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Transitioning toElectronic

Records

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Agenda1. Organizational Changes Need to Support Technology

Change2. Technology Challenges3. Making the Transition from Paper to Electronic

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Was the Business involved in the solution?Has this ever happened to you?• No user interaction:

• New technology implemented• Changes were made to existing technology

• Users were informed the day the new system or changes took place• Supervisors were not aware of the change• No support model was in place to answer general

questions or deliver IT support• User’s needs were not met

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Was IT involved in the solution?

Has this ever happened to you?• New technology was requested by the department• Vendor was hired to implement the solution• IT was informed the day the new system was to be

implemented• User’s needs are not supported by available

technology infrastructure

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Organizational Components Necessary to Effectively Facilitate Change

•Organizational Governance•Project Management •Change Management•Policy & Procedures

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Organizational Governance• Need Defined Roles and Responsibilities• Executive Sponsorship• eRIM Advisory Committee

• Business• Finance• Legal• Risk/Compliance• Information Technology• Records Management

• Records Management Team - Center of Excellence• Records Coordinators/Department Liaisons – Tentacles into

the Organization• IT Support

Tactical Roles / SME / Leverage Existing Infrastructure

Department Liaisons

Center of Functional Excellence

eRIM Advisory Committee

Legal

IT Leadership

LRO IT

Users, Content and Records

eRIM Governance Team

• PMO – Implement eRIM Program• Ongoing Governance

Administration

eRIM Sponsors

eRIM Champions

eRIM Business Advisory Team

Executive Sponsor

Example Governance Structure

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Project Management

•Responsibility of project is assigned to a Project Manager:• Coordinates the activities of project team members• Sets priorities, as defined by the project plan• Keeps everyone focused on the task at hand•Works with management to acquire resources as needed• Keeps the project on time and on budget

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Change Management• Acquire executive level sponsorship• Communications• Executive sponsor to communicate importance of change to

supervisors and employees• eRIM communicates to supervisors and users

• Coaching• eRIM provides training to supervisors – educate supervisors

on their role

• Training• Road show• In person and online modules

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Policy & Procedures• eRIM Policy• Do you have one?• Will it support the movement towards the management of

electronic records, in all its areas?

• Retention Schedule• Is it suitable for use in an electronic records environment?

• Department Procedures• Are they updated to reflect changes in eRIM Policy?

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eRIM Policy• Policies take time to approve• Keep it high-level and keep it short (1-3 pages)• Policy should address key areas:

• Electronic Records• Retention Schedule• Records Disposition (Archival/Destruction)• Records vs Non-records (Business Information)• Information Lifecycle Management (how to dispose of business

information)• Legal Hold

• Keep procedural items out of the eRIM Policy – bake them into department procedures

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Retention Schedules•Provide retention requirements for the organization•Reference legal and regulatory requirements•Should include reference for non-record information•Time-based or Event-based (40% to 70% of records)•Organizations are moving away from Departmental Schedules to Functional-based Retention Schedules

Functional Retention Schedule Structure

Business Function

Human Resources (HR)

Record Types

Applications

Record SeriesWhere

Retention is ManagedHUM03

Employee Recruitme

nt and Selection3 years

HUM07 Personnel Files Non-Medical

6 Years after Termination

Resumes

Performance Appraisals

Promotions

Transfers

Inherits Retention

Background Checks

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Technology Challenges

•Obsolescence•Media Failure•Recommendations

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Obsolescence• Hardware• Software• Format• Media

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Hardware Obsolescence

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Software Obsolescence

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Format Obsolescence• Software upgrades end support of previously

supported formats• Software is discontinued and format support goes

away• The previously supported format is superseded by

another format• Format is no longer compatible with changes in the

environment

• Try this:• Read a 3.5 inch floppy disk from 12 years ago when you do

not know what hardware or software was involved in its creation

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Media Obsolescence

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Media Failure

Chemical vs Physical

There is a way to store permanently

Microscopic view of information on an M-Disc

The M-DISC™ is certified and proven to last over 1000 years, offering the best archival data storage solution anywhere. No more worrying about losing something you consider irreplaceable.

