Business Representatives 

The first person on the scene needs to be the business representative or someone(s) within the department who represents the business. This person (or group of people) can speak to why the department (or company at large) exists, how they function and, the types of files they create and receive. Further to this, the Representatives will be able to decompose a listing of different activities, how information is received (and from whom), how it is shared, how its shared, protected, classified, and what needs to be deleted within public and private audiences. 

Project Manager 

A Project Manager is required to coordinate the implementation of a document management solution and new business practice across the team. You need someone to govern and oversee the successful rollout of this project including resources, time, deliverables, and risk mitigation (of schedule, cost, time and, quality). Before the solution is even implemented, the Project Manager should already be thinking of transitioning the solution design to a sustainable model.  Once the solution is implemented, the project manager should quickly change gears and focus on a successful hand-off of day forward control to the Business Representatives.   

Information Management Specialist/Business Analyst 

The Information Management Specialist (IM Specialist) role deep dives into the mandate and how the business operates. The fuel the business operation uses is content! Again this content can come in all types of formats emails, documents, video, audio and, pictures. In the course of service delivery the business will create, receive, collaborate, store, preserve and deliver a variety of content that is used as evidence of their business. When discovering the business operation at deeper and deeper levels, the IM Specialist will come to understand specific document types and file structures that the business uses to operate. Intake forms, agreements, hydrostatic tests results, action plans, reports, applications and, potentially 100’s of other document types that will be discovered in this stage.  

This role is critically important to appraise the value of the information. A RIM specialist will then require an information management specialist or business analyst who will decompose the work that the RIM specialist does and instructs how to structure and organize the documents in a way that allows them to catalog, classify, and use them on a rapid basis so that access to files can continue uninterrupted.

Developer

A developer is someone who will help you design the platform, apply metadata, structure, content types, and other objects to allow for quick management of documents. The Developer will work hand in hand, with the IM Specialist, Records Officer, and Change Specialist, who will be helping the workers adapt to the solution design by way of strong User Experience (UX) principles being applied to the system design. 

Change Specialist /Trainer 

This person’s job is to make sure that the rest of the staff know why a new document management system is being implemented, where to find the documents, how to collaborate and send a link (as opposed to an attachment), and to establish a network of ‘power users’ within the line of business. Change management is a fine science that can be roughly boiled down to engagement strategies, communications, and training.  Once the solution is implemented having fellow staff members present to answer questions about naming conventions and how to share, edit, and file documents are critical to long-term success. These valuable people will create a plan to communicate when the new system will be applied and rolled out, and what that will look like going forward. 

Records Officer 

Your records officer is someone who understands the ‘value’ of the information, by way of its legislative, operational, and historical authority. This includes the types of records that exist, and how long they need to be kept. For every type of record, there is often legislation and always a business need for how long information should be kept. The Records Officer will be leverage or create a Records Retention and Classification policy to establish these rules corporate-wide.