Hello, In my experience no-one buys just for FOI. (Well, I haven't seen anyone yet for whom FOI was the sole driver.) However, 'Better compliance with FOI' or 'More efficient compliance with FOI' is often cited as one of the drivers, with or without some accompanying financial metrics. FOI compliance is quite possible without an EDRM system, it's just all a bit more onerous, as Stephen originally pointed out. The notion is that an EDRM system will give you a magical one-click-and-it's-found type solution, which would make compliance much, much easier. (In practice, of course, it is somewhat less simple, but EDRM can be a genuinely useful tool in complying.) Oli. O.G.Parker Director DeepGreen Consulting LTD Mobile Tel 07879 820967 Registered in England and Wales, company number 4365891. Please treat the information contained in this Email with the same respect you would expect us to show to your corporate information -----Original Message----- From: The UK Records Management mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul Dodgson Sent: 12 June 2007 15:40 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Effectively dealing with FOI requests using EDRM Hi We did not purchase EDRMs for FOI. Our purchase was a strategic business decision surrounding the management of our information. A by product will be better compliance though. If anyone purchased purely for FOI I would be concerned, the return on investment would never yield. Purchase for improvements in services is another matter. We now have 1200 users on our Electornic Social Care Reocrd system and are now rolling out EDRMs via our CRM and CMS, following which we will make it avaialble to staff as a document/records managemernt system. Did anyone buy EDRMs just for FOI? Paul _____ From: The UK Records Management mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephen Howard Sent: 12 June 2007 14:43 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Effectively dealing with FOI requests using EDRM Dear fellow listservers, I would be very interested to hear success stories or otherwise of dealing with FOI requests using EDRM - now that we are 2.5 years down the line. Has EDRM proved invaluable for compliance? Has FOI compliance been satisfactory without EDRM? On or off-list, I will summarise anonymously as appropriate. For the record, Suffolk County Council has been managing relatively well without EDRM supporting our FOI compliance activities. However this has involved a number of workarounds e.g. searches delegated to service areas; electronic filing systems to maintain audit trails supported by a simple database to monitor deadlines; the manual creation of a disclosure log that is onerous to keep up to date. I look forward to your response, Stephen Howard Head of Corporate Information & Records Suffolk County Council Endeavour House Russell Road Ipswich IP1 2BX Tel:+44 (0) 1473 264620 email: [log in to unmask] http://www.suffolk.gov.uk _______________________________________________________________________ Leicestershire County Council - rated a 'four-star' council by the Audit Commission _______________________________________________________________________ This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, any reading, printing, storage, disclosure, copying or any other action taken in respect of this e-mail is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by using the reply function and then permanently delete what you have received. Incoming and outgoing e-mail messages are routinely monitored for compliance with Leicestershire County Council's policy on the use of electronic communications. The contents of e-mails may have to be disclosed to a request under the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The views expressed by the author may not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Leicestershire County Council. Attachments to e-mail messages may contain viruses that may damage your system. Whilst Leicestershire County Council has taken every reasonable precaution to minimise this risk, we cannot accept any liability for any damage which you sustain as a result of these factors. You are advised to carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.