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Media Recommendations• Migrate off of media before it is no longer supported by

hardware/software• Use M-Disc for long-term, external storage• M-Disc follows ISO 10995 standards

• DVD – 4.7 GB storage capacity• Read by any DVD player• Need M-Ready drive to write• Read by any Blu-ray player

• Blu-ray – 25 GB storage capacity – follows ISO/Blu-ray standard• 100 GB BDXL is now available• Sept 9, 2014 – Verbatim, beginning partnership with MKM to

manufacture M-Disc. They will being marketing 4.7 to 200 GB and will follow the Blu-ray standard

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Format Considerations• Proprietary, closed specifications (Microsoft Word)• Come and go relatively quickly• Provide limited backward compatibility• It is in the vendor’s best interest to move people to newer

formats

• Proprietary, open specifications (i.e. PDF/A, TIFF 6.0)• Specifications have been publically released• Less obsolescence risk as it becomes a standard

• Non-proprietary, open specifications (JPEG, XML, MPEG-2)• Published specifications produced by international standards

bodies are the safest (ISO, ODF)

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Format Recommendations• Choose Open Standards for long-term storage• Library of Congress: Recommended Format

Specifications 2014 Library of Congress website: Sustainability of Formats• Text: Original + XML, PDF/A, PDF• Audio: BWAV, FLAC, MP3, at highest resolution• Images: TIFF 6.0, JPG2000, CR2, PNG, uncompressed,

lossless• Video: Original, AVI, MOV, MP4, currently reviewing MXF• Data: CSV, XML

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Library of Congress Formats

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Software Recommendations• Upgrade software on a regular basis:• Prior one or two versions will likely support your file format• Older versions will likely “not” support your file format

• Migrate Files before the support for the file types disappears• Files not migrated run the following risks:• Cannot be read by the new software version• The old software can no longer be run on the current

computer’s operating system

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Managing Format Obsolescence Risk• Inventory formats and versions in your holdings• First - target formats created by obsolete software

or by obsolete versions of current software• PRONOM database – can be helpful in determining

whether a migration pat exists for an older file format• Emulation is an option where there is no software

migration path• The file can be viewed by the old software running

on emulation software• It may be possible to use the old software to

convert the file to another format

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Making the Transition• Proper Planning (cost, timing, resources)• Identify Business, Functional and Technical

Requirements• Identify Electronic Records Management System

(ERMS)• DoD5015.2

• Pilot the solution• Implementation• Communication and Training

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Transitioning - Key Findings• In general, organizations lacked planning• Executive level support was critical to success• Underestimated the level of effort and cost• Policies and procedures would not support change• Employees love their paper• Project teams thought technology alone would solve

the problem• Technology does not always work as expected• Assumed users would readily accept the change• Must address day-forward, work in process, backfile

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Transitioning - Key Challenges• Obtaining budget approval/building a business case• Obtaining senior level support/sponsorship• Taking paper away from employees• Addressing legacy records• Achieving required level of quality• Disposing of the paper after it has been scanned• Format & long-term storage requirements• User adoption

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Transitioning - Successful Approaches

• The system must be easy to use and must simplify the work of the employee (provide benefit)

• Frequent communication during the pilot implementation and additional phases was critical to success, to announce the discontinuation of paper-based processes

• Sponsor message from leadership

• More detailed messaging from project team/supervisors

• Quality review during digitization is essential in order to achieve quality electronic documents. Users will rarely rely on a system if documents are missing or cannot be read

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Transitioning - Successful Approaches (2)

• Acceptance testing must be conducted by a representative group of users during the pilot and throughout the implementation.

• Incorporating their feedback into the product, early on, will positively enhance the user experience when the system is deployed

• The teams supporting the end-users must be well trained prior to system rollout. It has been effective to incorporate document management training into the on-boarding process

• Appropriate levels of training me given to those who use the system

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Transitioning – Lessons Learned

• Obtain senior-level support to promote the change and work through issues and roadblocks

• Select software that will meet most of your needs out-of-the-box. This will provide adequate functionality and will minimize customization and reduce implementation time and costs

• Select software that is user friendly and will adapt to changes in the user environment (requires less training)

• Conduct scalability and performance testing early on

• Balance desired target dates with successful completion of milestones

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Transitioning – Lessons Learned (2)

• Train support staff before rolling system out to users

• When training users, give them the, “What’s in it for me.” They need to see the benefits of the system and how it will help them. Promote the benefits and not compliance

• Communicate to employees though standard firm-wide newsletters (websites).

• If you push too much information, too often, people will begin to filter it out. Make sure your communications are streamlined and relevant to the intended audience

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Transitioning – Lessons Learned (3)

• Create a “Single Go To” site where everyone can go to get FAQs, submit comments and questions, etc...

• Address policies to enable transition to electronic environment

• Wet signature requirements

• Retention policy is suitable for electronic environment

• Addressing long-term storage requirements

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Thank You!• Howard Loos, CRM• University Records and Information Manager• Brigham Young University• Howard_Loos@byu.edu• 801-422-2161