Next-Generation Records Management
Achieving Digital Transparency in Government
In recent times, governments have experienced a sharp increase in the use of electronic systems both for internal operations and for communication and collaboration with all external audiences including citizens, lawmakers and businesses. This new reality is generating enormous quantities of electronic records—particularly email, most of which is not being professionally managed.
These practices have led to the accidental or sometimes deliberate destruction of official documents, to the unnecessary and expensive retention of obsolete records, and most importantly, to the loss of organizational knowledge. As a result, a broad consensus now exists about the necessity to improve records management practices, which is only being strengthened by the sheer scale of the problems and loss of confidence caused by recent record-shredding incidents at Enron and Andersen.
Department of Defense
One exciting example of the possibilities for innovation in online digital government is the Department of Defense (DoD) ASD C3I Defense Information Technology Testbed (DITT). The functional requirements created by DITT may very well become the next generation of records management.
The required solution called for a DoD 5015.2 certified records management application to provide additional capabilities related to the automated pre-screening and processing of electronic records into the records center and the intelligent dissemination of records. Without this solution, these processes are manual, labor intensive, and disjointed from the records management function.
“Our vision went beyond the current state-of-the-art in records management and the DoD 5015.2 standard. It called for a seamless knowledge management (KM) solution using a certified records management application supporting a myriad of business processing including: the automated processing of records; the analysis and identification of their content in relation to virus, Privacy Act, security accreditation, and candidate Thesaurus terms; the application of actions based on that content; the management of the retention and disposition of these records; and the provision of redacted versions of these records for dissemination purposes,” says Mr. William Kinsey, Program Manager.
DITT selected eManage to provide this solution for implementation at the U.S. Army CALL-DITT in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) collects and analyzes data from a variety of sources including Army operations and training events, and produces lessons for military commanders, staff and students. CALL then disseminates these lessons through a variety of media.
“The benefits of this solution to the government and industry are significant, and included productivity gains in the records management operation and enterprise knowledge bases (repositories) with transparent records management, and more effective processing of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Above all, the solution promotes more reliable access to records and the management of records throughout their life cycle. The eManage solution we implemented provided these capabilities seamlessly and in a manner that leveraged our technology infrastructure,” says Mr. Kinsey.
The CALL-DITT KM system implemented by eManage allows users to submit documents to the records center for processing. This is done through the messaging system (Microsoft Exchange). When they reach the records center, eManage performs a number of automated pre-screening actions on these documents and eventually processes them as records or quarantines them. The solution starts by performing virus checking on these documents and applying to them the necessary cleaning, quarantining and notification actions. eManage then performs content interpretation on these “record candidates” using intelligent content analysis policies that were developed to meet DITT’s functional requirements. The process identifies the security markings, Privacy Act content, and various record attributes (including file codes), and generates candidate terms for the Army Thesaurus. The content analysis is done using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and pattern recognition tools.
During their life cycle, records can be requested for dissemination (FOIA requests for example). eManage automatically performs content analysis on the requested records and identifies phrases that require redaction (Privacy Act, classified terms, other types of content). Authorized users can then redact some or all of the highlighted phrases and send copies of the redacted documents to the requesters.
Electronic Records Management in Government
Electronic records management in government is a key enabler of digital transparency. Its main mission is to: implement laws and regulations; protect the interests of the government and its employees; document the business activities; schedule records; manage information through its life cycle; provide reliable access to records; and enable the dissemination of records to the public.
A major challenge facing government today is how to carry out the records management mission effectively and efficiently while the scope of this mission keeps growing and increasing in complexity and while the record sources, formats and volumes continue to proliferate.
In order to increase productivity, minimize business and legal risks, and adhere to corporate and industry regulations and policies, government, like any other organization, is striving to adopt a coordinated knowledge management strategy that will enable it to seamlessly integrate various technologies and applications to achieve its objectives. In doing so it is required to implement an auditable and automated process for the management of all its electronic records throughout their life cycle, from their creation to their disposition, thus achieving digital transparency.
Records Management and Knowledge Management
Overall, records management is emerging as a core component of knowledge management. It will continue to move from a standalone function to become part of the infrastructure. It is evolving from a separate dedicated tool to a core technology that touches on all business activities within the organization. This evolution is moving along four main trends:
1) The first trend is that records management is becoming more encompassing. In addition to managing traditional forms of records (paper and electronic), the same methodologies are being applied to new forms of records such as email and e-transactions (XML records exchanged between e-business applications). In particular, managing email is one of the most pressing records management issues. The government recognizes that email is a source of records. The DoD 5015.2 electronic records management standard recognized that fact as early as 1997 and legal precedents involving email records were established long before that. However, email is the worst managed form of records. In most government organizations, it is left unmanaged in user mailboxes, subject to random retention and disposition by users. The result is non-compliance with laws and regulations.
2) The second trend is driven by government’s need to use the records management environment as a building block for an array of new functions. One of these functions is the automatic analysis of record content as the records are being captured and processed into the records center for the purpose of identifying and flagging content that may affect compliance with laws and regulations. In particular, the government needs to be aware of the content of its records in relation to the Privacy Act. In security-sensitive applications, it needs to assess and be aware of the secrecy level of its records content. More generally, the government needs to make sure that record attributes are captured and important content is acted upon appropriately. The government also needs to service information requests from the public such as FOIA and some of this content needs to be redacted (Privacy Act and other content) before dissemination.
3) The third trend is the integration of the corporate file classification with business applications and processes. This allows knowledge workers to access the corporate file classification and the records within it through their business applications in a collaborative and secure way.
4) The fourth trend is driven by technology. Government needs records management solutions that are scalable and economical to implement and operate. Records management applications need to leverage the existing IT infrastructure rather than build their own. One example of such infrastructures is the Microsoft Exchange messaging system, which has been widely implemented within government.
eManage—The Next-Generation Records Management System
eManage is an advanced records management application certified to the DoD 5015.2 Records Management Application standard. It offers a unique multi-stage real-time process for document and records acquisition that defines, at each stage, subsequent actions to be taken on captured documents. This is achieved by using intelligent content interpretation, resulting in a high level of accuracy in determining what actions are to be taken.
eManage provides a unique set of capabilities for the management of corporate records from the creation and capture, to the analysis and interpretation of record content, to the processing, records management, retention, archiving and final disposition of these records. eManage provides access to corporate records within a secure and collaborative environment. It makes the most of an organization’s existing business system environment through its integration with line-of-business applications (ERP, CRM, etc.), and its utilization of existing information repositories for record storage (for example Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint Portal Server).
The benefits of this solution include lower total cost of ownership of the IT infrastructure, lower operating costs for the records management function, productivity improvements for knowledge workers, mitigation of legal risks, compliance with regulations, and many others.
eManage (acquired in 2004 by Mobius) is a developer of email lifecycle management and electronic records management products that enable organizations to manage corporate records at an enterprise level. These products address the market’s need for a complete solution that includes intelligent content analysis, record management and archiving. They also enable organizations to improve productivity, reduce the total cost of ownership of their messaging infrastructure, mitigate legal costs and risks, ensure compliance with corporate policies, and enable regulatory compliance. eManage products are DoD 5015.2 certified and compliant with SEC 17a-4, HIPAA and FDA rule 11.