Size and type of system
A second important area to agree is just how big a system and what type of system are you looking to procure? Stage one provides a review of the different types of system available which hopefully will help you to narrow down the options.
A number of universities to date have implemented an EDM system in a specific application. Most have opted to use EDM to manage student documents. Some have used EDM to manage finance documents. Others are using EDM to manage documents relating to externally funded research projects etc. A number of these are now looking to add ERM functionality to their solution.
To date no education organisation has completed the implementation of a corporate EDRM solution. However, based on central government experience and the advice of The National Archives a number of education organisations are now planning to investigate the feasibility of implementing a corporate EDRM solution.
Nobody would implement a corporate solution in one big bang. As we shall see in stage six when looking at the implementation plan in detail, good practice says you should start with a proof of concept or model office phase; then look at one or two pilots in specific applications and then start to roll out the solution. At each stage you would run acceptance tests and further progress in the contract would be dependent upon the supplier passing each test.
However, if you are an education organisation planning a solution now you should aim to include records management functions and you should be looking to select a system that can be used across the whole organisation even if budget constraints mean that you cannot afford to roll it out across the whole organisation initially.
For smaller education organisations who lack the budget for a corporate EDRM system at present or the project resources to manage such a project then the best approach in the short to medium term may be to investigate best practice for paper and electronic records management and look at what you can do with currently available tools. You should still aim to conduct an information gathering and analysis stage as outlined in stage three. However, at stage four you will need to focus on affordable options for the short to medium term.
