Hi everyone
I guess I'm more relaxed about this issue than everyone else: an EDRMS is a
document management system as much as it is a records management system. It
should be able to handle both documents and records. I've only ever worked
with iManage (when it was already bedded down) and Objective (which we
rolled out, implemented and then bedded down) but both systems allowed the
management of both.
I would strongly advise against providing 'lock down off' i.e. giving people
the ability to save outside the system. It will undermine what you are
trying to achieve with EDRMS, and completely negate the 'capture at point of
creation' principle, losing some very important metadata along with it: i.e.
who has worked on the document, who has looked at it etc. This trail could
be crucial if things hit the fan (and I have in the past had to provide
reports on who has looked at certain documents). Granted, my
wariness/distrust of allowing staff to save outside the system may be
because I've never experienced an organisation where we (formally) allowed
it. I was always intrigued by the response of new staff who had worked in
organisations where saving outside the system was allowed. They all
generally preferred our system as it meant that they could find things at
short notice.
As for personal documents, most systems that I've experienced allow space
for this - they either have a personal folder, or the ability to mark
documents as personal. In both cases these don't go anywhere near the
corporate structure. For working documents, most systems provide a document
life cycle of some sort, applied in different ways depending on the system.
They allow you to mark something as a record to be kept until the R&D
schedule is run, or remain outside the formal record system.
There was only one criteria for us in someone being allowed to save outside:
technical reasons. That is, if for some reason they were working on
applications that couldn't be supported within the EDRMS.
All that said, select staff would still find ways to circumvent the system.
But, all hell would occasionally break loose when a document was urgently
needed to send to a Minister / for Cabinet / for Senior Management and
couldn't be found because someone regarded it as a work-in-progress, and had
used the F12 key to save outside the system.
And although some staff grissled when they went into the system (well, lots
did) the minute we had a technical fault and they couldn't get in (which
meant that they could save outside the system) they rioted via my telephone
and inbox. That is, they didn't like going into it, but they complained
louder if access was inadvertently denied them.
My advice: don't allow blanket lock-down off. Don't let the smaller issue of
'work-in-progress' documents overshadow the bigger picture; especially as
most systems can accommodate it. Not absolutely perfectly, but on a better
scale than anything else ever has before now.
And, if the system can't accommodate it, then it isn't an EDRMS. It might
call itself an EDRMS, but it ain't. Make sure your RFPs and other
specification documents stipulate this - and hold the vendors to it.
Daphne
One other thing (perhaps I'm not as relaxed about this as I thought): once
an EDRMS is rolled out, IT departments twig to how useful they are for
taking the load off them - they usually want to close drives down, not
maintain dual environments.
From: Paul Dodgson <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Paul Dodgson <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Electronic Document and Records Management Systems
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 09:29:59 -0000
Hi Debbie
At Leicestershire we intend to use the system for both, but also accept
that some content will never have formal handling and will remain
outside of the EDRMS. The content is as you describe; ephemera will
usually not go into EDRMS, if it does then it is managed by retention
rules. I have heard of another body who had problems similar to yours
and had to employ a taxonomy tool to help find the needles of important
information. The difficulty is that important is a subjective matter.
My guess is that you do not declare a document as a record unless it
meets specific criteria relating to the folder of storage.
A bit loose but I hope this helps.
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Records Management mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Debbie
Richards
Sent: 16 March 2007 09:02
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Electronic Document and Records Management Systems
Hi All
I've an enquiry for those of you whose organisations have implemented or
are planning to implement EDRM Systems.
Are you choosing to go for full Document and Records Management so that
all
the information is held in one system from the point of creation until
it
is declared a record or destoyed. Or are you choosing to hold documents
in
a seperate system i.e. shared drives, and relying on staff to move
information deemed to be 'records' across into a Record Management
System
once they reach a certain stage in their lifecycle?
We have chosen to follow the first option, but are now being asked to
justify this, as some individuals are finding that a lot of ephemeral
information is being stored in the folders and the 'important' records
are
difficult to identify. The solution to this could be a simple review of
how we've structured our corporate file-plan as staff currently have
no 'Work in Progress' area for drafts etc. as I personally feel that
storing documents outside of our new system would lose a lot of the
benefits that we have gained e.g. sharing and easy access. Also I don't
feel that staff have a full enough understanding of the concept
of 'records' and therefore if everything is being captured from creation
onwards at least, as an organisation, we can say that all teh
documentation
relating to that process is within the one system, even if it never
reaches
official record status.
I would be interested to hear which option other organisations have
chosen
to adopt.
Regards
Debbie Richards
_______________________________________________________________________
Leicestershire County Council - rated a 'four-star' council by the Audit
Commission
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