Implementing EDRMS August 28, 2008
Making the decision to implement an EDRMS is not a decision that should be taken lightly by any organisation. Directing a project to undertake such an implementation is a big commitment and the effort required to ensure the final product will be adopted by users should not be underestimated. EDRMS projects often fall apart due to inadequate funding and resources as well as using inappropriately skilled staff.
The most successful implementation projects are those that are adequately planned, funded, and supported by senior management. One could also argue that the next most important aspect of a successful implementation project is the development of a comprehensive change management plan.
Here at NSW Commerce we are in the first stage of an EDRMS Project – defining the requirements of the technology before we go to market.
The major challenge that I see we are facing at the moment is to truly engage managers and staff in our project so that they understand what the technology will be capable of and how it can transform their business and information management processes.
We now have three months to get a large number of people, across a diverse range of business areas, to understand what an EDRMS is, and what it is capable of, in a concrete and meaningful way so that they can define for us what the technology needs to be able to do to support their business processes.
As a part of this process approach, we have asked the business to review how information is currently managed for 200+ business processes and we will soon be asking them how they want to manage information relating to these processes when we introduce the EDRMS.
Newcastle Port Corporation are also in the early stages of implementation of EDRMS and I can’t stress enough the importance of change management, face to face collection of user requirements and the right communication at the right time.
Two of our senior Records staff have over 20 years of service and obviously an extremely deep knowledge of the records in our hard copy filing system. Through talking to end users, even they have been surprised at some of the localised filing or management systems that have evolved over time. You can’t underestimate the need to talk to the key staff in your organisation. You will never meet their requirements without doing so!
Technically, the installation of the required hardware and software could probably be done in 2 – 3 weeks, but the real work (for us) is in the 12 months of planning and 6 months of prototyping, testing, re-creating the required procedures and business rules around managing information.