A records management capability framework for the FirstRand Banking Group

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Competitive pressures in every company worldwide always have, and probably always will, drive leadinginstitutions to adopt smarter, faster and more cost effective ways of providing customers with feature-richproducts and outstanding service, in order to differentiate specific offerings to local and global markets.This approach is both inevitable and laudable.At the same time, communications (physical and electronic) have made the world a smaller place andpresented a larger target audience for each company's goods and services. However, customers havebecome better educated, more sophisticated and more demanding, whilst competitors have raisedstandards and the fight for customer loyalty has intensified.As these pressures increased, the appropriate level of corporate governance has not always been applied,as evidenced by the well publicised failure of Enron in the USA, and many others worldwide. The typicalreaction has been to produce an increasing raft of legislation and regulation, designed to protect theconsumer against 'cavalier' corporate behaviour, and an equally increasing demand for more and betterinformation.The Banking Industry has not escaped this trend. Its failures have not been as dramatic as Enron and theconsequences not as severe. Nevertheless, the potential impact of failure through poor corporategovernance is huge and legislation and regulation has become highly visible through acts such as the'Financial Advisory and Intermediary Service Act' (FAIS), the 'Financial Intelligence Centre Act' (FICA) andthe Basel II Committee, - all emphasising integrity, authenticity, completeness, transparency, security,retention, protection, and eventual disposal of information.This assignment examines the relationship between the concepts information management, contentmanagement and records management and their importance as enablers of corporate governance. Ithighlights the current records management capability- maturity within the FirstRand Banking Group andpresents a future solution and a practical approach to migration. Whilst understanding the challengesassociated with implementing a records management strategy and programme, it emphasises the needsand the huge benefits for the FirstRand Group in meeting its corporate obligations, improving customerservice and reducing operating costs.The future solution is set within a Records Management Capability Framework which encompasses howrecords must be managed by a consistent set of rules. It presents a typical records management life cyclefrom creation to disposal; it examines how practical systems design can balance the need for structure andstability whilst providing flexibility for operational use; it documents design principles and critical standards;it outlines implementation guidelines; and it recommends policies, ownership, organisational structures androles, and governance mechanisms within the FirstRand Business Model. FirstRand's records management competency was audited and measured against a capability maturitymodel (the Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute's approach). The results indicatedsignificant cultural and operational challenges in building a records management capability, but it wasconcluded that knowledge management and sharing of information and intellectual assets (facilitating fasteraccess to better quality and up-to-date information and building corporate memory and business agility)could be delivered only by a well conceived and carefully implemented Records Management CapabilityFramework.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University