The positive benefits of electronic records management in the context of enterprise content management

Risk management by itself is an inadequate rationale for enterprise-wide records management because it is essentially a defensive strategy. Beyond risk management, with electronic records management (ERM) fully implemented an enterprise can realize positive benefits and real cost savings to the information management of essential business functions in the enterprise. This article presents three case studies that illustrate the positive benefits of ERM to non-records management business functions within the context of enterprise content management systems. The article concludes with the argument that records management will not take its rightful place in enterprise information management until ER-M is fully integrated within enterprise content management. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.