1. Case Study on the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s Electronic Records Management System (ERMS) June 15, 2006 THE GILBANE CONFERENCE ON CONTENT MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES FOR GOVERNMENT IN COOPERATION WITH CMS WATCH Carol Brock, Director- Information Assets/Knowledge Services U.S. Government Accountability Office

2. 6/6/06 GAO’s ERMS Initiative 2 Background GAO pioneered implementation of document management in the Federal government – 15 years ago New automated business processes need an ERMS to capture e-records Vision for ERMS Records captured at creation/receipt Retention embedded into e-processes All documentation & links stored in DM Minimal end-user responsibilities RM staff make critical records decisions RM tasks invisible to the ERMS users

3. 6/6/06 GAO’s ERMS Initiative 3 System Overview ERMS is integrated with the Document Management (DM) System System user’s save a document and a profile automatically pops up Choose a profile and the user is saving to ERMS 3 profiles – 3 retentions Files closed at end of fiscal year or at the occurrence of an event After files are closed, users have 30 days to remove non- record materials prior to files being locked as “records”

4. 6/6/06 GAO’s ERMS Initiative 4 Summary of 3 Bucket Approach

5. 6/6/06 GAO’s ERMS Initiative 5 Summary of 3 Bucket Approach, cont.

6. 6/6/06 GAO’s ERMS Initiative 6

7. 6/6/06 GAO’s ERMS Initiative 7 File Plans Keep file plans very simple Engagements – e-file by engagement job number Policy & Special Collections – e-file by collection title Administrative – e-file by operations or project; then fiscal year. Retention captured at the profile level (ERMS) Users set up as many files and sub-files as they want (DM level).

8. 6/6/06 GAO’s ERMS Initiative 8 Sample File Plan

9. 6/6/06 GAO’s ERMS Initiative 9 How the System Works

10. 6/6/06 GAO’s ERMS Initiative 10 How the System Works

11. 6/6/06 GAO’s ERMS Initiative 11 Status Report Pilot users asked to continue with the system Pilots continue during implementation if a Unit requests ERMS is being rolled out to a new unit each week (through October 2006) 26 successful pilots (Engagement and Administrative) 104 users (HQ & Field Offices) User surveys show no impact on work System has been successfully implemented in Knowledge Services and Information Services and Technology Systems (about 350 users)

12. 6/6/06 GAO’s ERMS Initiative 12 ERMS Pilots Objectives: Assess user acceptability & identify potential burdens to staff Identify best practices for conducting GAO business using electronic DM/RM tools Measure processes and evaluate perceptions Status: Audited completed pilots Focus on document management software training

13. 6/6/06 GAO’s ERMS Initiative 13 Lessons Learned 15 years with DM – good and bad Users tend to want to automate their paper processes Users want to complicate their file plans – big buckets take getting used to On-site vendor support during pilots helped smooth the process Users continue to drive the process as ERMS is refined Combined electronic initiatives (workpapers, case files, indexing and referencing, publication and distribution) must be managed in concert

14. 6/6/06 GAO’s ERMS Initiative 14 Next Steps Knowledge Management Portals (Hurricane & Pandemic Flue) Workflow, Collaboration, E-Signatures

15. 6/6/06 GAO’s ERMS Initiative 15 Questions For more information, please contact: Carol Brock, CRM Director of Information Assets, KS/GAO 441 G St., NW Washington, DC 20548 202/512-3435 Brockc@gao.gov