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Why Document Management?
Berkeley University has estimated that mankind produced 12 Exabytes of data to 1999; another 12 Exabytes from 1999 to 2002; and another 12 Exabytes 2003 (1 Exabyte = 1 million million million bytes). In other words, the amount of information in the world is expected to have tripled in the last four years.

Without careful planning and investment in the future, all of us will be sunk under a flood of information and unable to operate effectively, using ever-expanding resources to capture, retrieve, update or simply use the information that is being produced every day. Companies must examine their Document and Knowledge Management Systems.

Regulation is also a growing issue for organisations. Companies are asked for more in-depth information every year and the question is how to find, track and report it in an efficient manner.

Public Sector organisations are working intensely towards e-Service Delivery 2005 and implementing the relevant parts of the Freedom of Information Act. 2004 is the target set for all Government Records to be available electronically; 2004/5 is the NHS target for all new records to be held on computer. Document Management is one of the main supports for the e-Government initiative.

Legislation
Best practice and, in many cases the law of the land require us to follow legal and regulatory requirements when managing our information and especially our records. If you are managing records that may be used as evidence in civil proceedings then you need to take full account of BSI PD 0008(11) and you can use PD0009(12) to carry out an audit of your procedures. You also need to take full account of data protection legislation and standards (13) and copyright legislation.
Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act received royal ascent in November 2000 and will be implemented in full by January 2005.  In all it will apply to some 70,000 public bodies. There is a general right of access to information held by  public authorities. This right is to all information, contained in any media. The right of access to information includes the right to be told the information exists, as well as the right to have the information communicated to you. The Act covers records retrospectively. This means that information in newly created records is covered by the Act, as are the records currently in existence.

Link to more on the Freedom of Information Act.