Firms are investing heavily in digital document management, in the hope that they will receive a significant return on their investment. Some will be disappointed and frustrated, due to the fact that they did not do enough planning and thinking up front. Don't misunderstand: The investment is necessary and the benefits are huge - if your firm approaches the project properly. Electronic documents are growing exponentially in firms, and the main reason for this is that they can. The technology is affordable and easy to use.

Remember that automation does not fix bad processes and procedures. Therefore, firms should evaluate their objectives, as well as assess their risks, when implementing new systems. This cannot be viewed as a clerical function and delegated to a lower level within the firm. The vision should start at the top, as the responsibility (from a legal standpoint) stays with senior management.

First it was called paperless, and then document management, and now content management. Let's define content management as document, e-mail, records and knowledge management. Coupled with knowledge management are client portals or secure digital storage environments that clients can access via the Internet. The entire digital storage world has evolved significantly over the past 10 years, and e-mail is now one of the biggest issues when it comes to managing content.

There are issues and problems associated with any technology project, but the issues seem to grow with content management projects if you haven't spent time planning and thinking before purchasing the hardware and software.

Too important for IT

Many partners have been led to believe that this is a technology project and that IT people will take care of the issues. Wrong! This is a firm project that requires planning by a sophisticated team with expertise and influence. The team should be comprised of:

* Management - someone who has the authority and ability to allocate resources.

* Records management - someone who has knowledge of current processes and procedures, as well as the capability to develop written policies and procedures.

* Legal counsel - someone who specializes in records retention and the potential liability of capturing, storing and retrieving content. (This is particularly important with regard to assurance services and e-mail.)

* Information technology personnel - someone with knowledge of the systems, storage capabilities, retrieval and security of content.

This may sound like a high-level task force, and it needs to be. Too many firms have delegated content management projects to administration, information technology or departments, rather than to enterprise leaders and consultants.

You may feel immune to any of these issues, simply because you either don't do any auditing or don't audit public companies. I encourage you to think about your responsibilities regarding the content in e-mail, and whether you have the proper policies and procedures in place to protect the firm.

Has everyone in the firm been trained on those policies and procedures? Are they being adhered to by everyone? What about spoliation? Under the law, spoliation means the intentional alteration or destruction of a document. Do you have policies in place to prevent this from happening?

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