Three of my colleagues just returned from the certification testing of TRIM against the latest version of the DoD 5015.2 standard, and once again TRIM has been certified against all chapters, which gives us an unbroken certification since the standard exists.  This time around the certification was interesting because version 3 of the standard introduces some new functional modules including Web client, XML import and export, and the new FOI and DP chapters.

The FOI and DP chapters contain requirements to enable the processing of Freedom of Information and Data Protection requests. As such they move into a new field of business process management, albeit records related.  The document and workflow management features of TRIM, as well as the reporting module came in handy. Naturally, all of this TRIM functionality can also be used for other document automation processes, such as application processing, complaints handling, contract management etc. From that point of view I think that certification against these chapters is valuable not just for records managers, but for any business manager who wants to streamline document processes with the added benefit of having the documents managed as records at the same time, without any additional effort.

Once again it leads me to make the point that records management needs to be an integral part of all processes, rather than being looked at as a separate discipline that can be added "after the fact". (I know, I keep going on about this, but it is important...)