Records Management Still Looking For Respect

Records managers often see themselves as the Rodney Dangerfields of the information technology world. Their projects are rarely given the same standing as issues such as e-government, enterprise resource planning or the year 2000 compliance problem. Agencies frequently overlook electronic records management as a requirement in overall information management strategy. And this trend, industry observers say, has continued even into the Internet Age.In fact, as government agencies move to populate portals and Web sites, issues related to records management are surprisingly neglected, said Betsy Fanning, director of standards at AIIM International, the industry association for enterprise content management in Silver Spring, Md."People are just throwing their businesses up there and aren't taking into consideration what documents need to be maintained, what policies they need to have, how long they have to maintain the documents from the Web in an archive," Fanning said. "If there are no policies or procedures in place, then records could potentially get lost."Records already are being lost or at least misplaced, as evidenced last year by the case of the missing e-mails at the vice president's office and more recently the missing documents discovered just before convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was scheduled to be executed.The latter case highlights the scrutiny that may rain down on a federal agency when records management is not given its due respect.FBI Director Louis Freeh came before Congress in mid-May to admit that poor records management had caused his investigators to overlook more than 3,000 pages of requested evidence during McVeigh's trial. The bureaucratic bungling could cause McVeigh's execution to be delayed indefinitely and has further damaged the agency's image. Freeh told the House Appropriations subcommittee that his solution included hiring a "world-class records expert" and establishing a separate office of records management and policy.The FBI fiasco likely will bolster a growing awareness among government agencies that they must increase their focus on records management."I think the sheer volume of the digital information that agencies are dealing with is starting to get their attention," said Russell Stalters, president of TrueArc Inc., formerly Provenance Systems, a records management solutions vendor in New York. The company recently started working with the National Archive and Records Administration (NARA) and the Energy Department. "Over the last year or so, we've really started seeing a lot more activity, but it's still basically unfunded." Stalters said. "Some agencies are redirecting funds or somehow finding funds to get started, but as far as rolling it out enterprisewide or agencywide, they're not there yet."Frank McGovern, president of Tower Software International of Reston, Va., a records management systems vendor, agreed. "Agencies are no longer just kicking the tires," he said. "They are asking some very pertinent questions. We are going in for more demonstrations and presentations, and increasingly we're more likely to see a senior manager in the room." Tower Software recently won a contract from the Navy-Marine Corps Archives to implement its TRIM Captura solution at seven sites.A few recent events are helping to push things along. For example, the Defense Department's 5015.2 standard, which was developed with input from NARA, has finally given federal agencies some well-defined guidelines for setting up an electronic records-keeping system. These include how to maintain information as well as record retention rates and refresh rates. Several vendors have been tested and found compliant, making it easier for agencies to filter through the thousands of electronic records management systems on the market.Another breakthrough is the Navy's decision to include 400,000 seats of electronic records management software in its massive Navy-Marine Corps Intranet contract. "You now have a major agency that has committed funds and resources to do this," McGovern said. "It's very significant, because it shows that it's doable."Implementing a records management system requires a great deal of input from systems integrators. Much of the effort involves consulting to help agencies review their policies for paper-based systems and adapt them to fit electronic and Web-based systems. Other services include helping agencies streamline their record retention schedules and starting training programs."There really aren't easy answers when it comes to setting electronic records systems, especially those that deal with the Web," Fanning said. "It's a management and methodology thing."One problem is as technologies are developing, the lines between once well-delineated processes, such as managing records, documents, data and information, are blurring. "That causes confusion for end users," Fanning said, "and there are end users out there that need very basic information, such as how do you pick a good records storage center, and what kind of procedures do they need to have to get their records into that center correctly. So there's basic need for education that systems integrators can and should fill."Jim Gander, director of enterprise business integration for Logicon Inc., a systems integrator in Herndon, Va., said his firm is seeing increasing demand from agencies for help with records management systems, from the planning stage to policy development to educating records managers and personnel. Logicon is performing a records management pilot for the Treasury Department.Gander noted that while agencies have been criticized for their slow migration to solid electronic records management systems, they face a large and increasing number of hurdles. Among those are fast-changing technologies, the growing need for strong security systems and the pressure to adhere to government regulations, such as the Electronic Freedom of Information Act (e-FOIA) and the Government Paperwork Elimination Act ? all in the face of shrinking resources and budgets.The integrator's role is to support the organizations in collecting data in the correct formats, whether that's a corporate database for internal use or an enterprisewide data repository that allows constituents access to public records, Gander said. "It's really the technology that's driving some of this, but if you want to do it right, you've got to look at the whole picture, and that means planning, policy development, compliance and other issues," he said.XXXSPLITXXX-Keeping track of the personnel records of more than 2 million soldiers and reservists is no easy task, but it's one the Army has long taken seriously. The information contained in each record, after all, is critical to everything from promotions and field commendations to health care and post-Army employment.Although the Army already had a robust solution in the Personnel Electronic Records Management System (PERMS), it nonetheless decided three years ago to marry its records management with the Web. Now, after overcoming tough integration and code conversion challenges, the Army is set this summer to unveil a Web-based version of PERMS called the Official Military Personnel File Online."The real focus of records management hasn't changed," said PERMS project manager Jim Riggs. "It's just the product that has changed. That product is the Internet, and it just makes everything faster, easier and more accurate."When PERMS was powered by a proprietary records management solution backed by optical disk storage, soldiers had to request their records by mail or phone and wait days, sometimes weeks, for the information. Likewise, agencies such as Veterans Affairs had to wait an inordinate amount of time to verify a patient's military record or benefits package. Now either a soldier or an approved outside organization can simply log on, receive authentication and pull up the record.Still, going from a closed to an open system presented plenty of tough technical hurdles, Riggs said. Tens of millions of forms had to be converted to a new image format so they could be stored in a RAID (redundant array of independent disks) environment, a storage method that decreases the chance of failure. In addition, a team of integrators led by Logicon Inc. (then Litton-PRC), Herndon, Va., and Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego had to implement high-speed service over a robust network backbone.Another issue was authentication: Who was going to validate that a soldier is really the soldier he says he is? To provide such security, the PERMS system will turn to Army Knowledge Online, the new portal. "A soldier can log on there and be authenticated based on existing databases," Riggs said.The PERMS journey from paper to Web has taken more than 10 years, with plenty of divergent technology paths traveled along the way. But the lessons learned will ease the way for others implementing online records management systems, Riggs said. That includes the PERMS office itself, which has yet to tackle the National Guard enlisted personnel files; they are still in paper form. Riggs and his team are conducting a business process review and will perform a conversion within the next two years.XXXSPLITXXX-A system that includes a relational database and automatically captures, indexes and retrieves documents and other records. A good product also controls user access and offers alerts as to when a record should be transferred or destroyed.A set of specifications set forth by the Defense Department that covers the legal, logical and technical requirements for managing electronic records management systems. The standard has been endorsed by the National Archives and Records Administration and is applicable to all federal agencies. It features a formal compliance testing program and product register.