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We have been having some really interesting conversations with a  range of organisations about their business systems and the types of records they are making and keeping about their business systems.

In particular we have been talking to one organisation that is decommissioning a major business system. This business system contained personal information about clients andwas used to provide a single view across the organisation of personal client data. The actual business information in the system about clients is duplicate information that is replicated in client files. There is therefore no recordkeeping requirement to keep the information input into the system as this is all being effectively managed in the client files, and to create an additional reference copy would create unneccesary duplication and data management responsibilities.

What does need to be managed as an official record, however, is information about the system itself. Because the system was a portal for providing necessary business access to sensitive personal information, in this situation it is important that records be kept to show how the system operated and the system rules that were in place to protect and manage security and information access.

A large amount of money was also invested in creating this large, complex and successful system, and so it is also important that records about system design are kept in the short to medium term as reference for future large-scale system projects in the organisation.

The retention of these types of system-specific records can however be overlooked by records staff, and can be disregarded by ICT staff once a system is decommissioned. These records about systems, however, can be just as important as the information that the systems contain.

In the digital business world, records need to increasingly be seen as data in context. The information we input into systems is the data, the system itself provides the context. We need to look at maintaining information about both the data and the system if we are going to have full, accurate, useful, evidential and meaningful information in both the short and long term. This need to account for the system and management frameworks that were used to create and transact business operations is only going to increase in the future and so we really need to be proactive about the creation and management of this type of information now. Essentially business systems themselves are records of how organisations perform their business operations and increasingly we will need to keep good and accountable records of them. 

All organisations deploying business systems for key and high risk business operations should consider what system documentation and system specifications will need to be kept as necessary context and accountability for their business operations, as well as what records the system will need to generate about the business transactions it performs. We would love to hear your views and experiences if you have been working in this fascinating area.

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Systems are records of how we do business: managing the information about your business system, not just the information in your business system

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The NSW Government is establishing a brand new Community of ICT Professionals to:

• disseminate information of interest and relevance to all NSW ICT professionals
• promote case studies of innovative ICT practice
• generate new ideas for ICT innovation
• help create an informed ICT workforce

Membership is open to all NSW Public Sector employees working in any area of ICT. We strongly encourage all NSW Government-based readers of Future Proof to join. The Community will provide a fantastic opportunity to learn, share insights and collaborate with colleagues working in all areas of NSW Government ICT.

The Community is being established because in 2012, the NSW Government’s Commission of Audit Interim Report identified the need to establish professional groups that share knowledge, create links and build capability across the public sector. The ICT community of practice will help build these capacities, based on the successful model employed by the public sector communities for Human Resources and Finance Professionals.  

Much like State Records’ long-standing Records Managers Forums, the new Community of ICT Professionals aims to build and maintain an active community of professionals to support ICT innovation and operation across the NSW public sector.  It will provide a great network to improve collaboration and communication between the many different types of ICT professionals working in NSW government, and for all to learn from all the significant ICT innovation currently underway in NSW.

State Records is represented on the Community of ICT Professionals Advisory Board and we do strongly encourage all records and information managers in the NSW public sector to join the Community of ICT Professionals and make the most of this opportunity to collaborate with allied ICT professionals.

The Community will hold member events where colleagues from across the sector can network and listen to key speakers from the public and private sector talking about strategic and operational ICT. Members will receive access to resources, invitations to events, information on networking opportunities, and more.

The Community of ICT Professionals will be officially launched in May this year by the Government Chief Information Officer, Michael Coutts-Trotter. The Public Service Commissioner, Graeme Head, will also be speaking at this event. Registered members will be sent further information on the launch in the coming weeks.

So please consider joining the Community of ICT Professionals! Just click on the ‘Join’ tab and add your details. Remember, you must work in the NSW public sector to be able to join.

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NSW government establishes Community of ICT Professionals

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This week the members of the EDRMS Implementers Discussion Group met for the first time to talk about their organisations’ experiences in implementing systems to support digital recordkeeping. This is a new group facilitated by State Records to promote the sharing and re-use of ideas, tools and approaches for implementing EDRMS (electronic document and records management systems).

