In the wake of recent failures in corporate governance, two new standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) will help organizations to disclose corporate information quickly and effectively. Increased pressure by industry regulators obliges companies to provide such information because irregularities in financial management, ethical dealings, disclosure, and transparency of decisions have become common.

ISO 30300:2011—“Information and documentation—Management systems for records—Fundamentals and vocabulary,” and ISO 30301:2011—“Information and documentation—Management systems for records—Requirements,” distill the expertise of experts drawn from 27 countries on five continents.

These standards have been developed to be compatible with and complementary to other management system standards (MSS) developed by ISO, such as ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 14001 (environmental management), and ISO/IEC 27001 (information security management).

ISO 30300 is the umbrella standard that includes the fundamentals and vocabulary common to the whole series, while ISO 30301 specifies requirements for a management system for records. Further standards in the ISO 30300 series are under development.

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