Overview
In today’s fast-paced digital environment, records managers face increasing pressure to ensure efficient, compliant, and cost-effective management of their organization’s records. Implementing an Enterprise Content and Records Management (ECRM) system can be a game-changer, but diving straight into deployment without a thorough assessment can lead to costly pitfalls and missed opportunities, including:
- Poor User Adoption: A system not aligned with existing workflows or user needs may face resistance or underutilization from staff, reducing the return on investment.
- Data Security Vulnerabilities: Not assessing current security protocols and requirements can result in inadequate security measures, exposing sensitive information to potential breaches.
- Data Migration Challenges: Without assessing the current state of records, data migration can become complex and error-prone, resulting in lost or corrupted data.
- Inefficient Record Retrieval: Without understanding current retrieval practices and pain points, the ECRM system might not improve or could even worsen record search and retrieval efficiency.
An ECRM system may be implemented without fully understanding the specific needs and requirements of the organization, leading to features that are not useful or missing critical functionalities. Hear our industry experts explore how strategic assessment not only sets the stage for a smoother deployment but also enhances overall records management effectiveness and compliance.
About Our Presenters:
Shermaine Haymer
With over 20 years of experience in Technical Delivery Management roles, Shermaine is no newcomer to the world of Enterprise Content Management. She has extensive expertise in ECM, software development and systems implementations. As a Technical Project Manager with Access Sciences, her goal is to drive efficient delivery of right outcomes for the customer and organization using proven methodologies. Shermaine has delivered solutions for State Farm, Lockheed Martin at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s office and LASERS. Most recently, Shermaine’s Access Sciences team worked with Louisiana OTS & DOTD to replace Content Manager with the FileNet Enterprise Architecture platform. She enjoys the challenge of solving complex, recurring problems that are rooted in organizational culture and ways of working.
Tina Gibeson, PhD, CRM, IGP
Tina has worked with state agencies and government records through various roles (from records analyst to project manager) for over 10 years. She has demonstrated expertise in records lifecycle management, procedure and retention schedule development, as well as training and change management. She now serves as the Director of Consulting Services at Access Sciences Corporation, working with organizations across a variety of industries to develop sound records and information management programs and implement information governance initiatives. Tina gives back to her local community as a student mentor and adjunct faculty for the LSU School of Information Studies, as well as serving on her local ARMA chapter board.
Presentation: Assess Before You Progress: Enterprise Content and Records Management Strategies
Johnny:
Today’s presentation, and you already know this, that’s why you’re here, is sponsored by Access Sciences, a NAGARA corporate sponsor, a contributor sponsor. I’d like to tell you about them before introducing today’s two presenters to you. So Access Sciences’ mission is to tame information chaos, and they do so by making unstructured data digital, findable, usable, and valuable for some of the largest and most complex state agencies and corporations in the world. Since 1985, Access Sciences has carved a niche as a leading consulting and business process outsourcing firm, employee and woman-owned, specializing in information governance, technology enablement, and business strategy. They’ve been powered by a dynamic team of experts committed to meeting each of their clients’ unique information management challenges.
Johnny:
Here at NAGARA, they demonstrate how they’re helping state agencies engage constituents in a self-service manner for public information requests PIRs and you can learn how their custom-built EDMS systems, housing millions of public records ensures that data is not only digital but also easily accessible. And this means less time searching and more time acting. And with their AI integration, they’re taking efficiency to the next level, offering real-time insights and responses. And today, presenting for Access Sciences, we have Tina Gibeson and Shermaine Haymer. Tina has worked with state agencies and government records through various roles, from Records Analyst to Project Manager, for over 10 years. She has demonstrated expertise in records lifestyle management, procedure, and retention schedule development, as well as training and change management. She currently serves as the Director of Consulting Services at Access Sciences.
Johnny:
Working with organizations across a variety of industries to develop sound record information management programs and implement information governance initiatives. Tina gives back to her local community as a student, mentor, and adjunct faculty for the LSU School of Information Sciences. Go Tigers. I’m supposed to say that right? As well as serving on her local ARMA Chapter board. With over 20 years of experience in technical delivery management roles, Shermaine Haymer is no newcomer to the world of enterprise content management. She has extensive expertise in ECM software development and systems implementations. As a technical Project Manager with Access Sciences, her goal is to drive efficient delivery of right outcomes for the customer and organizations using proven methodologies. Shermaine has delivered solutions for State Farm, Lockheed Martin at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office, and Lasers.
Johnny:
And most recently, her Access Sciences team worked with the Louisiana OTS and DODT to replace Content Manager with the FileNet Enterprise Architecture Platform. She enjoys the challenges of solving complex recurring problems that are rooted in organizational culture and ways of working. We’re again delighted to have Tina and Shermaine as our presenters. And ladies, the rest of the hour is yours. Go ahead and take it away.
