A Guide to Outsourcing Records Management

Outsourcing is a global phenomenon that has enjoyed rapid growth over recent years, evidenced by the proliferation of outsourcing service providers in all areas of business. The concept centres on businesses and organizations divesting themselves of essential, but non-core, business activities and, properly managed, can realize considerable cost and other benefits for both the service provider and the outsourcing client.

This book is a distillation of the outsourcing process, and is derived from detailed and wide-ranging research of the subject, but contextualised to cater for the records management environment.

Outsourcing is not, however, necessarily the way ahead for every organization or business. The process of determining whether the concept is feasible, cost-effective and beneficial is complex and should not be entered into lightly. The price of failure is high and, for that reason, any outsourcing initiative demands robust project management skills, strong support at board level and the unremitting support and commitment of every executive, departmental head and senior manager in the company. Particularly so in the case of such an overarching entity as the records management facility because all are major stakeholders in the outcome.

Much has been written about the concepts of outsourcing. Research has revealed numerous books, journal articles and case studies attesting to the relative merits but there is little to nothing available that is specific to a Records Management facility.

This title will prove invaluable for any librarian or information professional with a practical or academic interest in outsourcing, or any students in the field of library science.