Members of the group engaged in a lively discussion about some of the challenges and opportunities presented by the move to digital recordkeeping. In the spirit of sharing, we thought we would summarise the discussion and some of the solutions to particular challenges proposed by members.

Membership of this group is open to anyone in the NSW public sector who is keen to share their organisation’s experiences of transitioning to digital recordkeeping. If you would like to join this group, please contact us at govrec@records.nsw.gov.au.

The challenges are varied

To start the meeting, each member was asked to provide a summary of their organisation’s progress with transitioning to digital recordkeeping and implementing an EDRMS. These summaries vividly illustrated the differing levels of maturity when it comes to digital recordkeeping across the public sector, as well as the range of very complex issues facing organisations.

Two of the members are from very large organisations that consist of a number of smaller agencies ‘merged’ together. These smaller agencies have often been in existence for many years and may have well-established digital recordkeeping practices. Working out how to integrate these practices, particularly when a variety of EDRMS are in use, is a key challenge.

In contrast, one of the members is from a small organisation that was created 12 months ago. This organisation is keen to implement good digital recordkeeping practices from the beginning, and so avoid creating some of the problems discussed by other members. The challenges faced by this organisation include choosing an EDRMS that will meet its business needs and integrate with the key business systems used within the organisation and implementing this EDRMS quickly before less than optimal digital recordkeeping practices become entrenched.

Determining when to capture records can be hard

The members discussed the difficulties associated with encouraging the capture of drafts and determining how to manage versions. One member explained that his organisation is taking the approach that everything should be saved into the EDRMS but managing revisions and versions is then tricky. Another member explained the approach taken by his organisation where records are captured into the EDRMS when one employee sends a document to another employee for review or approval – this approach minimises the decision making required of the employee in terms of deciding whether or not and when the document should be captured.

Members agreed that making these decisions can be political, especially with organisations or particular business units that are averse to capturing anything other than the final version of a document.

Administrative change is very tricky

Three of the members discussed the challenges associated with implementing an EDRMS in the context of semi-constant administrative change. These members work for organisations that frequently acquire and lose functions (including the employees who undertake the functions and the associated records and recordkeeping systems).

Sometimes these employees are active digital recordkeepers, with well-established processes and business rules for using a particular EDRMS. However this EDRMS may not be the same product as that in use by other sections of the organisation. Should these employees be moved onto the organisation-supported EDRMS? Or should the organisation administer and support two or more EDRMS with different business units using different systems? What happens if the function is subsequently taken away from the agency and given to another agency with a different EDRMS?

One of the members talked about the work his organisation is doing to prepare for future administrative change. The organisation is building capacities to partition records in the EDRMS, maintain separate databases and tag records so that it will be easier to identify and export all records relating to a particular function or business unit if needed as a result of administrative change.

Document workflows are key to success

The members identified document workflows as a key consideration for a successful EDRMS implementation. Taking the time to work with the business to define a workflow and identify the points at which records will be captured can automate business transactions and generate a lot of user acceptance for the system.

Members agreed that implementing an EDRMS can be a good driver for effective information management change. One of the members commented that EDRMS are perceived as places to store documents when they are ‘finished with’, rather than places to work – changing this perception can bring business benefits.

Another member explained that integrating his organisation’s EDRMS into work processes helped to ensure that it would continue to be supported. The document numbers generated by the EDRMS are so ingrained in business processes that getting rid of the system would not be contemplated.

Becoming friends with IT can bring benefits

A number of the members described their experiences of being organisationally aligned with IT. Members agreed that although IT tend to implement an EDRMS as a ‘project’ to be delivered on time and on budget with little regard as to how it will operate in practice or how benefits such as improved and more efficient working practices will be achieved, working closely with IT has its upside.