Tina:
All right, switch over here. Thank you, Johnny, for introducing us, and welcome everybody. It’s our pleasure to be here. We’re excited to spend the hour with you, sharing some of our knowledge on assessments in these kind of implementations. So the agenda for today is just to kind of set where we’re going to give you a brief introduction, just to ground the discussion on what we want to accomplish. But overall, the focus is on the role that an assessment can play in really any major implementation initiative that you might be considering for your organization, the benefits and risks of doing them versus not doing them. And then we’ll also spend some time over how that actually looks like in practice. Some strategies and lessons learned from our experience conducting them with a variety of organizations.
Tina:
And of course, we’ll leave some time, hopefully at the end to have some Q&A. So please feel free to chime in at that point. We’d love to hear your questions, but just to kind of tell you where we’re coming from. So as consultants, we see of course, a number of trends and we kind of keep an eye on what’s unfolding. And in 2024 and really 2023 as well, these were the big ones. Most organizations are undertaking digitization initiatives, so moving from a paper centric environment to a pure electronic environment as the, you know, born digital, as we call it, electronic records are becoming more and more large scale and also trying to convert things into systems that have automated workflow solutions built into them with the goal, of course, to making your process easier and more accessible.
Tina:
AI obviously has a role in that as well, but that along comes with information governance. So none of these systems are useful if we’re not actually able to organize and make that information accessible in a way that everyone in your organization can work with it. So this is the building out and a taxonomy structure for your enterprise, having a search that works for everybody, all while maintaining security, access rights where we need them to be in order to not have any kind of risks involved there. And that comes then with a host of technology considerations, most of which relate to infrastructure. So there’s a lot of cloud-based initiatives moved to the cloud from on-premise environments, as we call them, or software as a service.
Tina:
And that is to say that we have seen just an increasing influx in record requests for proposals for some sort of system, whether that’s a content management system, a case management system, an information management system, largely called just any kind of like ECRM system that’s supposed to govern the information of the organization. And so we would like to really make the point today that if you’re considering those types of implementations, one of the most important things you can do ahead of time is to do a thorough assessment, and hopefully you’ll be able to walk away with some tips on how to do that effectively, and just to kind of level set. So ECRM, I mentioned this. We’re using this in its broadest definition, right?
Tina:
So, really just a framework of a tool system or a combination of systems that manages your digital and physical records across their life cycle. So, from creation through use to storage organization, all the way up to eventual disposal or archiving, as the case may be. And this touches across the entire enterprise. So it is not just confined to records management, but this really goes through every department. It is of course, involved legal, your executive leadership, operations in general, all have a role to play in making the system work for the organization and implementing the system effectively. From the user perspective, collaboration is the biggest one. So whatever system should facilitate some sort of ability for the team to collaborate with the records that are being, you know, worked on during the particular process that you’re following.
Tina:
Of course, that also needs to come with some sort of workflow system. So if I start over here, I might route it to another colleague, and then it needs to come back. And so it’s this automation of workflow along with the control piece. And that of course, also has records management implications. So you want to maintain some sort of version control over your files. You’re going to have some sort of organization, and that organization will in turn facilitate your search and retrieval. As you’re working with those records, once they move into storage, there’s a repository component where they either go to live out their retention period or they’re infrequently accessed all the way up to them having to be disposed or archives, as the case may be.
Tina:
So that’s just to give you kind of a broad grounding of what we’re talking about when we’re talking about these implementations.
Shermaine:
Good afternoon, everyone. So I just kind of like to review some of the more common implementation goals. So we’ve heard, Enterprise Content Management records management system from here on out, I’ll say ECRM, make it a little shorter there. But implementing an ECRM system, it isn’t just about adopting new technology. It involves a thorough integration with your current infrastructure. For government agencies, this can be very complex due to existing Legacy systems and the amount of data that a lot of these agencies have. So across all implementations, you know, we aim to centralize document management and ensure that the information is accessible and findable across departments and agencies. We’re here to improve that collaboration.
Shermaine:
So one of the biggest challenges in implementation is really the migrating all of this data into a new system without disrupting the current operations, while also ensuring security and compliance, and ensuring that your records retention and privacy laws are not compromised. In addition, with implementations, customization requirements can increase complexity. So you must balance your need for customizations over a configurable system that’s maybe easier to change in order to understand how to streamline your processes across departments. Another core goal is improving efficiencies by automating your document capture, processing, and additional workflow opportunities. This will allow your team to focus on more strategic tasks and goals rather than manual paperwork and scanning. So lastly, for implementation, scalability is essential for the future. You know, as agencies grow and change, so do their requirements. So we’re here to design systems with the future in mind.
