Data migration?
This is a related area where an overall policy is needed and then agreements need to be made for each pilot and step in the roll out.
Electronic documents and e-mails
Users will have electronic documents held in directory and folder structures on shared drives and personal drives and they will also have e-mails and attachments stored in e-mail inboxes and in various folder structures.
When you implement the EDRM solution they will have new electronic folders set up and can save e-mails and attachments and other electronic documents into those folders.
The question is - do they need to selectively review their archive of e-mails and electronic documents and save some of them into these new folders and if so - what criteria should they apply?
In many cases - if you applied a print to file policy before then the important master e-mails and electronic documents should have been printed out and filed in paper folders. If that was rigidly followed then you should be able to just adopt a day one forward policy and delete old e-mails and electronic documents unless you want to re-use them in which file them in the new folders.
If you did not follow a print to file policy then you need to review some or all of your e-mails and electronic documents and move the valuable ones across and into the relevant electronic folder and delete the rest.
This is time consuming but at least it is a one time activity and as long as you save all new documents and e-mails into the system you should not have to do it again.
Metadata
You may also have metadata relating to paper records which you may need to load into the new system.
The most common case will be if you have a paper registry and use registry software to accession and track each paper folder. If you do you may wish to simply close this and hold it as an archive.
Alternatively you may wish to load this metadata onto the EDRM system and hold it as an archive file plan. You will need a separate file plan for this as almost certainly the data held for the old paper files will differ from the metadata requirements identified for your new corporate file plan and classification scheme.
In extreme cases you may wish to reindex the paper files so that they do follow the new metadata standards set for the new system.
Training
We reviewed in stage four and six the options for training. You could ask the supplier to conduct all the user training or you could ask the supplier to train a set of your training staff and then use them to train the users in-house.
If you opted to ask the supplier to train your trainers and for them to then train all the users you need to be sure you have all the arrangements in place to ensure that all the required users are trained prior to the model office; pilot and all roll out steps.
You will need a room set aside with the required number of seats running the latest software. You will need a minimum of half a day of training and a maximum of a day.
If you need to train 1,000 users in 12 months then if you opt for half - day sessions and install 10 user seats you will need 100 sessions or a total of 50 days of training. If you opt for full day sessions you will need 100 days.
The supplier should work with you to agree the course content and produce the slides and train the trainers. You then need to ensure you have the right to use that course material to do your training.
We would recommend that the supplier does all the operator and system administrator training and the records management training.
The difference between user training and records management training is that records managers would be trained to set up a classification scheme/file plan and to set up folders and carry out review and disposal activities in addition to the user functions of saving documents into folders; declaring documents to be records and searching for and retrieving and viewing/printing and editing/annotating documents/records.
The difference between user and operator training is that operators would also be trained to scan and index documents into the system and carry out rescan and quality control functions as well.
