EDRMS Knowledgebase

In June I saw Peter King, Office Server Group Manager of Microsoft UK, give a keynote speech to the AIIM roadshow in London. One of Peter’s slides contrasted functions that SharePoint 2010 could fulfill on its own, with functions that SharePoint needs the help of third party applications to fulfil. Records management was listed as being one of the things that SharePoint 2010 could do on its own.

However Microsoft say that they have no intention of submitting SharePoint 2010 for certification against one of the recognised standards for records management systems, for example DoD 5015.2 in the US or MoReq 2 in the European Union. They advise customers wanting that level of records management functionality to look to third party products.

SharePoint 2010 can do a form of records management, but it is records management as defined by Microsoft, not as defined by the international records management community. The fact that Microsoft are using their own definition of records management is not in itself a bad thing – we need innovation in this space, and vendors slavishly following worthy specifications drawn up by committee isn’t going to do anyone any favours. But it does mean that we need to closely scrutinise, and debate, the records management functionality contained in SharePoint 2010.

By James Lappin

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eTouch SamePage, a dynamic enterprise wiki, has included content and document management features with its version 4.3 release.

New SamePage 4.3 features, such as a Windows Explorer-like view and WebDAV support, are aimed at companies looking for a solution for their collaboration and document-management needs. In addition, new enhancements and plug ins are geared to existing customers and new users who deploy the software as an enterprise knowledge management tool.

“The best-kept secret of technology and its role in knowledge management is that you don’t ask an employee to go somewhere unique to ‘do knowledge management’ or to ‘do Enterprise 2.0.’ That would be a recipe for employee revolt,” said Dan Keldsen, co-founder of consulting firm Information Architected.

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Open Text has announced the availability of Web Site Management 10.1, featuring usability enhancements to accelerate common tasks and make it easier for website managers to integrate with corporate information and resources along with a sample project that speeds up delivery of new websites.

It also offers integration points to many consumer social applications including Facebook and Twitter as well as enhanced native social capabilities with Open Text Social Communities.

The latest release of Web Site Management is the next iteration of Web Solutions 10, introduced last year.

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A storm has erupted over a proposal to give the Records Management Association of Australasia (RMAA) a new identity, with CEO Kate Walker announcing a plan to become instead the Information Management Professionals Australasia (IMPA).

Revealing the proposal had been agreed to at the latest RMAA board meeting, Walker explained, “Records Management professionals and the Association have branched out into various types of Information Management areas, it has been harder and harder to define succinctly what we do with just the term Records Management.

“While the words “records management” remains important to the identity of the profession, it is no longer the best descriptor for what our profession encompasses. It conjures images of traditional “filing and mailroom functionality that can limit or even be detrimental to the overall image of the profession. Many professionals have moved beyond traditional records management settings and are prevalent in nearly every professional field, affecting compliance, legal, economics, management, health care, logistics and education in addition to our traditional territory of records management. The word “Information Management” better describes our growth, evolution, relevance and skills.”

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A recent survey by AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management) has found that less than 50% of SharePoint implementations were subject to a formal business case, and only half of those required a financial justification.

As a result, most did not have a management plan as to which of SharePoint’s many features were to be used, and where. Meanwhile, SharePoint deployment is proceeding rapidly, with 22% of respondents reporting it to be in use by 100% of office staff. This adoption rate is set to double by this time next year.

Half of the smaller businesses implementing SharePoint are addressing the issues of information management for the first time. Even a quarter of the largest organisations have no previous experience with Enterprise Content Management (ECM) or Document Management (DM) systems.

As a result, only 22% provide any guidance to staff on the use of content types and classification. In addition, just 15% have retention policies and legal discovery procedures – risking content chaos within SharePoint as well as outside of it, according to the AIIM report.

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Primary Industries and Resources South Australia (PIRSA) is upgrading to a new version of the Objective EDRMS, which will enable up to 1600 users across the state to access new Windows Explorer and MS Outlook client interfaces.

PIRSA is a complex state government agency of approximately 1,400 industry and export development specialists, economists, scientists, geologists, compliance officers and administrative support staff working in locations across metropolitan and rural South Australia.

The agency currently comprises 11 business divisions with a range of diverse businesses, including research, consulting, policy development, natural resource management and commercial investment projects in the agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries, food, forestry, wine, and minerals and petroleum energy resource sectors. As with other organisations, the advent of email, Internet, e-business, spatials and other electronic technologies and means of transacting business have made work a lot easier in PIRSA, but the unprecedented increase in the quantity of information and knowledge produced from these transactions needs to be managed and controlled to reduce risk, meet legislative and business requirements, improve business and security processes, and support information sharing and re-use.

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Two Canberra public hospitals are taking a fast track to the digital future with the announcement of a new information management system for Intensive Care Units (ICUs) at Canberra Hospital and Calvary Public Hospital.

ACT Minister for Health, Katy Gallagher, said, “ACT Health has signed a contract with Vision Software Solutions Pty Ltd, an iMDsoft company, to provide a fully integrated clinical information system, MetaVision, that will enable paperless management of patient records in our ICUs.

“The $1.7 millioncontract forms part of the ACT Government’s commitment to e-health projects in our public health system,” she said.

“The MetaVision information management system was specifically designed for the critical care environment. It captures, displays and stores the large amount of data generated in the ICU and builds an electronic record covering the entire patient stay.

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Three Australian federal government agencies that between them send out almost 150 million physical pieces of mail a year are looking to initiate a digital revolution, with Centrelink calling a tender for a new document output management system.

The Centrelink solution is designed to also support Medicare Australia and the Child Support Program (CSP), which manages the collection of child support payments from separated parents.

The new platform will aim to provide departmental officers with a greater control of document creation and modification, which is currently hampered by 20-year old mainframe technology that requires the intervention of programmers at crucial stages. It is expected to take four years to be fully implemented.

The migration to electronic delivery methods such as secure email and SMS has begun, but this still only represents a fraction of the volume of communications delivered through service providers via Australia Post.

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To add to the two existing groups (HP TRIM and Objective), I’ve added the following Groups to the site:

• Open Text
• Documentum
• AlfrescoECM
• Interwoven
• SharePoint
• RecordPoint
• IBM ECM

Groups allow all information about a particular subject to be made available in the one place.  The Groups at EDRMS KB will allow you post Forum topics, Upload documents, Share Links, and create a Social Network revolving around that subject.  Invite your friends to join a Group that you’re all interested in and exchange your ideas, tip, and tricks.

If there is a Group that you’d like added, you can create and manage your own Group on this site.  Invite other members to participate in your Group and grow your self-help network.

Elon Aizenstros, managing director of Australia’s RecordPoint, asks whether SharePoint 2010 measures up to ISO 15489.

Microsoft SharePoint has changed the game on traditional Enterprise Content Management (ECM) vendors. Whilst this might now be old news for many in the ECM industry, what may be more surprising is just how many organisations are already using SharePoint 2007 for records management purposes and the huge number of organisations who have expressed their intention to use SharePoint 2010. This is in spite of a considerable section of the Records Management industry expressing concerns that SharePoint 2007 is not compliant with ISO 15489.

So, the questions that remain with the release of SharePoint 2010 are these: what are the changes to the records management platform in SharePoint 2010; and does SharePoint 2010 meet ISO 15489 compliance?