I just got back from attending ARMA 2010 in San Francisco. I have been to hundreds of conferences before including past ARMA events and have to say this was one of the most exciting events in recent years. This year, RSD was a silver sponsor and created a huge buzz on the tradeshow floor for a number of reasons.

Matchmaker, Matchmake, Make me a Match

First, RSD would like to thank all the supporters of the button-matching campaign. This was the most talked about contest on a tradeshow floor that I have ever seen.. The objective of the contest was for people to find a matching RSD button which had the same text and color. Everyone was walking around the conference, networking events, chapter parties, expo floor, and even in bars/restaurants looking for their match. People sent tweets and posted notes on the ARMA message board. This created a whole new networking opportunity for attendees. All the attendees seemed to have fun with this contest. At 4:30, we had close to 300 people at the RSD booth. We know people were let down when the matching buttons weren’t found and RSD certainly shares that disappointment. Due to the high demand, we ran out of buttons so we also ended up raffling off an iPad. If you think this year’s contest was a hit, wait until next year.

Records Managers are Acknowledging Information Governance

The RSD button contest wasn’t the only thing people were talking about at ARMA 2010. As predicted, information governance was the theme this year – from the preconference session on Sharepoint governance to the technology spotlight in the opening session, other various sessions, and the expo hall. Many people in the records management industry understand the challenge companies are facing today. They know they need to have better controls in place for not only managing the retention schedule but also enforcing it across the complex IT infrastructure. At this year’s conference, people were talking at a higher level and expanding their scope on information management. 

I attended the Technology in the Spotlight and was disappointed since the keynote vendor panel was nothing but a plugfest.

• Automation – Vendor panel discussed importance of automation. This is not new.
• eDiscovery – The costs are really high. This is not new.
• Social media – This was the only interesting topic. The concern of social media can be compared with what happened to email about 5-6 years ago. Companies need to get a better handle on the impact of social media in the enterprise. The best line of the session “'cloudy with a chance of governance”

Without a doubt, Apple’s iPad and Microsoft’s SharePoint got best placement. 

Some Records Managers Still Don’t Get Information Governance

A woman was looking at the RSD signs and came into our booth. We had the following conversation:

Attendee: Hi, I am looking for a records management solution and not for information governance.

Tamir: How do you define the difference between information governance and records management?

Attendee: I am not sure.

Tamir: Records management primarily deals with the management of the retention/disposition of corporate records where information governance includes other facets of the information lifecycle such as laws/regulations, multiple jurisdictions, metadata, storage lifecycle, and data privacy rules.

Attendee: I am not sure if this applies to my role.

Tamir: How do you currently enforce your retention schedule?

Attendee: We really don’t need to do that right now.

Tamir: Isn’t that a concern for you?

Attendee: I am only interested in managing my records.

This is a concern simply because as you heard during the opening session, it’s imperative for records managers to deliver more value to an organization. Don't worry, we are getting there and will be making the information governance journey together.

RSD Announces RSD GLASS 2.0

RSD GLASS enables companies to better manage corporate risk and improve operational efficiency as they work to achieve compliance with regulations and laws governing enterprise information and records management. During the conference, we announced RSD GLASS 2.0 which is the first in the industry to demonstrate technological breakthroughs for enabling organizations to seamlessly go from policy to control to enforcement. We had a few people stop by our booth to validate if the PSS repacement announcement was true. It is true. We showed the ability to centrally manage policies, manage and enforce all lifecycle actions across all repositories -- Open Text, IBM, Oracle, and HP. 

That's information governance. Seeing was believing.