joint information systems committee stephen bailey records manager, jisc is there more to erm than...

Joint Information Systems Committee

Stephen BaileyRecords Manager, JISC

Is there more to ERM than an EDRMS?

Joint Information Systems Committee 31/03/2006 | Supporting education and research | Slide 2Joint Information Systems Committee Supporting education and research

Selecting an ERM System Is there more to ERM than an ERMS?


Is there more to ERM than an ERMS?

Lancaster University, 10th May 2006 Steve BaileyRecords & Information ManagerJISC Executive

02/12/2005 | Supporting education and research | Slide 3

Joint Information Systems Committee 31/03/2006 | Supporting education and research | Slide 4

YES

The end


A bit more detail…

‘Selecting an Electronic Records Management System’

The assumption being:

– You are already sure it is the right technology for your institution to solve your most pressing RM issues

– The only decision is which to choose…

Time for a sanity check

– As an ‘Enterprise Content Mgt System’ this represents one of the biggest IT projects your institution will ever embark upon

– Implementation costs of several £100K

– Ongoing costs of several £10K per annum

– Will dominate your working day forever more

– Will change the way every member of staff works

Worth asking vendors and yourself an awkward question or two first…


Some (awkward?) questions

What are your motivations for wanting an EDRM?

What is the scope of the project going to be?

How do your users feel about it?

Have you considered the true costs, and will you ever achieve an ROI?

Have you considered alternative approaches?


But first…

Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) Copernicus (1473-1543)


Motivations

Straw poll

We are going to implement an EDRM because…

Senior management have identified the need for one

Our IT strategy has identified the need for one

Administrative staff have identified the need for one

Academic staff have identified the need for one

It will solve our most pressing information/records management issues

A consultant/vendor has said we need one

Everyone else seems to want one / be getting one


Motivations

At all times consider the institutional perspective

– If done properly an EDRM should impact on every function, every user and every system in the institution

– This is not just a professional tool to help you perform your role with a local impact only

– If that is all you want, you are buying a sledgehammer to crack a nut

What are your institution’s real information management priorities?

– Strategic goals, operating plans, vision statements, minutes of SMT

– Will an EDRM really make a contribution to achieving any of them?

“ah, but its my role as Records Manager to tell them this is a priority”

– Yes, but see above…


Scope

Straw poll

How many of your institutions are planning or implementing…

an institutional repository?

a new web content management system?

a new intranet or other collaborative tool?

a new student records system?

a new finance system?

How many of you…

Have no way of knowing


Scope

If this is to be a truly enterprise-wide ERMS

– Have you consulted widely enough with all relevant system owners/project teams?

– Are you clear on how your EDRM is going to integrate with these systems?

• Technically

• Functionally

• Politically

– If not, what is to stop your EDRM system becoming yet another silo of information and worse still, one with no organisational support or clear business purpose?


Scope

What about integration with your line of business applications?

– “too difficult” - “too expensive”

– “Maybe in phase 2” - “We don’t have anything to do with them”

– “But they don’t contain records” - “I don’t think we have any”

LoB applications are the lifeblood of your institution

They often contain mission-critical information and records

Little/no consideration is often paid to their information mgt functionality

Huge duplication of data & inconsistency of management controls

Ask your Head of finance which he would rather save in a fire: his finance system, or the network drive

Ignore them at your peril…


Scope & Users

Okay, lets stick to documents and records for now…

Average of 4000+ staff per institution

Are you going to roll out to all 4000+?

– Licence costs, training, support, quality control, upgrades, coronary, suicide…

Or are you only going to rollout to selected staff e.g. local and central admin staff?

– Much more manageable… but what happens to the rest

Your Enterprise Content Management System is now only managing a small percentage of the information created by an even smaller number of users

– But at considerable cost…

What about all those promises of organisation-wide retrieval & management of assets your project was founded on?


Users

Okay, lets assume you are eventually going to roll it out to everyone

Straw poll

Which of these best sums up your experience of working with academics on records management or compliance issues?

Always keen to be involved, adopt new ways of working and comply with new procedures

It’s a real struggle, but eventually they fall into line & do what’s required

It’s a nightmare. They are not at all interested, ignore what we say and carry on regardless

Why should they view an ERMS any differently?


Costs and resources

I’ll leave you to find out the facts and figures of licences etc etc

Lets take a look at hidden resource implications

– Who is going to keep doing the ‘day job’ whilst you are involved with this?

– This is a project without end

• who is going to continue to maintain it?

• What impact will continued licence costs have on your budgets?

– What guarantees do you have of access to additional internal resources

• IT staff

• Departmental co-ordinators etc


Alternatives

Not suggesting any are the answer, just that they should be considered:

‘Traditional’ records management software

– Management of physical (& electronic) assets + record centre operations

Workflow software

– Focus on improving the processes which create information & records

Open standard’s based ‘glue’ to co-ordinate & manage LoB applications

– A key focus of the JISC e-administration agenda

MS Office 2007

– “the next version of the Office system (will be) a tool to help companies solve their records management problems” – MS Blog April 06


So where does this leave us?

Forget the technology and think carefully about your requirements

– As a records manager

– As an institution

Consult as widely as possible – with an open mind

Think carefully about the scope of your proposed system – particularly from the institutional perspective

– Do you need an enterprise wide system?

– Can you realistically achieve & maintain an enterprise wide system?

If not, where does that leave you?

– Be clear about what your objectives are & think carefully about how you will demonstrate success and ROI

– Are there more proportionate alternatives you could/should consider?

If in doubt, go see an institution who has achieved it already

– And draw your own conclusions if you can’t find one…


Thank You

Steve [email protected]


A one-day event for Higher Education10th May 2006

The Conference Centre, Lancaster University

Selecting an Electronic Records Management System

joint information systems committee stephen bailey records manager, jisc is there more to erm than...

Documents

research slide

end slide

erm system

senior management

member of staff

administrative staff

academic staff

ongoing costs