September 29, 2016

ICRM Introduces Certified Records Analyst (CRA) Certification

From the RECMGMT-L list:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AT: ICRM Annual Business Meeting: September 24, 2016

The ICRM launches its third professional certification:

Certified Records Analyst (CRA)

The CRA provides another opportunity to be a member of the ICRM.  By achieving the CRA designation, records management professionals demonstrate a solid foundation in Records and Information Management (RIM); potentially on their way to attaining the CRM.  CRA’s are knowledgeable and experienced in active and inactive records systems. A CRA’s knowledge includes such areas as electronic records and information; regulatory compliance-related requirements; the lifecycle management of records and information; and more.

This certification provides an opportunity for immediate certification to those existing CRM candidates that have already successfully passed Parts 2-4 of the examinations; while still retaining the ability to continue on to the CRM.  The CRA allows newly educated and experienced records management professionals the ability to become a member of the Institute; thereby improving their opportunities for career advancement and increasing the number of educated and credentialed millennials to meet the demand for RIM and Information Governance (IG) positions in the global marketplace.

“We are excited to deliver the CRA certification to the RIM profession!  This new certification follows our time-tested approach and allows for more professionals to obtain a value-added RIM credential while promoting the continuance of their individual development.  We fully expect many to use the CRA as a spring-board to achieving their CRM over a timeline that meets their individual needs.” – Brice Sample, CRM – President

A CRA may vote in elections of the ICRM, may not hold office but can serve as a member or chairman of an ICRM Commission, Committee or Taskforce, may attend the ICRM Business Meeting and may attend the ICRM Annual Reception held annually at the ARMA Conference. Further, CRAs are granted access the ICRM website, the membership directory and all publications and information provided as a benefit of ICRM membership.

Candidates for the CRA, upon submitting an online application to the ICRM, will be approved to sit for Parts 2-4 if they properly document achievement of a 4-year (bachelor’s degree) from an accredited institution of higher education and also demonstrate one-year of professional Records and Information Management (RIM) experience.  Alternately, one year of professional Records and Information Management (RIM) experience can be substituted for each year of college education.

Founded in 1975, the Institute of Certified Records Managers (ICRM) is an international certifying organization of and for professional records managers.  The Institute confers three designations: the Certified Records Manager (CRM); the Certified Record Manager/Nuclear Specialist (CRM/NS); and now the Certified Records Analyst (CRA).
Full disclosure: I manage AIIM's CIP, a certification, that, while complementary to the CRM and probably the CRA, is competitive at least from a payment/financial/"how do I or my company pay for this" perspective. I am also a CRM and member in good standing of the ICRM.

My thoughts, both my own and after some discussion of it with some folks at ARMA16. I think it's an interesting approach but will be challenging. The entry criteria appears to be the same as for the CRM, which is daunting, given that at most organizations a "records analyst" tends to be a lower-level position than a records manager. It eschews Part 1, on management, which makes sense, but also Part 5, on technology, which doesn't make as much sense to me today in 2016. It also requires analysts to join the ICRM at $200/year, which again may be prohibitive for someone at the typical records analyst level.

I certainly wish the ICRM well, but I wonder whether this is going to be more hassle than benefit and how many people will actually go after it.
Marko Sillanpaa at Big Men on Content: Who Will Lead ECM?

ARMA Solicits Volunteers for Industry Expert Task Force

From the email:
Volunteer Opportunity: Industry Expert Task Force
 
 
 
As part of our ongoing effort to increase membership value, ARMA International is pleased to announce the formation of a task force to create a comprehensive body of knowledge. 

We need outstanding industry experts, like yourselves, to create an all-encompassing guide to the generally recognized best practices for managing and governing the full life cycle of information. This guide will be process-based and will focus on defining information management and governance concepts throughout the information life cycle. Your work on this taskforce will provide the knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to better support our practitioners in their day-to-day operations.

As the authority on records and information management and information governance, ARMA International will lead this important initiative along with you, our outstanding industry experts. If you consider yourself an expert in your field and would like to make a difference in our industry, this opportunity is for you!

I'd have thought that the IGP and/or CRM provide wide swathes of this - and of course the CIP as well - but this sounds to me like something that will be developed from a blank slate. That also raises a question for me as to what happens once the BOK is developed - typically the next step is a certification, but again ARMA's IGP and the ICRM's (and ARMA's) CRM already exist.

I very much doubt I can participate, but anyone else interested can contact ARMA at kristina.franz@armaintl.org.

Some Perspectives on the Documentum Acquisition by Open Text

John Mancini: Some Perspectives on the Documentum Acquisition by Open Text This post includes links to just about every major ECM-related blog post offering perspective on this.


MER17 call for speakers open

Cohasset Associates is soliciting presentations for the MER17 program, scheduled for May 8-10, 2017 in Chicago, IL. Presentations must be submitted by November 1, 2016. Details and the submission form can be found at https://www.merconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/MER17-Speaker-submission-form-FINAL-1.pdf.

AIIM17 Call for Speakers still open

I was remiss in not posting this earlier. AIIM is (still) looking for speakers for the AIIM17 conference, scheduled for March 14-16, 2017 in Orlando, FL. Emphasis is on end users; consultants and vendors are not accepted for the main program. Details and the application form can be found at http://www.aiimconference.com/page/1274447/call-for-speakers.

September 15, 2016

Mike Alsup: So OpenText Buys Documentum: Making Sense of the Aftershocks Another great post from the always-thoughtful founder of Gimmal. I don't always agree with Mike, but when I do I carefully check my premises because he's been a really smart and successful guy in this industry for a really long time.

And I do agree with his point here that when it comes time to migrate from Documentum to OpenText, those customers just might also look to something lighter-weight. I suspect many of those might go the Box-IBM route, but certainly a big chunk will look to leverage their existing SP/O365 as well.


September 13, 2016

Activity 9/13: Treadmill, 8.5% incline, 2.4mph, 1:30, 3.6 miles
Wow. According to this blog post by RecordLion, the list of active CRMs is at...923. I can't find any previous numbers but I seem to recall hearing 1100-1200+ a few years ago - maybe around the time I got mine (Oct 2009). The blog post is from April, and these things are always in flux, but still, that seems like a small and dwindling number.

Update: I checked the ICRM membership directory myself and there are 1,179 records in the database. When I filtered for CRM-Retired, I got 206, which leaves 973. Again could be the post was right before a test cycle, but wanted to clarify.


Long post at CMSWire, good links to others' reactions too. Documentum's Fate at Open Text: New Life or Certain Death?


Cheryl McKinnon: The Documentum Shoe Finally Drops...as ECM Undergoes a Changing of the Guard

September 9, 2016

Activity 9/9: Treadmill, 8.0-8.5% incline, 2.4mph, 2:15, 5.21 miles

September 8, 2016

Activity 9/8: Treadmill, 8% incline, 2.4 mph, 1:24, 3:39 miles

September 7, 2016

Activity 9/7: Treadmill, 8% incline, 2.3mph, 1:05, 2.51 miles