taking action in the present, and entering into a predictable future’ soon.
