Challenges Emerging Technologies present for Information ManagersAllegra HuxtableManager Government Information Strategy UnitTasmanian Archive and Heritage Office

Overview•Challenges that emerging technologies present

•Solutions

•Strategies for gaining new skills and focus, to

manage our changing environment

Current Environment•massive business transformation

•complex technological environments

•lack of corporate governance means that there is no

conscious awareness of what is happening to

information.

•limited knowledge of where information is moving to,

where it is being fragmented, and where it is being

duplicated, disappearing, moving offshore and being

controlled by third parties.

Current Environment•Lack of corporate governance means that most agencies have not considered the short and long term business needs of the information

•The reliability, usability and longevity of vast amounts of corporate information are under threat

•increasing privacy and security concerns, where there is stronger regulation, and public expectation and interest in the information agencies hold

•complex environment presents a number of challenges information managers need to meet for us to effectively manage our agencies information into the future

Challenge 1: Complex Technological Environments

We work in complex technological environments.

Our agencies:•Have ageing legacy systems

•Have  multiple document repositories - EDRMS, network drives, SharePoint

•Are adopting a range of purpose specific services located in the cloud, in mobile applications, and on personal devices

Solution : Information Managers need to Engage with technology

We need to:•define information architectures for systems and interrelationships between them•define metadata schemas across systems•determine standard information requirements and determine risks for the introduction of new business systems, including in the cloud

take a risk based approach so that:•information captured in key systems is identified•the systems are configured appropriately to manage information•If information requirements are unable to be met, the risks are identified and communicated to management.

Challenge 2: Reduced resources and too much information

Working in an environment where:

•proliferation of systems

•volumes of information are increasing beyond our

capacity to manage all information well

•Reduced resources

Solution: Focus on high risk high value information and be strategic

 

In the past records managers have focused on the

operational, now we need to be proactive, strategic

and business focused

 

Our work programs need to be based on business

value and risk not on operational tasks and trying to

manage everything

Challenge 3: The pace of change

•We have already seen massive business

transformation in our time and this is not going to

stop.

•Many agencies are transitioning certain parts of their

business to being totally digital.

•Like everything this transition needs to be carefully

managed.

•We have a key role to play - we need to think

differently about how we approach change.

Solution: Engage with change and become a change agent

•Present solutions not impediments

•Business will never choose systems and technology

platforms based on the capacity to manage records.

•They don't know what they don't know - we have a

unique opportunity to illustrate to business how to

manage their information for longevity.

•Document information risks within systems, assess

their likely impacts and communicate these to

management.

Challenge 4: It’s bigger than us 

We are not working in paper based records registry in

backrooms where everybody sends their records after

they are finished with them - so why are we still

working in this way?

Solution: Collaborate and gain new skills

Work with:

•IT, internal auditors if you have them, and risk

managers

•Business unit managers

Identify

•High value high risk information to business units

•Information management requirements

•Analyse risk and identify interim solutions

•use these new skills to be solution focused,

collaborative

Challenge 5: Lack of governance

SharePoint, network drives, EDRMS, line of business systems, specific business systems in the cloud. Agencies don't know what information they have, what its value is, if it’s at risk.

 There is a total lack of information governance in our agencies. We have not found one state government agency with a governance body responsible for managing information. Information needs governance, and systems need governance.

Solution: Raise awareness and present solutions

Raise awareness of:•the issues, •risks to high value information if it continues not to be managed•present solutions

Strategy 1: Develop an information asset register for your agency

An information asset register provides an overview of your agencies information to provide a snapshot for management of the status of the information, and its lack of governance, identifying:•If information has an owner•If it is actively managed•Its value to business•Its retention status•Risk to the information•Its format •Technology dependencies •If it contains personal information

Strategy 2: Identify valuable business information

•Identify high value business information

•A lot of this will reside in agency business systems, not EDRMS

•Use this to determine the priorities in your own business plan

Strategy 3: Gain skills in Risk identification

•Become adept in the assessment of information risk

•Review your agency corporate risk register - does it contain any information risks?

•Raise awareness about information risks to your high value information

•Work with colleagues to design mitigation strategies

Strategy 4: Collaborate with IT

•What is the system refresh calendar for your agency?

•What systems are planned for decommissioning in the next year?

•What is the value of the information in these systems?

•What are the migration options for this information?

•Present your findings to management

Strategy 5: Plan and implement digital disposal

•With the increasing complexity of the technological

environments we operate in, we need to review and

assess all business systems in use in our agencies and

include them in our retention and disposal plan

•Stop focusing all efforts on your agency EDRMS, most

of your high value corporate information resides in other

business systems

•The vision that EDRMS will manage all records of value

has never come to fruition and it never will.

Future information managers skills

•Engage with systems and technology

•Strategic

•Identify high value business information

•Risk based

•Become an agent of change by engaging with change

happening in their agencies

•Collaborate and learn new skills

•Raise awareness of the need for information

governance and be

•Solutions focused

The future coming full speed

Head of Google Australia Maile Carnegie has a message about the pace of change and what is to come

“ we may have experienced mind- warping change over the past 15 years – fast-tracking from pay phones to smart phone, from dial-up connections to machine learning and advanced robotics – but we ain’t seen nothing yet. The digital revolution is accelerating and the future’s coming on at speed, full of promise and peril. Australia has got to get ready . And we better hurry up.”

The Weekend Australian Magazine June 27-28, 23015

Tools to assist 

GISU are developing products to assist you with these tasks.

We have recently developed guidance on:

•Appraisal

•Risk

•Metadata

•Developing information asset registers

Please provide us with feedback about the tools that you need in order to change your focus!!

Questions

Contact:

Government Information Strategy Unit91 Murray StHOBART TASMANIA 7000Telephone: 03 6165 5581

gisu@education.tas.gov.au