Records Management

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What Does Records Management Mean?

Records management (RM) is a general component of business administration that involves protecting and maintaining the most valuable data sets involved in operations. This area of business helps businesses to handle different kinds of paper and digital documents and resources for:

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  • Security
  • Access
  • General efficiency

Records management is also known as records information management (RIM).

Techopedia Explains Records Management

In terms of practical records management, professionals often talk about a “document lifecycle”—this means that records management strategies must address the maintenance and use of records from the time they are created, to their use and travel throughout the business network, and eventually, to their placement in storage archives where they will most likely eventually be destroyed, both to manage costs and to minimize liabilities.

A big component of records management involves new technologies. Computing services help to provide powerful and effective records management tools. More advanced business networks help to move data in different ways that are more secure and allow better access and monitoring. Analytics tools and other resources help businesses to get high-tech assistance in making big decisions. All of these types of technological advances are closely related to the discipline of records management.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.