confessions of a user or i survived the simultaneous installation of an edms and rma donna read...
TRANSCRIPT
Confessions of a User or
I Survived The Simultaneous Installation of
an EDMS and RMA
Donna ReadSenior Records Analyst
National Archives & Records Administration
Southeast RegionApril 21, 2004
Why Start a Project Like This?
Archival holdings dating from 1800’s:Over half million documents, letters, articles, books, historic homes, textile, etc.
Current organizational holdings included:Newsprint, microfilm, video, broadcast tapes, DAT tapes, architectural plans, Pulitzer prizes, photographs, magazines, books, etc.
Systems Already In Place
• Archival holdings: word processing files, databases, manual lists, index cards, tacit knowledge
• Records management program started in 60’s, included off site records center
• Late 80’s in-house relational DB put in place that automated retention schedules, disposition reports, box labels and deposits
What drove us to become users?
Research needs – over 30 different finding aids
Questionable if existing RMA was Y2k compliant
Living in a DOS world (unhappy users)
Requirements
Champion/Sponsor
Project Manager
A Plan –Formal Proposal/Business Case
Senior Management Support!!!!!
Partners: IT & Legal
Good Records Management Foundation
The ProcessAnalyze needs and requirements
•Who are your clients•How do they search•What are they looking for•Where are they looking for the information•How will they use it once they get it
Process Continued
Create RFP (parameters) –
• Web enabled, open architecture, type of DB• Security and privacy issues• Number of expected users• Search capabilities: full text, wildcard, proximity,
Boolean, etc.• Other software interface requirements
VSE - Vendor Selection Event
Choose Your Vendor(s) –
• Tread carefully- do your homework• Go on field trips – visit their clients• Get all promises in writing, record telecons• Understand – they call it a feature, you will
call it a bug• The sales person may not know the
technical side of the software• Our initial choice was PCDocs & Foremost
Unexpected Additional Partner
EDMS vendor said:
Must have an integrator for the system!•Familiarity with the product•Speak technobabble fluently•Our IT staff did not have knowledge of the software
Another round of vendor interviews.
The IntegratorCorridor Consulting, Inc.
Lifesaver
Glue that held us together
Facilitator, liaison with IT
Key to the success of the project
Pieces of Our Project
PCDocsiRIMSAPI for PCDocs & iRIMS to communicateIntegratorHistory DepartmentLegal DepartmentIT DepartmentSenior Management
Before Construction
Foundation - Solid Records Management
•RM policy must already exist and be enforced
•Installing an electronic system does not clean up your paper mess, just adds an electronic mess
Before Construction continued
Technical Infrastructure – Up to date• Will the software run on your hardware• Will upgrades in the product affect your hardware
interface
Buy-In From Staff• Requires change management• Will affect the workflow and culture
Meetings Meetings Meetings•Size of the project determines the number of years of meetings
•You have this project as a residual duty
•This is the vendors full time job
DetailsAre you customizing the product?• Your upgrades will need customizing also
If you’re using a COTS will functionality be lost?• What are willing to give up
How much training to get and give?• Who pays for the training
How to handle legacy data conversion• What is the ROI in converting legacy data
Details (continued)
Who gets access to the documents?• Security concerns involved with access
Cost of continuing maintenance. • Usually a yearly cost of 15% of the initial investment
Does IT have resources to support you?• This impacts their systems admin staff
The Unexpected
Organizational changes• Staff changes
Vendor Changes• PCDocs purchased by Hummingbird
• RIMS (PS Software) purchased by Open Text
Software not functioning as promised• Additional costs to get software to work as promised
What Did It Look Like?•Customized profiles to meet our searching needs,
multiple libraries in EDMS
•Outstanding searching & retrieval of documents in the system
•Full text searching in the RMA, barcode labels
•Ability to set retention against electronic records in the EDMS with event based trigger
End Result
• Started in March of 1997• Installed first software in November 1999• Conversion of 200,000 records from legacy system to RMA• Trained 120 employees on use of RMA• Moved all files from the desktop environment to the EDMS• Imported scanned documents into the EDMS
Lessons Learned
• Have to start with a sound foundation
• Better documentation of vendor promises
• Take smaller bites – smaller pilot
• Communicate better with senior management
Implementation of EDMS and RMA
Donna Read
NARA Senior Records Analyst
404-763-7064 or 727-781-0568
NARA, Southeast Region
1557 St. Joseph Ave.
East Point, GA 30344