IT is ‘where the money is’ – being aligned with IT provides the opportunity to receive funding for EDRMS implementations. One member described how her organisation’s project to implement an EDRMS is being drive by IT, so therefore has funding and organisational commitment. Records management employees are involved in the project, and are striving to ensure that the system balances useability with recordkeeping functionality and compliance.

One of the members suggested that talking in IT language is key – re-brand ‘records management’ as ‘information governance’, and make friends with your organisation’s enterprise architect as they are essentially working to achieve the same aims. Another of the members agreed, reporting that befriending her organisation’s enterprise architect had been incredibly helpful in communicating recordkeeping requirements to IT.

Members also talked about the importance of being involved in decisions to implement business systems. One of the members reported that his organisation’s records manager has a roll in all system assessment projects to try and ensure that recordkeeping capacity is considered in all new system acquisitions.

Change management is difficult to justify

The members frequently referred to the necessity of change management in any project to implement digital recordkeeping. However one member remarked that change management is expensive and can be difficult to justify in business cases. Many organisations cannot get funding for change management, so must adopt an approach of gradually rolling out an EDRMS across the organisation over a number of years.

What’s next?

All in all this first meeting was incredibly valuable for all members. Future meetings will focus on particular topics, such as establishing business rules, change management and dealing with administrative change. If you would like to be part of the Group, please email govrec@records.nsw.gov.au.

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Sharing ideas to solve one of life’s great mysteries: how to successfully implement an EDRMS

The published information it contains is both contemporary and historical, and currently runs at over 2000 titles. Some of the publications of note in OpenGov include a complete set of Government Gazettes 2001-2013 19th and early 20th century digitised Annual Reports for the Department of Public Works and the Police Child Welfare Department Annual Reports from the  mid 20th century, and plenty of current NSW Government published information such as 2011-12 Annual Reports, strategic plans and policy documents.

Better access to government information

OpenGov directly supports the NSW Government’s commitment to improved access to government information. Goal 31 of the State Plan 2021 is ‘Improve government transparency by increasing access to government information’. An action that was defined to achieve this goal was to ‘expand the Publications NSW website to include access to all agency information published as ‘open access’ under GIPA.’ OpenGov is the new successor to Publications NSW.

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Introducing OpenGov NSW

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In mid March I spoke at State Records’ regular Records Managers Forum about what you need to do to implement effective social media recordkeeping in your organisation.

Other presentations at the Forum were:

• Dawn Routledge and Sonya Sherman, Information, ICT Policy, Department of Finance and Services – Developing the NSW information management framework
• Cassie Findlay, Project Manager, Digital Archives, State Records NSW – OpenGov NSW web site initiative

Podcasts and slides for each of our presentations are on the Future Proof Podcast page, but I thought I would post a short summary of some of the key points from my talk here.

The potential impact of social media

I started with a quick overview of the Queensland Police Service’s use of social media. The Queensland Police Service (QPS) has a fantastic case study on their website, Disaster management and social media – a case study. This case study charts the public impact of the QPS social media presence during the 2011 flood disasters in Queensland.

The statistics in the case study are amazing. In the 24 hour period following the flash floods in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley, the QPS Facebook page generated 39 million Facebook impressions, which equates to 450 post-views per second (as cited on page iv of the case study). The case study shows how, throughout the flood crisis, the mainstream media was relying on the QPS social media accounts for its news. People stranded in isolated areas were reliant on the QPS social media broadcasts and were able to communicate with emergency services via these accounts. Police in disaster-affected locations relied on the QPS accounts for up-to-date awareness of the flood situations in their area. The QPS #mythbusting hashtag stopped many rumours and disinformation from circulating. Police also provided 24/7 moderation and enquiries response via their social media channels so the community was always able to access up to date, accurate information about the flood disasters.

