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The Right Certification

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If you read my introduction, you know that building things is in my blood. I love taking raw material, of almost any kind, and turning it into something useful, and I truly love doing the work myself. You should also know that I have spent a lot of time learning how to do the various tasks involved in these projects. My favorite way of learning has been by working with experts; follow this linkif you want to read my favorite story about that subject.

A few days ago, over on my SharePoint Stories blog, I talked about the value of AIIM’s ECM^mand ERM^mcertifications. The reason I posted that entry over there, instead of here, is that I thought that seeing a post about AIIM Education on the AIIM Expert series might seem like I was pandering or, at least, preaching to the choir. Today, as I watch Twitter and see a continuing banter over the value of (Microsoft) certification, I feel like I need to get my message to as many people as possible. That message:

“…if you don’t know what your content or records management goals should be, your SharePoint ECM solution is going to fail!”

I don’t care if it was built by Microsoft Certified Masters, or cobbled together by squirrels, if somebody didn’t spend time thinking about collecting, storing, managing, preserving, finding and distributing the documents you pack away in SharePoint, your solution is going to fail.

Our most recent SharePoint ECM project also happens to be our most ambitious. We scrambled to learn the nuances of using managed metadata, reusable workflows, numerous content types and document sets. Every one of those challenges required study and a bit of trial and error, but we managed to make everything work. The primary goal of the project was to facilitate the creation, and safe-keeping of our Engineering Inspection Reports, which happen to be a company record. The hardest part of this project was keeping the focus on that company record, and the issues related to it like access, discovery, search, preservation and distribution. Those topics, as well as others were covered in the AIIM ECM/ERM certification master classes. The benefits of the AIIM classes include great learning material, and the in-depth knowledge and experience of the instructors. These are combined with the experience of learning in a collaborative environment with your peers from other companies. Do yourself a favor and consider the AIIM Certifications for someone on your team.  

Comments

not certifications

Submitted by Peter Kurilecz June 01, 2011 - 12:43 PM

"I talked about the value of AIIM’s ECMm and ERMm certifications"

I beg to differ. they are not certifications but are instead certificates awarded after completion of the courses. There are two certifications that I know of related to records and information management. They are the Certified Records Manager and Certified Archivist designations. more information about them can be found at www.icrm.org or www.certifiedarchivists.org. A key component of any certification is the continuing education component. As far as I know the AIIM certificates do not require continuing education.

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Re "not certifications"

Submitted by Daniel Antion June 01, 2011 - 12:58 PM

Peter, thanks for reading and for taking the time to comment.

You might be correct in your observation, but I would make two other points. One, I was comparing the value of AIIM’s certificates vs. Microsoft’s with respect to SharePoint. As far as I know, Microsoft certifications do not require continuing education either, although at least some of them expire. My AIIM ECMm and ERMm are both valid for five years, so they also expire. My second point was the more important in the post on my SharePoint Stories blog; that the field of study the certificates represent are more valuable to my employer than the field of study associated with the Microsoft certifications.

A while back, there was a series of comments about this same topic. One person also commented that unlike the Certified Records Manager, the AIIM ERM is focused on “Electronic Records”. In my case, that’s all I do. I am not involved with the management of hard-copy records, so I appreciate the intense study during the ERM Course on issues that are part of my job, and I enjoyed attending that course with people from other companies who were also involved with electronic record keeping. It may be that the CRM has broader application, but it isn’t something I need.

Thanks again,
Dan

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Certificates, not certifications

Submitted by Bryant Duhon June 14, 2011 - 2:59 PM

For the record, the AIIM Training Courses are all certificate, not certification, programs, as Peter points out. When I edited our print magazine, Thedra White and/or Atle Skjekkeland were constantly correcting me when I mistyped certification for certificate; AIIM pointedly does not market the programs as certification courses, for the reason Peter points to.

I did think that the Certified Document Imaging Architec was a certification course, but I could be wrong and it seems that that program has fallen off lately anyway.

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This post and comment(s) reflect the personal perspectives of community members, and not necessarily those of their employers or of AIIM International