Planning for the management of information as an asset in new business systems November 26, 2013 2 Comments
We have been having some fantastic meetings lately with business, project, ICT and information managers about how to best integrate and manage diverse forms of information in new business systems.
Here are some of the things we have been recommending.
National Audit Office UK report on managing the risks of legacy ICT to government service delivery November 19, 2013 No Comments
In September 2013, the National Audit Office of the UK released a report, Managing the risks of legacy ICT to public service delivery.
The report notes that ‘as budgets are reduced, departments with large legacy ICT estates have found it challenging to reduce costs and improve customer service through better use and sharing of information’.
This is why legacy ICT is of great interest and concern to State Records.
State Records wants quality business information to be at the core of government service delivery innovation. Information must also be better understood and protected as an asset in legacy ICT planning and management strategies.
Government organisations need to be able to access and use their business information, and often this information is needed for very long periods of time.
Poor understandings of the risks posed by legacy ICT or, as we sometimes see in NSW, ill-defined legacy ICT replacement strategies that orphan or silo business information, do impair organisational capacity to use and share information and therefore impact on organisational effectiveness.
The Audit Office report shows that legacy ICT can impact an organisation’s ability to innovate and that the transition away from legacy needs to be very well considered and managed, which is why this report is of such interest to us.
(Lots of!) NSW archives information now available in Research Data Australia October 25, 2013 No Comments
Research Data Australia is an Internet-based discovery service designed to provide rich connections between data, projects, researchers and institutions, and promote visibility of Australian research data collections in search engines. It is designed to enable Australia’s research data to become a national strategic resource to support better, more efficient and defensible research, and improved policy input.
Image: researchdataaustralia.ands.org.au
This year State Records was pleased to be part of a small team lead by the Public Record Office Victoria to work with the Australian National Data Service (ANDS) on harvesting archival data into Research Data Australia. Read the rest of this entry »
Planning for EDRMS implementation (or any business system implementation, really, that needs to manage information as an asset) October 23, 2013 3 Comments
Our wonderful EDRMS implementers group met again recently and they are such an inspiring bunch of people, doing great and challenging things across NSW government to manage core government business information.
At our meeting this time we focussed on planning for system implementation. Our focus was on EDRMS implementation but really, the lessons learned are applicable to any system implementation. Read the rest of this entry »
Happy International Customer Service Week! How does the Government Recordkeeping team at State Records support its customers? October 9, 2013 No Comments
This week is International Customer Service Week (7-11 October). Here in the Government Recordkeeping team at State Records we are celebrating this week by reflecting on how we support our public sector customers, the tens of thousands of staff working with government information across the NSW Public Sector. And by always considering, of course, how we can improve our services!
Our colleagues in other areas of State Records are also reflecting on how State Records meets the many other needs of our organisation’s very diverse customer base. In this post we wanted to look at what State Records has done to support the needs of the NSW public sector in the financial year 2012-13.
As always, we would really love your feedback to this post. What are we doing well and what do we need to improve? Please do let us know!
Digital recordkeeping Q&A – GIS data, invoices in Finance systems, Outlook calendars, MFDs, social media and more October 8, 2013 No Comments
Sorry it has been so long since our last Q&A post but we have honestly been super busy answering enquiries!
People within the NSW public sector have been asking questions about lots of fascinating issues, relating to changing business frameworks and how recordkeeping should be used as a support to these.
Here are some of the main issues we have been providing advice on. Hopefully some of this advice can help you too:
Digital Archives migration methodology released as exposure draft September 26, 2013 No Comments
The Digital Archives migration methodology has been released as an exposure draft and is available on the State Records website. The Digital Archives project team has been developing the migration methodology to establish a means of managing transfers of digital records required as State archives to the Digital Archives. Read the rest of this entry »
Why you need social media recordkeeping September 23, 2013 2 Comments
Last week I spoke at Akolade’s Social media communication strategies in government 2013 conference in Sydney.
It was a fantastic conference, with inspiring case studies about government use of social media from the City of Sydney, the NSW Police Force, Coffs Harbour City Council, the Department of Education, Training and Employment in Queensland, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Premier and Cabinet in Victoria.
The audience was primarily staff with social media responsibility in NSW government. They were a really great, engaged group who are working each day to transition government business to social frameworks.
My talk was about why recordkeeping is really important for social media business. This was a new message for many in the audience, so for me the conference was a fantastic opportunity to talk directly to people managing the government’s social media business and to discuss how recordkeeping might be an important support for them.
The final version of State Records’ guidelines on social media recordkeeping will be published on Future Proof in just a couple of weeks (the draft version is also available on Future Proof), but in the interim here is a summary of some of what I said at the conference.
Meeting the digital challenge – keeping your personal digital records for the long term September 10, 2013 No Comments
On 30 August State Records held another very successful Open Day at our Western Sydney Records Centre.
In amongst all the fantastic talks, tours, treasures and trucks, Government Recordkeeping staff gave advice on some of the real world challenges that today’s digital business environment creates for good recordkeeping.
We looked at what State Records is doing to help government agencies address these challenges, and highlighted how this advice could also be used to safeguard personal records at home .
Here is what we said.
Premier’s memorandum on production costs of annual reports released September 5, 2013 No Comments
Premier’s memorandum M2013-09 Production Costs of Annual Reports has been released outlining measures to reduce the costs of the production of annual reports. In addition to directions on how to keep production costs to a minimum, the memorandum includes directions to agencies on how annual reports are to be made available in digital format. Read the rest of this entry »
