Managing Paper and Electronic Records Donna Read, CRM, CDIA+ Florida Gulf Coast ARMA Chapter October 2015

AGENDA  Where we stand now  How did we get here  Is it working for you?  What does it take to fix it

Current Situation  Decentralized control of records & information  Records & data kept too long – is this still true?  Unprotected “vital” records  Technological advances not being applied to data management  Information explosion  % of data born in digital environment – but we still print  Humans still like paper  Minimal knowledge of Records & Information management

More Than Just A Management of Records Issue  Structured or Unstructured Data  Records  Documents  Assets  Information  Knowledge - Context  Content  Big Data and Data Pools

What About Media?? Enough Choices?  WORM Drives  Optical Disk  CD-ROM  DVD  DAT Tapes  Magnetic Storage  RAID  DVD – Blue Ray

Where Does The Electronic stuff Live?  Servers and Networks  Disk Drives  Laptops/Desktops  The Cloud in Iceland?  Jump/Thumb/Flash Drives  Smart phones/Tablets  Cameras  On a contractor’s (or your company’s) server in India

What Does The Paper World Look Like? 19 copies of documents printed for each meeting No one is making sure the copy says “COPY” Humans still want to use yellow highlighters and pens to review documents Computer screens are hard on the eyes for lengthy reading so people print

Offices and Paper The average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year. The United States alone, which has less than 5% of the world's population, consumes 30% of the world's paper. Over 40% of wood pulp goes toward the production of paper. Printing and writing paper equals about one-half of U.S. paper production. The costs of using paper in the office can run 13 to 31 times the cost of purchasing the paper in the first place ! Reduce.org

Where Does the Paper Live?  Filing cabinets  Tops of desks  Inside of credenzas  Under the desk  In the file room  On top of the filing cabinet  In your briefcase  In boxes stacked in the corner  In boxes at the local records center

Are There Too Many Choices?

 Information was easier to control  Gatekeepers (secretaries) knew about file plans and how to create and use them  Only “special” people could create business information/records  Volume was limited and controlled The Way It Used To Be

If no one took responsibility, records got misfiled, neglected, or worse. Not Always Perfect Though

Then The 80’s Came Along  Pandora introduced an powerful box to everyone’s office  Management thought secretaries were no longer needed (the staff who understood file management)???

 Information has distributed ownership  Gatekeepers are a thing of the past  Everyone with access to a computer or mobile device can create business information and records  Volume is out of control, unlimited, and growing exponentially The Old Way was Replaced With Electronic Chaos

 World’s information doubling every 2 years  Over the next 10 years the number of servers in the world will increase 10-fold  Amount of data managed by data centers will increase by 50-fold  7.9 zettabytes (ZB) will be created in 2015 (in decimals = seventh power of 1000 – 1 ZB = 1 billion terabytes) Library of Congress estimated to equal 10 terebytes Statistics

Where Did We Go Wrong? Not exactly a good filing system…

This With This We Forgot To Equate

So What Do We Do Now? Get Management On Board!!! Gather Data – Data Call & Data Maps Analyze the Data – build business case to take action Research Solutions that fit your organization Present to Management all solutions with your recommendations and cost estimates Depending on funding move forward

What Will Real Solution Look Like? A mixed bag of nuts Never unlimited funds Have to prioritize what gets digitized Business units with the most clout will get the most help Seldom an enterprise level solution is put in place You will most likely remain a hybrid organization with some functions moving to digital only and others remaining a mix May depend on individual managers

Elephant in the Room You need tools in your tool box to get the job done Tools cost money Tools require maintenance & training Tools take resources to implement Tools take up space – on the server - in people’s lives Tools must be used properly in order to work correctly Tools used incorrectly could kill you or at least do a lot of damage

What Type Of Tools Do You Need? Depends on your business requirements….. Deduplication software Electronic Document Management System Records Management Workflow management Baiting numbering feature Business Analytics Auto classification Case File Management System

Questions To Ask  Stakeholders – IT big time – users  How is the enterprise going to implement and control the data/information/records/content Are they going to move to a digital world only? Are they going to continue to manage a hybrid animal? Are they going to ignore the problem and accept the associated risks? Are they going to ignore the past and leave the legacy data behind?