Shermaine:
We hear a lot of discussion about AI and automation and what that means for modernization. But before you can even move along that path, you must create systems that are future-proof so that they can adapt as your needs evolve. Next slide. So let’s just talk a little bit more about the process of your ECRM implementation in terms of budgeting, scope, and timeline. Those are all critical components to keep in mind. So budget is always a consideration, especially for your government projects. And our goal is to balance that available budget with features and functionality that will deliver the most impact. And I always remind clients that implementing an ECRM system does not have to happen all at once. So we often will recommend a more phased approach. And that allows us to get you the foundation, those four functionalities up and running quickly.
Shermaine:
And that helps to keep the cost a bit more manageable. And then we expand as necessary. So, you know, just remember, build a solid foundation first and then start filling in some of those other elements. We get the essentials first, and then we can add in additional features. And, you know, lastly, just remembering that projects are very complex. Everyone has their own individual needs and system goals. So the assessment is critical in order to have these conversations up front and discover all of these pain points. So I’d like to pass it on to Tina to discuss the benefits of starting with an assessment.
Tina:
Right. So as Shermaine said, we usually recommend a phased approach. And really, as you’re considering these, the assessment really ideally is your phase one. This is your core foundation piece. It tells you basically all the things that must be addressed throughout the duration of the project in a way that is aligned with your organization because it’s shaped by your organization. So it really, when it comes down to it, increases the success rate of the implementation across all aspects of your organization. So what do I mean by that? Well, there are a number of aspects that you are going to focus on if you’re doing a large-scale implementation. And again, the complexity of this increases greatly the larger your organization is. So it will be similar from 50 to 2000.
Tina:
But the more service lines you have across your organization, the more it is important that you have some sort of plan going into it that addresses your organizational requirements. So in its most basic form, the assessment gives you an understanding of what your current state is. We all have perceptions of where we think our organization is, but do we really know for every department, what is their pain point? Where are they currently and how ready are they to progress along the lines of such an initiative? So getting a sense of your current state and at the same time knowing where you want to end up, what is the ultimate goal of implementing the system? Is it supposed to address every aspect of your organization’s records management needs? Does it not? There are certain exceptions.
Tina:
So, defining where we are, where we want to be, and then taking a very neutral look at all the gaps and possible risks that might exist in getting you from the current state to the future state. So it’s a very solid analysis of where you are today, what gaps you must overcome, and what might stand in the way of getting there. So the risk management aspect is one that translates very well to leadership and executives as you’re doing these initiatives, because they’re not just focused on sort of the common, very well-known, like, oh, this is a penalty. If we don’t do that, we’re going to get fined or use something tangible. But also, it tells you how much change management you might need because ultimately, if the employees across your organization aren’t using the system you’re building, then it won’t be successful.
Tina:
So it’s shaping that initial buy-in experience, but also letting you know where the pitfalls might be along the way. All that usually flows into a very informed roadmap, that sort of phased approach. And it really maps out the key objectives and also the resources, right? The budget, the people, and the time that you’re going to need to bring all those elements from the current state into the actual desired state. And you’ll hear us say this a lot. But the key for all of this is the stakeholder involvement. And this is across the organization. Right? This is your executive leadership team providing support, but really also touching every person in the organization at a different level and getting them involved early on.
Tina:
And the assessment is a great way to get early buy-in and just generally promote your initiative and the end goal as something that will have a positive impact, again, making it more successful. So, in a nutshell, those are kind of the main components of this getting the solid foundation. So, Shermaine, to make that a little bit more relatable from your experience, can you talk us through an example?
Shermaine:
Yeah, sure. So your organization wants to implement a new ECRM system. First, we have to identify those gaps and system constraints that may impact your implementation. So one example I can give is actually one of my current project efforts. We learned that our client is required to use a certain government website or software for all of their invoice workflows. However, none of the clients who are required to use that system are actually allowed access to the backend APIs in order to later retrieve the final approved invoice. And this can impact your migration opportunities because each one of those files has to be downloaded manually, one by one. And so these sort of issues or concerns are extremely common, but they must be addressed early on in order for us to have those conversations in order to find a compromise or an alternate solution.
Shermaine:
Another important part of the assessment is having change management at the very beginning of the project, starting with your assessment. So, understanding what some of those pitfalls may be, we can plan to manage the expectations and the change. So another scenario or example that I have is with another client. We were there to implement a centralized scanning for a very large government agency. Many, many users, as you can imagine, were very resistant in giving up their personal scanners and control over their own documents. So, in order for us to have some success here, we had to create a change management plan that allowed some of these users to actually keep their scanners for a while and just phase into the centralized scanning.
