Business leaders will face a variety of challenges in 3005, and records and information management will be increasingly at the forefront of critical issues. The following are the top-three challenges ARMA International (www.arma.org) sees regarding records and information management and suggestions on how you can prepare yourself and your organization and avoid unpleasant surprises.

Challenge #1: Litigation now routinely involves electronic records-databases, e-mail, and even backup tapes.

The actions to be taken here are both defensive and proactive. First, verify that your organization has the policies and procedures in place to ensure normal destruction practices are stopped if and when electronic records are needed for litigation. Litigants have a duty to preserve records that apply to litigation-and that applies to e-mail, databases, and other electronic records as well as to more traditional paper and microfilm records. You should also ensure that your organization has the systems in place that allow for efficient retrieval of relevant information.

Also, be sure that legal counsel is aware of the need to include electronic records in strategy planning for conducting lawsuits. Businesses are more dependent on electronic data than ever before. Their content management systems, knowledge management systems, customer transaction databases, and e-mail systems are all used in conducting daily business and will hold records and information relevant to a lawsuit.

Challenge #3: E-mail technology isn't necessarily built to address management issues.

E-mail is dominating other forms of communication in businesses. Gartner Group research shows that approximately 75 percent of a firm's "knowledge exchange" is via e-mail. Yet, the technology currently available for managing e-mail falls short of ideal. The systems are still highly labor intensive. Message filters don't catch all spam messages, so employees still spend time deleting unwanted messages and categorizing the messages they want to keep. Use of e-mail systems means that there are multiple places to search for answers to every type of question being asked.

Some vendors offer the ability to customize their software to your business rules and requirements. But don't underestimate the effort needed to customize it accurately. Such efforts will require in-depth understanding of the organization's business processes and requirements.

Challenge #3: Compliance requirements are increasingly complex.

The Health Information Portability Accounting Act (HIPAA), Sarbanes-Oxley, and individual privacy protection are only the most recent and highest profile compliance requirements that corporations must meet. There are compliance requirements in a broad range of areas, general and industry specific. It's increasingly obvious that compliance efforts must be implemented throughout the organization in order to be optimally effective.

The light at the end of the tunnel: Standards and best practices help define solutions. Though the compliance and records management pictures are more complex than ever, fortunately, standards and best practices are available to address many areas of policy and procedure development. Start with ISO 15489 Records Management, the interna tional standard on what constitutes a good records management program.

Additional standards from organizations such as ARMA International, AIIM, ANSI, and ISO address areas such as vital records protection, records retention and disposition programs, and integrating electronic document and records management systems.

Conducting a self-assessment can be especially effective in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your organization's records and information management program. ARMA's RIM e-Assessment is a formalized, online tool based on best practices and ISO 15489. Also, consultants can be helpful in such an undertaking.

The wise business leader will make good-faith efforts to address the records and information management challenges and vulnerabilities within his or her organization. Taking such steps will help you prevent information management disasters from happening.