Questions cont.  How is the migration of data going to be carried out and by whom?  Who is responsible for security of the data and how is it carried out?  If a system is purchased what are the characteristics of the system – RM/ /workflow…?  How are people going to be trained and who pays for it?  Backup and archiving – define and outline

Next Step  Stakeholders -Senior Mgt – IT – employees – customers – public – investors  Organizational Charts – who is generating the information/data/records/content  Business analysis – workflow to determine how the information/data/records/content etc. moves within the office/division/organization  Data Maps – maps of where the information /data/records/content lives, owners, formats…

Data Maps  Spreadsheet or a database or a chart  Type of data – records, documents, raw data, non-records, etc.  Who is the owner of the data  What is it used for  Is it used for program or administrative needs  What format is it in – include information about proprietary software and versions  What media does it reside in – paper, electronic, microform

Data Maps cont.  Where is it located – servers, hard drives, file cabinets, in the basement, under the desk…  If it is electronic what is the name of the system where it lives  What is the volume – linear feet or terabytes  Is it a record, if yes then it is a vital record, does it have a disposition assigned to it  What is the date range of the data – record or non-record  Which version is the official record

Prioritize  Stakeholders – who needs to be involved – IT is always at the table, include Legal, Finance, anyone who has a record or system.  Use workflow and data maps to perform risk analysis and prioritize the data ** Where is the most valuable information ** What form is it in ** Are there any burning buildings that need immediate attention

Analysis  Use data maps & file plans to determine what is the “official” record – duplicates abound – usually 40% of holdings  How much protection for litigation does the organization need?  What business processes can be automated – which ones cannot?

Decisions  Is the organization going to digitize legacy data – draw a line in the sand?  How is the data going to be migrated in the future?  What are we doing with the paper after we scan it? Do we have legal requirements to hang onto the native format?  Are we going to outsource some of the work?

Finance & Budget  Stakeholders – Senior mgt. – employees – investors – IT – customers…..  Use ROI to determine best use of your funds  Scanning – will it save you $$$ or cost you $$$  Real Estate – using office space to store records is more costly than offsite storage

Finance & Budget cont.  Staffing – do I need to increase staff if I purchase more software  Hardware/software cost – 17% of initial cost every year thereafter  Keeping data culled on servers saves $ and time  Has the cost of migration of the data been taken into account

Logistics – Efficient Flow of Goods, Information & Other Resources  Records retention schedules & file plans  Metadata captured – classification schemes  Metrics determined  Naming conventions  Specifications for scanning, importing, and other technological processes - RFID, etc.  Reporting requirements

Manual Way to Manage Electronic Records You can manually manage your records in all formats – but……… Time intensive Subject to human error Becomes increasingly more difficult over time Very few have resources to get a handle on the legacy data Requires a lot of training Must be monitored constantly If only key staff can do RM duties then they become the points of failure in the system

**Note folder names with no meaning to anyone but the creator, loose documents not even placed in a folder

Electronic files can be structured like record filing cabinets... 29

Information Services Finance Facilities Emergency Mgmt Communicati ons Budget Asset Mgmt./Prope rty Administrative 30

Your File Plan is your decoder ring A File Plan….what’s that? A subset of your retention schedule that covers only your area of responsibility. So where do you get the file folder structure from?

Partial GRS 14 File Structure

Use your organizational chart to determine functional areas of responsibility. If the records/documents are managed by the calendar year then you can set up high level files by the year. If the records/documents are managed by the FY, then set up by the FY. How You Do Business Determines How You Set Up Your Files

How you do business should determine the level of granularity that is required If your office gets 7000 public records requests in a year you need the granularity of individual folders (down to the folder level being an individual case name or number) If your office gets 8 public records requests in 3 years then you need less granularity of the folder structure Let Your Business Be The Driver

No software is plug and play You still have to have a file structure determined first The software needs a map of where to place the data What If You Have Software Tools In Place Already?

So You Use SharePoint – You Really Need Governance

Summary  The current environment is usually the wild west  Rectifying the situation requires specific skill sets, tools, lots of planning, tenacity, patience, creativity, and resources  Hard choices have to be made and these are sometimes driven solely by funding  It will take time to win this battle and the troops may threaten to mutiny on occasion  Your plan will change – it is inevitable

Questions????? Donna Read, CRM, CDIA+ Florida Gulf Coast ARMA Chapter October 2015