Shermaine:
So once were able to implement and show how much time we saved these users, the other users, and we proved that our QA process and our quality was actually superior, we were able to achieve that 100% engagement. So those are just a few little scenarios. So, and we, you know, we’re going over scenarios and benefits, I think it’s time for us to maybe discuss some of the risk of skipping an assessment. And Tina and I just would like to have a conversation about this. So, Tina, I’ll ask you the first question.
Tina:
Okay.
Shermaine:
What happens if a user adoption or training is not addressed during an ECRM implementation or prior to?
Tina:
Sure. And you kind of hinted at that with your scanning example. Right. Is if you don’t have training built in. What you will usually see is in the end, no one is going to use the system either in the way that you intended for them to use or just in general. And it is critically important to maintain a positive looking-forward attitude across the entire organization when you’re doing something that fundamentally alters the workflow of pretty much your entire staff. Because as you know, you’re going to have some people who are just absolutely excited. This is what they’ve been waiting for. They’ve wanted it all along, but for the most part, most people will see it as one more thing they have on their plate and one new process they need to learn.
Tina:
So getting a sense of where you need to focus your training, you know, you might find that the HR department is just really excited about this and they’re ready, so you can work with them to be your change champions. But then you find out that I’m going to randomly pick on fiscal is not because they have an invoice system that they can’t even interface with the system. So you know, you need to do a lot more change management there. So making sure that you get a sense of what training is required and where the pitfalls are is critical. So if you skip the assessment and you don’t see that, and you come up with a training video that’s like, oh well, here’s your workflow. But it doesn’t actually speak to those users.
Tina:
You’re risking losing them and having a sense of frustration associated with the new system that will be very hard to overcome down the line. And it’s not just users. The other big component is, of course, security and vulnerabilities. So Shermaine, in your experience, what are some of the pitfalls with not knowing what’s out there?
Shermaine:
Yeah, sure. You know, we’ve all heard the stories of data breaches, and we’re all likely getting letters offering us free credit monitoring. I’ve already received several this year that my credit data has been compromised, and it’s honestly infuriating to me. So last year, and this probably has happened in all states, but I’m just picking on the state of Louisiana now. So last year state of Louisiana officials announced that the Office of Motor Vehicles had been the victim of a massive data breach after hackers exploited a weakness in their document file sharing system and it was used agency wide, and that meant that millions of citizens had their data compromised. So, you know, it just goes to show that not performing an assessment when you have critical security concerns can cause immeasurable risk, not only to your clients, but to your reputation.
Shermaine:
Not to mention that you’re not adhering to proper compliance and regulations. So when security vulnerabilities occur, another thing that happens is everything stops. Your focus has to agency, and it’s rerouted to reevaluating this emergency. You know, your system security has to be fixed. We have to figure out what happened and pull in a team to recover. So this can cause serious delays in providing services to your customers. And, you know, in the end, it’s just much better for you to build in security into your initial assessment to avoid these types of situations. So with that, Tina, how does skipping an assessment affect searching for records?
Tina:
Right. And the goal, especially with a records management system that you’re putting in, is ultimately you want the users to be able to find their records, right? So it’s not just storage, but it’s that search piece, if you want them to work in the system, and the foundation there is that you have a solid indexing and metadata strategy for the records you’re putting in the system. And that is one where you really cannot underestimate how much you need to actually go and talk to the people who work with the records. So it is, you know, one thing for you to look at a piece of paper and say, oh, well, I would find it this way.
Tina:
But then, you know, down the line, you might find out that the entire department is using a random number that they’re assigning to their individual things as they’re coming in, some sort of log that you had no idea. But that’s the core piece for them to find information they need. So having that conversation, making sure the right people, the people who are actually working with the records, are involved in those conversations, is critical. And the best time to do this is at the very beginning, not down the line when you discover that, oops, actually we need to completely rebuild our submission form because we didn’t think that someone needed that number. So in the beginning, have the conversations, and again, this goes to the change management piece.
Tina:
It gives them a way to work with your initiative, become part of it, and ask those questions early and feel connected for sure. And the other thing that happens is a lot of folks now work in several systems. They might have something stored in Teams, they might have something stored on shared drives, they might have something stored in a third-party application. So any kind of data migration that you might have to do as part of your project is critical. So, do you have any stories about lacking data migration?
Shermaine:
Sure, yes, I have plenty. But I’ll try and stick to just maybe one. But as we mentioned earlier, I always say data migrations are tricky. It doesn’t matter who you are, how prepared you think you are. It’s just data migrations are always complex. And you know, depending on the format of your data, how old your legacy systems are can introduce a lot of new problems. So one particular I’ll keep it short story is I had a migration many years ago, moving from an AS400 to a more modern system. And we found that on the document management system, there were these really old documents, and they were stored in a custom format that I had never heard of. And it was used in a proprietary software that no longer existed. It was discontinued and we were not informed of this before we started the project.
