Te whakahaere tōtika i ngā mōhiohio me ngā mauhanga
Effective information and records management
Information and records are at the core of business and are key strategic assets.
Effective information and records management (16/F4 v.3, approved July 2024)
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What is effective information and records management
Information and records management is the discipline that allows your organisation's information and record assets to be governed, protected, and prioritised. It helps to build business capability and increases the strategic value of information and records.
Effective information and records management enables good business practices for your organisation in the present and helps to prepare for good business practices in the future. This will ensure your organisation has meaningful, reliable, and usable information and records available when your business needs them. This also provides mechanisms for ensuring accountability and managing risk.
Information and records management is complex. The volume of information and records generated is challenging. Trying to use the same tools and processes to manage all parts of your organisation’s information and records is usually not an effective approach. Information managers need to collaborate with business groups and their Executive Sponsor to define how to create, manage, use, and reuse business information and records.
How can information and records management be effective
To be effective, information and records management needs to be:
designed
focused on strategic objectives
integrated with relevant systems, and
focused on long-term outcomes.
Designed
Before implementing an information and records management system or solution, they must complement the relevant business processes and be tailored to the specific issues and risks your organisation faces.
Focused on strategic objectives
Information and records management must enable effective and efficient conduct of business by your organisation. However, implementing effective information and records management practices offers the opportunity to consider benefits more strategically for the wider sector and community, instead of focusing on meeting the needs of a single process or urgent demand.
Integrated with relevant systems
Information and records management strategies should be designed and implemented for all your systems and environments that store business information and records that are high value, high risk, or both.
Focused on long-term outcomes
These strategies should provide your organisation with information and records that make your current operations more effective. They also need to set out what the organisation is going to need from its business information and records over the long term.
Responsibilities of Executive Sponsors
The Executive Sponsor champions the importance of information and records management among your organisation’s leadership. The aim is for everyone to see information and records management as an integral part of your organisation operating effectively.
More information may be found in our guidance on Executive Sponsors.
Responsibilities of information managers
Information and records management impacts all areas of business, so information managers need to get involved at every level, particularly where risk is high. These can include, for example:
system and process design
information and records sharing and risk
managing information and records for accountability and value.
System and process design
To enable a robust system and process design, an information manager must:
be involved in developing processes for creating, structuring and managing information and records according to business needs
help to develop, integrate, upgrade, and decommission systems, or migrate to new systems, including outsourced or cloud services
implement training and support for staff to understand, leverage and use business information and records.
Information and records sharing
To manage any risks involved in sharing information and records, an information manager must:
identify and address barriers to information and records sharing and reuse within your organisation, with other organisations, and with the public
support information and records security by identifying and implementing security requirements
identify information and records risks and contribute to enterprise risk assessments.
Managing information and records for accountability and value
To improve the accountability and safeguard the value of information and records, an information manager must:
facilitate the identification of high-risk, high-value information and records required to support business processes
identify strategies for managing change, legacy data and long-term digital continuity
identify the evidential and integrity attributes of information and records necessary to support your organisation’s accountability requirements.