Future Proof – Protecting our digital future

The Standard on Digital Recordkeeping articulates the core requirements that State Records sets public offices for managing their digital information. The standard was issued in 2008, so it is due for a review. Since then, there have been major changes to the structure and operations of government, and to the digital technologies which support government operations.

As part of the review process, we have put out a survey asking detailed questions about implementation of the standard, so that we can understand what is most effective, and what requires the most improvement. We are trying to find out how well the standard supports information management outcomes, and have tried to define this broadly.

The survey questions are focused towards how well our requirements communicate to the wider organisation. While we want to hear about how well the standard has articulated the role and increased the profile of information and records managers in a digital environment, we particularly want to understand what the reception and impact of the standard has been beyond our core stakeholders.

One reason for this is because our 2013 survey identified that many agencies still have low maturity in a number of key areas of digital information management.  We previously identified that the relationship between ICT staff and information and records managers can be difficult, and so the survey also hopes to establish whether the standard is helping collaboration across professions improve.

Among other things, we’ve asked whether:

• Implementing the Standard on digital recordkeeping has supported the design, implementation and reconfiguration of business information systems.
• Implementing the Standard on digital recordkeeping has improved the identification and management of high risk information.
• Implementing the Standard on digital recordkeeping has improved collaboration with ICT colleagues.
• The Standard on digital recordkeeping articulates an achievable benchmark for digital recordkeeping.
• Implementing an EDRMS has been the primary strategy for meeting the requirements of the Standard on digital recordkeeping

The survey, which was issued for consultation 7 March, will be open for consultation until 4 April 2014 . Please head on over and give us your feedback if you haven’t already done so.

This is a first phase of consultation: we are expecting to have a draft version of the new standard available for comment in the second half of 2014.