Shermaine:
So we actually had to create a sub project to go out and do a vendor search to be able to find vendors who were able and willing to convert this data and the documents into a PDF format that we could actually ingest. And unfortunately, it was very expensive for the agency, but it was necessary because this was an agency that provided retirement benefits for citizens of the state. So we had to have this documentation available. So, you know, with that said, all migrations involve pretty much the same steps, the extraction, transformation, and loading of that data into a new system. However, there are all sorts of different pitfalls and issues that may arise. So, you know, you have to conduct a thorough assessment upfront in order to plan for these unique issues and save yourself time and frustration.
Shermaine:
And then some of these unique issues are related to compliance. And you know, if you’re not aware of some of those compliance issues, it can really come back and harm you. And so Tina, can you talk about any compliance, you know, some compliance risks that you may come across by not performing an assessment?
Tina:
Sure. And then you mentioned some already. You know, you need to be of course, aware of any security-sensitive information that exists within your agency. So if you have something that’s personal protected information or subject to certain laws and regulations, like let’s say, you’re a health agency and you just simply cannot put certain information into a public or even a cloud environment because of laws or regulations. You must be aware of this because your technology folks will not know because you know they’re not the experts of your records, you are. And so you just need to be mindful that as you’re going through and identifying what you are converting or storing adheres to those requirements. That also goes along with access across your organization.
Tina:
So you might have some HR personnel files that are confidential, and you’ll need to lock that down to a specific use group versus organization. Wide public access already vetted can be seen by anybody. So having those discussions up front will make it a lot smoother on your IT implementation team to know what they need to put in place. These controls can get extremely complex and nuanced, and it also allows you to pre-vet some information that you might want to just go ahead and make public because you get requests for that all the time, and it’s just easier for the public to self-serve. So making those determinations early on is a lot easier than coming back at the end and realizing you just published an entire host of medical information.
Tina:
Oops, because you did the unbutton switch, and oops, it’s public, let’s yank it because we forgot that we can’t make that public. So those protocols and flows are really good to work out early on. And again, coming back to change management, any last thoughts on that Shermaine?
Shermaine:
You know, I would like to kind of piggyback off of your example because you’re right, change management is always underestimated, and it’s a huge mistake. Most teams assume that people will just adapt, but without proper support, your users will struggle or, you know, they’ll be really disappointed in the results of the system. So you know, one example, just to piggyback on what Tina said, I worked with an HR director once, and in order for her to approve our workflows, we had to have test data, but she did not want her personnel files in a test system. So we had to put together a pretty significant change management plan that she was happy with that actually went through and verified all of her different document types, but not using real data.
Shermaine:
It sounds simple, but it was very complicated to make sure that we could cover everything, and make sure that she was satisfied. And we got that information up front so that when we were able to test, we were able to get through it very quickly. So something that seems minor, you know, to a developer, can be extremely significant to your users. And those are the type of things you want to learn up front so you can plan for them, you know, so just to close a well-structured change management plan can help ease transitions, prevent problems, and ensure a very smooth rollout and hopefully better user engagement. I think we’re pretty Good conversation, Tina.
Tina:
Yeah.
Tina:
All right. So, having talked some through the benefits and the risk, let’s give you some suggestions on how to conduct this. And we had a question in the chat that I’ll get to as we’re going through these slides. So strategies for an effective assessment. So it depends on where this originates, but usually there is a seat at the table for records management that simply you kind of have to guide this. And the trick here is getting the right people together and also getting them to listen to each other. And this will depend greatly on the level that you’re talking about throughout your organization. So the reason that when we start with assessment initiatives, we generally recommend going with a established framework is to reach that executive level, but also talk to other leaderships across the different departments that might be involved.
Tina:
For one, if you’re leveraging an established framework, and I’m talking here about things that are pretty well known, whether it’s a certain ISO standard you’re using as a reference tool, or it’s something like the ARMA principles and maturity model that gives you kind of a sense of what the records management and information management status level is of your organization. They allow you to ground your analysis in basically an established model. You’re not making it up because you can point to, hey, here’s these components and international body agree that these are important for records. It’s important for us to be a level three on the maturity model, which means we’re in compliance with all applicable laws, and we’re functioning and managing our records appropriately. But we’re not because we’re over here on a level one in terms of being able to find our records.