At the conclusion of their case study the Queensland Police Service says that their number 1 lesson learned is: ‘If you are not doing social media, do it now. If you wait until it is needed, it will be too late.’ (Page vii of the case study)

The QPS case study is a wonderful example of how social media can provide an incredibly powerful interface between government and the community. Social media is a tool that can connect government services directly with community needs. Social media platforms will therefore become increasingly significant business environments for all sorts of government operations. And as this transition occurs, we need to ensure that these government operations continue to have the information they need to support them.

If you use social media, how to you manage and most effectively use the information you generate?

Firstly, you don’t need to manage everything. Some social media information will be important to your organisation and to the community you are serving and some will not. The key is to be strategic and to know all the ways your organisation is making use of social media.

To work out what social media information you do actually need, you can survey all your business areas and ask:

• who is using what?
• why?
• how many social media accounts are out there?
• are there any rogue accounts that appear official but which are really the views of one guy sitting up on level 2?
• is there any account governance?

Information governance is critical

Businesses run on information and by extending your information governance frameworks to the social media environment you will help ensure that all your business needs for information, now and into the future, will continue to be met.

To develop a social media information governance framework you could firstly:

• map the business that is moving to social media
• map the information that is moving to social media
• assess your client information needs and expectations, as well as public accountablities that are dependent on your business information.

When you understand the business and the information that are moving to social media you can ask additional questions like:

• is high risk or strategic business moving to social environments?
• are business or client management decisions being made or communicated?
• are internal processes that were formerly supported by defined processes or workflows now moving to social?
• will our clients rely on the information we are posting to our social channels?
• will our corporate reporting or accountabilities rely on the information we are posting to social?
• will be want to reuse any of the content we are moving to social channels?

If you answer yes to some or all of these questions, your social media operations will need to be supported by a good recordkeeping framework.

Technologies to consider

Some initial technologies that can help you to make and keep records of your social media business operations are listed in State Records draft social media recordkeeping advice.

Remember when are considering social information governance that social media is more than Twitter and Facebook. Wiki use is growing across government because of the flexibility, coordination and reach that these tools offer. If information governance frameworks are not established in wiki environments, however, the key business information in these environments can be completely inaccessible to those in the organisation not directly involved with the technology.

When you are investigating technologies you should focus on finding a solution that best meets your business needs. Information governance and recordkeeping frameworks in social media environments should not be focussed solely on compliance. That is, the driver for good governance here should not be, ‘State Records says that we need to keep a record of it all’, but specific business drivers instead such as ‘This business area needs this information to respond to client enquiries’.

You may find that you may need different recordkeeping strategies for different social media channels. This is discussed further in the State Records guidance.

Emerging drivers for improved social media information governance

Recent case law and e-discovery considerations are emerging as new drivers for better information governance in the social media environment, and good recordkeeping processes can be key supports here.

In some government organisations that we have been speaking to when developing the social media guidelines, a tactic that seems to be working is account specificity. By having specific rather than general Facebook pages and Twitter handles some organisations are able to better handle information flows, recordkeeping responses and are able to ensure that relevant business information generated by social media is fed directly into the business areas and processes that need it.

Considering legal retention requirements at the outset can also be a useful tactic. By knowing how long you need to keep information for, you are better able to plan what social media information needs to be captured and how it should be managed.

Other recommendations relate to privacy by design. If you have identified that your business processes need some of the information that is being generated by social media, your social policies should publicly state you will be capturing and keeping the social media information you need to support your operations. With your social recordkeeping strategies you should also try to minimise the amount of personal information you keep. The final version of the State Records social media guidelines will contain some further advice on this.

Social media: a great example of what recordkeeping can do

Information governance frameworks should be core to social media strategies.

By developing good, strong information governance frameworks around social media records managers can:

• be relevant to business
• assist with immediate and challenging business scenarios
• manage genuine business risks
• offer significant business advantage
• capture long term value records for the organisation.

Social media is such an opportunity for government service improvement and for genuine community engagement. But it is a risk to government if the transition of business to social environments is not supported by quality information governance frameworks. So work closely with others in your organisation to ensure good information governance operates across all areas of your business, including your social environments.

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Why you need social media information governance frameworks