RIM Awareness Month: Critical crossroads for 2025

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Join Arlette Walls, Global Records and Information Manager at Iron Mountain, for this look at what’s ahead for information and data leaders in 2025.

Arlette Walls

Global Records and Information Manager, Legal, Iron Mountain

April 1, 20257 mins

Arlette Walls is the Global Records and Information Manager at Iron Mountain. She is a frequent speaker at professional associations and was recently a featured contributor in the third edition of Records and Information Management by Patricia C. Franks.

It’s that time of year again—Records and Information Management (RIM) Awareness Month! But we’re not talking about rows and rows of beige boxes anymore. In 2025, we’re orchestrating the very lifeblood of our organizations. Managing records takes on a new shape in the face of shifting privacy laws, a renewed focus on legacy records and the preservation of institutional knowledge, and the growing use of AI.

Likewise, RIM leaders and coordinators play a critical (and evolving!) role as they navigate the future, managing the information being created, received, processed, retained, archived, and destroyed every day. The rapid pace of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) throws RIM into the spotlight, demanding immediate action on integrating or divesting vast quantities of records, while ensuring vital institutional knowledge is preserved. Organizations of all sizes are also actively balancing their need for physical and digital records management with new and evolving technology.

You can see why a comprehensive and forward-looking approach to RIM is exactly on-trend for 2025.

This RIM Awareness Month, we’re reminded that our information is a strategic asset that must be subjected to high-level coordination, executive sponsorship, and technology-driven management solutions.

The RIM priority list: Legacy records, M&A, and AI

While the daily creation of new paper records may be on the decline, organizations are still grappling with the sheer volume of legacy records. These records, filled with essential institutional knowledge and valuable hidden data, present ongoing challenges for RIM leaders. By actively seeking and implementing agile solutions to address volume, storage issues, and outdated digital formats, RIM leaders can embrace a proactive approach that will prove extremely valuable to their organizations.

Consider the complexities of M&A activity. The need to rapidly integrate or divest both physical and digital records, while simultaneously preserving crucial knowledge, places significant demands on RIM teams. This is compounded by the ever-present need to manage eDiscovery and legal holds, ensuring compliance and mitigating risk.

Fortunately, AI is emerging as a powerful ally in addressing these practical RIM challenges. Here’s just a short list of what’s possible:

Automated data extraction and enrichment (especially for legacy records): AI’s ability to extract key information (dates, names, contract details, etc.) from scanned documents or digital files significantly reduces manual effort.
Predictive retention and disposition: Applying retention schedules is a core RIM function. AI can automate this process, reducing the risk of non-compliance and optimizing storage costs.
Knowledge preservation and transfer (especially for M&A activity): AI can help create searchable knowledge bases from acquired company records and facilitate the transfer of vital information to the acquiring organization.

You can see why the role of RIM leaders becomes even more critical in educating users on how to be the “human in the loop” to ensure data quality and integrity in the face of these powerful AI-driven tools.

Compliance and privacy

The regulatory landscape is in constant flux, with new data privacy laws emerging around the globe. While the specifics may vary, these laws share a common thread: they demand greater control and accountability over how organizations manage and protect information. This has significant implications for RIM professionals.

For example, many new laws emphasize data minimization and retention limits, requiring organizations to dispose of information that is no longer necessary for business purposes. This places a greater burden on RIM teams to establish and enforce robust retention schedules and ensure secure data disposal practices.

Here are a few key areas where RIM leaders need to be particularly vigilant:

Data mapping and inventory: Understanding what data you hold, where it resides, and how it is used is crucial for compliance. RIM professionals need to work closely with other departments to create a comprehensive data map.
Legal holds: Being able to identify the appropriate information to support litigation is a great motivator for good data mapping and promoting clean data initiatives. The quality and integrity of data will make the difference between being able to produce it in response to a court request or being fined for not having made the effort to preserve the correct data in the first place.
Retention schedules: RIM leaders are now thinking about how to integrate data into their records retention schedules in ways they have not before. These schedules should also be regularly reviewed and updated to reflect the latest legal requirements. In many cases, this includes incorporating data privacy laws into retention policies.
Information security: Protecting data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure is paramount. RIM leaders need to work closely with information security teams to implement appropriate security measures, such as encryption and access controls.

Final thoughts

For me, RIM Awareness Month is an opportunity to reinforce the message that responsible and forward-looking information management is strategic for making critical business decisions. Where we see data fueling innovation and AI, we must never lose sight of our ethical obligations. RIM is about empowering every employee to understand their role in safeguarding information, not just for compliance, but for building trust.

This year, more than ever, I see RIM as the bridge between data’s potential and its responsible use. We’re not just managing records. We’re cultivating a culture where data-driven decisions go hand-in-hand with robust privacy and compliance practices. We’re ensuring that as we leverage data to drive business growth, we do so in a way that respects individual privacy and adheres to evolving regulations.

RIM Awareness Month reminds us that our work is not just about managing information but championing every business decision with information that is informed, ethical, and compliant.