Tina:
So it just, it grounds your assessment in something that you can easily reference and present as sort of the governing authority on this. And it gives you also a way to facilitate discussions. So as you’re moving through this process and you’re identifying gaps and resources, it gives you something concrete to take to, let’s say, the department leader of it and say, hey, during the course of our assessment, we noticed this. I really want to talk to you about this. And then so open that conversation because ultimately what you want this to do is translate into a roadmap that is realistic. Not the wishful scenario of, oh, we’ll get it done in six months, but something that really is tailored to your organization and that makes sense based on where you are and where you want to go.
Tina:
In terms of steps, it’s really not. I mean, don’t overthink it. It’s it’s not the most difficult of all things. It’s really just a, a tool of getting everyone before leaping in and coming out with an RFP that may or may not actually be what you really need. Right. So it’s part preparation. So you are looking for getting that executive buy-in that is critical. So you ideally want your leadership to be part of this initiative. Only if to say, hey, yes, I want you to do this. This is your mandate. You take it, you run. Because you need that occasional push from above that tells people, oh wait, I actually do have to answer the survey, or actually do have to work with this group of people so that executive buy-in is extremely important.
Tina:
And at the same time, you want to have the support to be able to make an ask of people to come to the table to be part of the conversation. That is very hard to do from the lower level, so to speak. But it’s critical to get that buy-in order to make it forward, move it forward. Then you’re going to spend some time designing the activities that are most useful for you. I’ll talk about that in a second. And then any documentation that exists, any policy documents, any long five-year plans, or anything that might touch on aspects of your records management system would be good to just review and see where you’re at. You also want to identify any tools you might need.
Tina:
So there are a host of tools available to help you do share drive analysis that, you know, give you some raw data of volumes, metadata out there on your actual shared drives. So any tools you might need, go ahead and identify those. And then, of course, it’s time to conduct the assessment. So you’re going to do your data gathering activities, you’re going to go through that inventory process, you’re just kind of getting a sense of what’s out there and what the requirements are that you’re going to need to meet with your technology that you’re selecting. So what’s the use cases that you have across your organization? What design specifications, what technical requirements, what data types? What volume of data? How clean is it? Do we have a lot of duplicates hanging out there? Do we even know where everything is?
Tina:
Those kind of questions you’re going to get answered throughout this particular process. And then of course that all shapes into analysis portion. That’s the most time consuming, obviously. And what you’re doing here is you’re really looking for trends. You’re not trying to solve it. All right, this is a neutral, just really hard look at where we are what trends are we seeing? What problems are we seeing? And then you’re translating that into, okay, this needs to be addressed as part of our program initiative. Where on the timeline do we need to address this? What system can we select that meets all or any of the above requirements that we have? And again, it doesn’t mean you have to address everything. Right. So as we’re translating this, we’re also setting priorities.
Tina:
The things that we absolutely need that are must-haves and then the things that would be nice to haves, but that are not critical, especially in the beginning. Because keeping in mind that scalability, the system ultimately should evolve with your organization as you’re embarking on this implementation. And we had one question. How do you ensure you have the right people to talk early about the content and especially in large institutions with silos? So that is very tricky. And the data gathering aspect of your assessment, I think, is the most crucial here. It really helps to, of course, have that executive support, but what do you do if you don’t? Well, you’re going to have to make basically the best of it.
Tina:
In every organization, like I mentioned, there’s going to be those who are ready for this change, and then they’re going to be those who are like, I really don’t, I don’t have time for this, I don’t want it. So, in some situations you simply are better off working with the ones that actually want it. Especially if you’re a very large organization. Because again, think of this not as a we must have everybody 100% on board, that would be fantastic, I would love it. But in reality, it can be phased, and you might find that a certain group is ready and fine, they are now your pilot group. You’re going to take them through the entire process, and they’re going to help you spread the word.
Tina:
Because if they’re successfully onboarded, if they’re successfully implementing that particular system using a day to day, then all of a sudden people are going to start chiming in and going, actually, this doesn’t look so bad. And you kind of roll it out from there. But data gathering is the most important, but also the most time-consuming aspect of your assessment. It can take many forms, but ideally, you want to involve everybody at every level across the organization. And obviously it’s not feasible for you to sit down with everyone one-on-one. And honestly, that wouldn’t be practical because you’re going to get a lot of opinions as you’re doing this. So again, you’re looking to identify trends and patterns more so than individual components.
Tina:
A good tool to reach everyone in the organization is to do an agency-wide survey, just to, hey, we’re doing this initiative. What’s your input? What would you like to see? What’s critical to your process, what you need to have? What would you like to have? It’s okay for this to be a bit of a unicorn, like give me everything you want of the perfect system. It’s just an ask, it’s not. Yes, we’re going to have to address every single one of those. And then you’re going to want to have focus groups. And what makes a good focus group participant is someone who’s been in the department, and you do want to have these probably at the department level, you know, who’s been there for a while, who understands the process, who knows the records.
