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ANNEX F
Preparation for Electronic Record and Document
Management (
eRDM)
F.1 Purpose of Guidance
It has become increasingly evident that business areas
throughout
SE are looking to organise their records
in advance of roll-out of
eRDM. Information Management Unit (
IMU) and the
eRDM team have produced the following
guidance to try to help identify what needs to be done, and
help ensure that best practice is carried out
office-wide.
F.2 Paper Files pre-
eRDM
Your paper files remain the official corporate
record until you have
eRDM. The paper file should
contain all material which makes up the story/audit trail
of business activity and decisions in your area.
Under section 3.6 of this manual, it is therefore
vital that "any documents created on
SCOTS (including e-mail) that would have
been placed on a paper file had
SCOTS not been available, should
continue to be placed on the paper file".
G Drive & Public Folder
G Drive and Public Folder are useful places to store
information to be shared electronically. However, G
Drive and Public Folder material is not the official
record. If documents are needed for the record, they
must be printed and filed. (This is also the case for H
Drive documents).
E-mail
E-mail is an important source of information, and
much of our business is carried out through this
medium. E-mails which are part of the story of the
business activity/decision making must be printed and
filed. Any e-mail or attached document which, if
received or sent in paper form, would normally have
been placed on a registered paper file, should be
printed and filed accordingly. Avoid printing out and
filing documents that were sent solely to provide
information and only file on paper important documents
you have initiated or received. A rule of thumb is that
the creator of the e-mail should ensure it is filed
accordingly.
F.3 What you can do now to prepare for
eRDM
Over the forthcoming months, there will be updates about
eRDM and opportunities to attend
seminars on information and records management. It is
important that all staff are aware of the Information
Management Principles, and have opportunities to think
about and discuss what they mean for everyone in their
particular jobs.
- Continue to improve your record and document
management skills (attend seminars/training)
- Seek to improve your
ICT skills, familiarise yourself
with the
SCOTS3 Good Practice
Guidance
- Look out for
eRDM developments, including
FAQ and briX notes,
SEN and
eRDM team Intranet site
- Work with Records Management Staff (
IMU) and
eRDM Communications team -
continue to ask questions.
- Ask Records Management Staff (
IMU) to retrieve your current
files from store - for closure consideration in
accordance with your records disposal
schedule.
- Rationalise the current files held on branch
premises with a view to closure and central storage
with Records Management (if appropriate).
- Ensure all your files are registered with the
central
IMPReS tracking and retrieval
system.
- Re-consider your (or the standard) Records
Disposal Schedule (
appendix 2 of this
manual) to ensure it is appropriate for your
files.
- Ask Records Management team for help if you are
unsure of how to do any of the above.
G Drive
There is no requirement for branches to
re-organise their G Drive in any specific way prior to
roll-out of
eRDM. If they do require
reorganising urgently, then useful approaches would
be:
- Develop a set of folder names which reflect the
subject/topics dealt with and use these to organise
the folders rather than organising folders by
organisational structures.
- Use the structure provided by your local
Records Schedule for paper files - or the standard
schedule (
appendix 2 of this
manual) if this is appropriate.
NB If you do not have a Records Schedule for
paper files, please e-mail Ian Taylor or Ann McBay
in
IMU - Records Management who
will advise on how to develop one.
F.4 eSearch
eSearch, the Executive's search engine, helps staff
search more easily across different "stores" of
information, including G Drives and Public Folders. This
facility is gradually being rolled out across the office on
a phased basis and will require input from business areas
and support from
ISUs. Specific details will be made
available locally as each Department is integrated.
Business areas will be asked to think about the information
stored in G Drive and Public Folders and consider:
- whether the information is still valid and
current;
- whether the information should be indexed or not;
and
- who should have access to it (eg branch, division,
group, Department, all of
SE).
This exercise will also be a useful preparation for
eRDM and it is recommended that
consideration should be given to both G Drive and Public
Folder content, currency and access issues, rather than
spending time on re-organisation of the folders.
Information Management Unit: Records Management
Team
January 2004
Contacts for further information:
Records Management: Ken Glasgow ext 45285
or Ann McBay ext 46921
eRDM: mailto:erdm
communications team
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