LECTURE 11

ELECTRONIC RECORDS MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

11.0 LECTURE OVERVIEW

A number of softwares have been developed to support management of electronic records. This
last lecture highlights some of these softwares, their capabilities and the system vendor.

11.1 OBJECTIVES

At the end of this lecture, you should be able to:

 Identify some of available electronic records management software.

 Provide advice to an organisation on selection of electronic records management
software based on the organization’s needs.

11.2 INTRODUCTION

The advent of electronic records has resulted to development of several electronic records
management software (ERMS) to support the functions and activities of electronic records. As
you are aware, e-records reside in computers. Computers depend on softwares to function and
enable performance of various applications. Therefore even management of electronic records,
which is a computer-dependent activity, can only be possible with proper software to drive the
process. This is why there has been steady development of ERMS. As technology changes and
records management improves, so has been the need to continue reworking on ERMS and
developing new ones to reflect the true society needs.

Activity 11.1
How ERMS are you aware of?

It's estimated that more than 90% of the records being created today are electronic. Coupled with
the overwhelming growth of electronic messages - most notably e-mail and instant messaging -
the management of electronic records has become a critical business issue. How that information
is managed has significant business, legal, and technology ramifications. Ultimately, it doesn't
matter what medium is used to create, deliver, or store information when determining if content
is a record and should be managed accordingly.

It is important to note at this point that whereas, there has been development of many quality
ERMS, there has also been proliferation of fake ERMS in attempt to satisfy the increasing need
for these softwares. Most of the weak systems fail to capture the essential records management
requirements and have a tendency to address only one aspect-mostly storage and access. The
challenge for many organisations has been to distinguish between a good ERMS that serves
records management functions from a weak one that fail to return value for money. In the next
section, we will be looking at the essential qualities (functional requirements) that any system
should be capable of delivering.

11.3 FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR ERMS

By functional requirements we mean certain essential characteristics or capabilities that any

ERMS must have. These capabilities are essential in ensuring that the ERMS enhances effective,
efficiency and quality of electronic records management. These requirements are listed below:

1. The ERMS must allow folders and records to be organized, so that they can be managed,
found and understood. The ERMS should support the representation of a business classification
scheme that reflects the business activity of an organisation. The ERMS must allow records to be
classified in accordance with the organization’s records classification scheme.

2. The ERMS must formally capture records regardless of their technical characteristics.
The ERMS must ensure that digital objects can be captured, regardless of format and technical
characteristics, so that they can be registered and stored as digital records. The ERMS must
facilitate the process of registration, whereby a digital object is marked as a formal record and
registered into a corporate recordkeeping system.

3. The ERMS must have the ability to assign rights and restrictions on the use or
management of particular records in order to facilitate security. The ERMS must provide an
authentication mechanism which controls access to the system by validating each user (e.g. user-
ID/password login) at the start of a session. The ERMS must support a mechanism for centrally
managing access and security controls that may be applied to users, digital records and other
entities in the record plan.

4. The ERMS must be able to control the retention and disposal of records held by the
system, in accordance with disposal authorization. The ERMS must support the controlled
disposal of records legally authorised for disposal, either in accordance with approved disposal
authorities issued by the National Archives or in accordance with a specific legislative
requirement for the disposal of particular records. The ERMS must ensure that destruction results
in the complete obliteration or inaccessibility of all objects as authorised, that they cannot be
restored through operating system features or specialist data recovery techniques.

! The ERMS must be able to control the retention and disposal of records held by the system,
in accordance with disposal authorization.

5. The ERMS must be able to retrieve digital records and folders by a variety of search
methods, and render the results on-screen. The ERMS must support the input of user-defined
parameters for the purpose of locating, accessing, retrieving and viewing records, folders and
other record plan entities, and associated metadata. The ERMS must be able to retrieve digital
records and folders by all implemented naming principles.

6. The ERMS must support the use of metadata to describe digital records and to enable
automated records management processes. The ERMS must support the range of metadata
elements detailed in the Recordkeeping Metadata Standard for Commonwealth Agencies and any
other elements required to support the organization’s business.

7. The ERMS must meet relevant local, national and international requirements for
recordkeeping and records management. The ERMS must support compliance with the
recordkeeping, evidential, privacy and access provisions of all relevant federal legislation and
regulatory framework. The ERMS should support compliance with all applicable Australian and
International standards

11.4 EXAMPLES OF ERMS

SOFTWARE CAPABILITY VENDOR

ARCHWAY Specifically written for archivists and records Digital Services Ltd,
managers with requirements of archives Portsmouth-England.
management and with search and retrieval
capabilities

CAIRS IMS Includes a module for records management Leatherhead

( Information which can be attached to other modules i.e. Information
Management System) library module or Text Management System technology, Surrey-
(TMS) module for additional text retrieval. Australia.
Has also links to imaging and OCR
Cellstor Data A client/server product that allows storing, AME, Dublin-Ireland
Manager organizing and indexing of data over the
network for retrieval and sharing of data
CORA( Control of Allows for tracking of files, documents, boxes STATUS/IQ Ltd,
Record Centres, of files and barcoding. Harvell.
Registries and
Archives)
DE/Cartes Document Version control, audit trail, searching, viewing DE Application Ltd,
manager and printing. Intended to reflect a single West Yorks-England
hardcopy, filing system that can be shared on
 networks.
IMPReS(Information Has modules of registry(file), document, MFT Computer
Management process- archives and correspondence management Systems, Leeds-
ing Retrieval System) England.
HEADFAST Has full range of database characteristics and Head Software
fast retrieval capability for document and text International, Surrey-
information. Provides multitasking capability. England
INMAGIC A fast user friendly RM system. Retention Soutron Ltd,
schedules, reports, document links and images Derbyshire-England.
can be configured to user requirements.
OUTSIDEIN Permits viewing of any document created in Software
any one of over 130 applications including Compatibility Centre
Windows, DOS, Macintosh and DEC file LTD, London
formats.

SydneyPLUS Records Has full text indexing with RM and document Soutron Ltd,
Management imaging. Includes cataloguing, retention Derbyshire-England
scheduling and tracking.
RECFIND A family of ISO 9001 approved software. Team Logic Systems
Includes file & document management, EDM, Ltd, Merseyside-
classification system, search facility, barcode Australia.
reader and archival facilities.
PRO-RIMS(Registry Supports EDM and e-mail. Features include: McDonnell
Management real-time file creation, security features and Information Systems
Information System) retention/disposal scheduling. Runs on both Ltd, Hempstead-USA
stand alone computers and client/server
systems.

Activity 11.2
Which of the softwares in Table 11.4 above would you prefer?
11.5

Lecture seven has been our last lecture in the lecture series of this course.
You have learnt the essential characteristics any quality ERMS should possess.

11.6

1. What factors would you consider when selecting electronic records

management software?

National Archives of Australia (2006) Functional Specifications for Electronic

Records Management Systems Software. Australia: National Archives of Australia