Tina:
So you know, someone who’s worked with the records has, you know, not someone who came in yesterday, but someone who’s really familiar with it. And also, most importantly, can see speak for the group. So they’re fairly confident with the various processes going on in the group, but also has the bandwidth to take this on because this is a bit of a time sink. And the leadership component that’s needed here is for them to get the directive that it’s okay for them to spend time on this initiative to work with you and do have some time to complete these things. So that is a big ask in some. Another option of course, is have someone from the outside come in and do it for you, have those conversations. But it’s vital to have this sharing component as you’re going through.
Tina:
And then of course you want to document the outcomes of this. Again, you’re looking for trends, you’re looking for themes. If you have any particular outliers, someone just mentions a really weird system you’ve never heard of, then by all means follow up with a one-on-one conversation because undoubtedly that will come back and have a core component across your initiative implementation. And so stakeholders, we keep coming back to this. So stakeholders is a group of people, anyone who might have an interest, decision making capacity or just anything related to the outcome of your project. And we are of course familiar with all the internal stakeholders and that’s probably where you’re focusing most of your attention, right? The executive ladder, the organizational ladder, your staff, your employees, your project team, your project managers. So all of those are of course critical to your project implementation.
Tina:
But don’t forget you also have some allies, and you want them to be allies outside. So external, you might have a third party, whether they’re providing a system to you that you’re currently using or that you might consider using in the future. Any kind of vendors or anyone who’s bringing information to you. Those are all important to keep in the loop with your initiative, and also to consider. So if you’re regularly sharing data as part of your workflow with an outside entity, let’s say you’re submitting tax information to the IRS, then you probably want to make sure that whatever system you’re building still has that capability. And then there’s influential stakeholders. So think here. The media or the public at large, the community. If you’re building a public portal of some sort, it’d be great to go ahead and get some early buy-in.
Tina:
What are users wanting to see? You know, what is your most frequently requested piece of documentation so they can provide some valuable input as you’re going through the assessment process and guiding what you want that system to ultimately look like. And of course, all of that boils down to this implementation roadmap. So we’ve completed our data gathering, we know where we want to be, and now we’re going in, and we’re prioritizing what we want to see, where the risks are, where the gaps are, how we’re going to fill those in, any obstacles that we must address. And it’s really coming up with those actionable statements. And as you’re developing your timeline, I strongly recommend that you consider it in terms of large buckets. So one of them is going to be the program component.
Tina:
It helps immensely if you, for a project of this size, come up with a steering committee. And ideally, that steering committee is going to bring together those folks who are hard to reach, right? So if you know that legal is always off in the corner doing legal things, you probably want to bring someone from them in and participate in that discussion. Same with it. Same with risk management. Anyone who is important as part of your conversation, and they are also the ones who should be taking a very hard look of the organization-wide policies that are needed. So any standards procedures that you’re implementing as part of the overall organizational management, it helps if they come from this unified body. So this will be your organization-wide records management policy.
Tina:
And of course they are also responsible with monitoring the progress of the implementation and the overall assessment of whether it’s functioning or not, then that leads to processes. So as you’re building out this implementation in the system, each department is going to have their own department-specific processes, indexing file plans, retention schedule related things. That you must consider. So that also needs to be developed as part of the initiative. And again, it doesn’t all have to be 100% or nothing. Most of the time it’s helpful to start with a pilot group, especially if you’re also doing a lot of auxiliary activities, like let’s say, hey, we’re going to also clean up the share drive or we’re going to decommission this third-party system. So you work within those processes to develop a timeline. Technology, of course, is critical to this as well.
Tina:
So knowing what hardware, software you need, how it’s going to be integrated, what the go-live will be, is it a hard cutover, Is it going to coexist? How do you reconcile the systems, what support will be available that is its own timeline, and last but absolutely not least, the culture. Right. Again, this change management stakeholder piece. How ready are we for this change across the organization? What communication is needed to all stakeholders? And this can vary in frequency. It just depends on what the organizational need is, and of course, what training do we need to provide for these processes as we’re rolling them out and implementing them.
Shermaine:
Yes. Very good. Thanks for sharing all of this information, Tina. Actually, the project roadmap is one of my favorite activities at the end, when you get to that point. So, you know, it brings up that question that we’ve been asking this entire session. Why do an assessment? And I think the answer is pretty simple, that performing an assessment sets the foundation for a successful project by providing that project roadmap for achieving your goals, managing those stakeholder expectations while minimizing those risk. And you also want to maximize the value of your investment because you’re putting a lot into this, a lot of your budget into these projects. And I just, you know, I think it’s important that you have a partner or a guide who understands what to look for and which questions to ask to help you avoid falls.
