Compliance offers opportunity to shape industry.

Compliance--or lack thereof--has been much ballyhooed in the press recently. Notably, the overturning of the conviction of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm shows that the courts and legislative branch don't even agree on what constitutes compliance. What is known, however, is that companies must adapt to the changing business landscape where compliance issues and risk management are tantamount to success.

Increasingly, records and information management (RIM) professionals have a vital role in helping businesses shape their success in this area. This issue of The Information Management Journal offers several examples of the RIM professional's role in driving compliance with legislation, standards, and the business process. Associate Executive Editor Julie Gable, CRM, CDIA, explores the changing landscape of compliance and the need for records managers to adapt to the new world order in her article "Navigating the Compliance Landscape." She describes the various approaches to compliance and the need for the RIM professional to guide company efforts to understand the important role records play in the high-stakes world of compliance. It is apparent that flexibility, a broad focus, and ability to compromise are all characteristics that will be integral for that RIM professional. The RIM manager must be a team builder working with IT, legal, and administration to best produce a system that will allow it to respond to inquiries at any time.

Bruce Dearstyne, Ph.D., also explores the role of the RIM professional in shaping the future of the profession. His article, "The Information Enterprise: New Challenges, New Dimensions," describes the issues important to RIM professionals and offers suggestions as to how they can address these issues in an effort to shape the profession. RIM professionals will guarantee the evolution and success of their own profession by involving themselves in helping their companies better organize their information, developing new technologies to that end, and contributing to and participating in the hot topic issues, among other things.

Another facet of the compliance and risk management discussion is minimizing the role non-records managers must play in making RIM decisions. J. Timothy Sprehe and Charles McClure present four cases studies from government agencies that all took different routes to making it easier for people to make accurate records decisions at the desktop. Their article, "Lifting the Burden," describes how records can be moved into electronic records management systems with minimum effort, which ultimately maximizes compliance, minimizes risks, and saves both time and money.

With compliance on the front burner right now, RIM professionals have the opportunity to make their voices heard, to help shape and cement the future of their industry, and to make themselves once and for all a vital and equal partner in their companies' efforts to comply with regulations, legislation, and standards. It is time to push the profession and what it offers into the spotlight ... the very future of business can depend on it. lust ask the employees of Arthur Andersen.