Future Proof – Protecting our digital future

I recently met with staff from the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) to talk about the PIC’s SharePoint implementation and see a demo of some of the functionality they have  implemented. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davejackson/4876222979/

Talking to government organisations that are moving some of their operations to the cloud, you discover that many are doing excellent assessments to combat a lot of the ICT risks associated with moves to the cloud, such as examining security, down time, back up and restoration and performance related issues.

Government organisations are also actively considering the requirements of the Privacy Act when selecting what forms of business and related data are appropriate to move to the cloud.

Many government agencies have developed excellent checklists to identify, measure and control these issues, and have incorporated specific references in contracts with cloud providers to address any problems.

But not many cloud projects assess information requirements and risks, and talking to people you discover that information management is seldom explicitly addressed in cloud contracts.

Why is this a problem? Read the rest of this entry »

Last week the members of the EDRMS Implementers Discussion Group met to talk about administrative change. Many of the members work in large government agencies subject to regular administrative change – functions coming and going, agencies being merged into single organisations and then separated again etc.

These types of changes will have an impact on an organisation’s recordkeeping:

• If a function is transferred to another NSW government agency, how will the original agency identify the records which should be transferred in support of the function?
• If two or more agencies are combined into one, and each has their own electronic document and records management system (EDRMS), should all areas of the organisation be migrated onto a single system? Or should different business units continue using the system with which they are familiar?
• If digital records are transferred to another agency as a result of administrative change they will likely be copied – what should the original agency do with the ‘originals’ after transfer?

As always, the discussion was fascinating with members sharing strategies that have worked for their organisations and the decisions that were made. Read the rest of this entry »

HP announced yesterday that in September it will release its new HP Records Manager 8.0 product.

This product represents a merger of HP’s three existing records management products:

• HP TRIM
• Autonomy Records Manager and
• Meridio Records Manager.

Read the rest of this entry »

We are keeping too much information.

The growing costs of information storage and management are mounting to the extent that very soon they will become unsustainable.  Unless proactive action is taken, the data bubble is going to burst and key information will be lost when it does.

To date, however, the belief that storage is cheap and that we can afford to keep all our data forever continues to dominate.

An October 2012 blog post by David Rosenthal of Stanford University, however, provides much evidence to challenge this belief.

Its conclusions about storage costs reinforce the view that, in order to prevent the data bubble from bursting, we need to:

• be much more strategic with our information management practices
• proactively use recordkeeping strategies to manage burgeoning ICT costs
• use existing record retention and disposal strategies to mitigate information risks.

  Read the rest of this entry »

Under the requirements of the State Records Act, the answer is none. The State Records Act says nothing about what formats you should use to make and keep your records. Its requirements just state that:

• you need to make and keep the evidence and the information you need to support your business operations, and
• you should do this in the ways that best support your business.

It is very common, however, for people to think that there are specific legislative or compliance based drivers to make and keep hard copy records. If it best suits your business operations to do this, then by all means make and keep paper records. Today, however, the majority of systems and transactions are digital and so it makes sense that the records of these should be digital as well.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lots of juicy questions were fired at Government Recordkeeping staff at State Records in May and June.

Here is a sample: Read the rest of this entry »

Future Proof’s very first post, New IAMS contract can save you money, was published five years ago today. Happy birthday Future Proof!

Looking back, the overarching themes that emerge through Future Proof’s 164 posts are that:

• information management is a business-critical task
• information management is an incredibly complex task
• effective information management needs coordination and a strategic vision.

Given these ideas echo through so many Future Proof posts we were really excited to hear about the new book by Peter Aiken, The Case for the Chief Data Officer: Recasting the C-Suite to Leverage Your Most Valuable Asset. (Thanks Luke Barnier for the reference!)

In his book Aiken argues for the creation of a management position in each organisation called the Chief Data Officer, a role responsible for managing organisational data as a critical and core strategic asset. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilianohorcada/5707515437

Last week the EDRMS Implementers Discussion Group met again to talk further about the challenges and opportunities presented by the move to digital recordkeeping. The lively discussion ranged across the impacts of administrative change, the difficulty of influencing and changing user behaviours and dealing with legacy shared drives.

One of the most interesting points raised by members concerned the importance of re-enforcing recordkeeping fundamentals as part of an EDRMS implementation. Members explained that it is not enough to train users on how to use the particular EDRMS being implemented (i.e. the buttons to click). Rather, this system-specific training needs to be accompanied by more general awareness raising and training on the importance of creating and keeping records and how this will assist users to do their jobs more effectively. Read the rest of this entry »

We are continuing with our exploration of effective email management here on Future Proof.

Two excellent and thought-provoking publications have come out of North America in the last few weeks.

The first is a Bulletin from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in the US that is calling for comment on NARA’s proposed ‘Capstone’ approach to email management.

The second is a report by Ann Cavoukian, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario Canada, ‘Deleting accountability: Records management practices of political staff – A special investigation report 5 June 2013’. In this report Dr Cavoukian identifies the centrality of email to decision making at the highest levels of government but also hightlights the significant accountability risks that can eventuate if email records are not appropriately managed. Read the rest of this entry »