Shermaine:
It can be a game changer in, you know, that experience can help your agency, your company, be successful. So like I said, it’s pretty simple. The reasons why you should do an assessment. And I think, Tina, we’re ready for.
Tina:
We’ll take questions.
Johnny:
Great, thank you. Yeah. Looking at the chat, we’ve already got a question here from Glenn, who asks, what are some things that impact project timeline even after an assessment has been done?
Shermaine:
Oh, that should be one. Sure, we can jump in there. You know, unplanned change is always something that scares most project managers. You know, it’s unplanned, and it’s a change. And that could range from new regulations that you receive from your local government. It could be a new security protocol that’s enforced by your technology group. And you really have to be able to adjust and be adaptable and have a team that’s talented enough to come up with those alternate solutions. And I mentioned this earlier, that I’m working on a current project where we learned that the client does not have access to the APIs, and that for most developers, that’s a normal assumption that you will have access to, you know, the APIs in order to get information and to move things forward. So it’s not something that you typically ask. Right.
Shermaine:
However, with you know, what we’re doing as consultants, we have a list of questions that we’ll ask to try, and since we’ve been through it, we have a lot of lessons learned, and so we ask those questions a lot up front, like do we have access to this, and what access do we have? Because we know that it directly impacts the project timeline if we don’t get those answers up front. Tina, do you have anything to add?
Tina:
Yeah, I’m just, I’m laughing because like I’m thinking of one of the projects that we did. We’re like halfway through, we thought we had everything accounted for, and then turns out there was actually two boat sheds full of documents that have been sitting out there that someone randomly like remembered oops. And all of a sudden, now we’re in the middle of a remediation, and you know, assessment strategy, and oops. Now we have a big storage of backfile we’ll need to process. So it’s, you know, it, I’m not saying it’s, it’s foolproof to have this, but it certainly helps having more of a heads up than you might otherwise have.
Shermaine:
Exactly.
Johnny:
A reminder, we still have some time for some questions. You can ask a question one of two ways, type it into the chat, or if you are brave and you’re feeling some willingness to have some courage here, raise your hand, and I will unmute you, and you can ask your question to our presenters. The little raise hand button is at the bottom of WebEx, right next to the little smiley face reaction button. Other questions for Tina and Charlotte. Okay, Janice asks in the chat, is it best to have both a records management professional and an archivist on staff?
Shermaine:
Well, I would say that really.
Tina:
Depends on the records you have. Right. Because those are two very different set of experiences, training, and skill sets that are extremely useful. So I mean I, I’m very on the records management. Let’s, let’s bring in as much help as we can. So I would say absolutely. But realistically, you know, we all probably have to wear many hats, but it really depends if your remit is, you know, you really have an archival component to your records. Like, let’s say you work in. Well, we’ve been talking about cemeteries for no reason, but you know, death records in general. And we had some going back all the way to the 1700s. You know, if you, with those records you absolutely must have someone who has the expertise to preserve at that level.
Tina:
If you’re talking more of an organizational setting where you really more day-to-day activities, then you know that the records management, information governance expertise is going to be the most needed. But I certainly wouldn’t want to rule out anyone’s skill set as we’re conducting these because when you’re embarking on a major implementation project, you’re going to find those boat sheds full of documents, and it might turn out that you do need to preserve them, you cannot destroy them. And then, you know, having archival expertise is immensely helpful if you don’t have that privilege and you just don’t have funding for, you know, just the dream, a team of records management, information governance, archivists, librarians, like power rangers going in, then being able to draw on a source of information.
Tina:
So we are fortunate in Louisiana we have state archives that we can contact that, you know, have that expertise for us that we don’t have in-house in state agencies. So drawing on that as well, that’s your community influencers is a great plus.
Johnny:
Okay, thank you so much. Now we’re getting towards the end here. Two minutes remaining. Nobody’s raising their hand. So they’re either shy or they don’t have a question. And I’m still looking in the chat and don’t see any other questions there. Let’s just give it a, a minute more. And by minute, I don’t mean a full 60 seconds, you know, given another head fake to see if anything comes in. All right, well, we’re getting great info today. Thanks for sharing and I think since we’re now at a minute left, what I’ll do is say. Tina, Shermaine, Access Sciences, thank you. Thank you so much for presenting today and for this great information, and thanks to all of you for attending today’s Sponsor Solutions series presentation.
Johnny:
I think if you’ll go to nagara.org/events you will have a lineup of events through the end of 2024 that we encourage you to go and sign up for. And until we see you, then everyone take care, be safe, and we’ll see you next time. Thanks, everyone. Have a great day.