It’s not too late for government agencies to still meet the electronic records management deadline set by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), even if they’re a little behind schedule … with a little help.
Specifically, federal agencies have until the end of this year to start submitting all permanent and temporary records in electronic format, including all appropriate metadata, to NARA. This is an aggressive timeline further complicated by the fact it’s actually several deadlines combined into one. Converting analog records into electronic format is a wholly different project from managing born-digital records, for example. And according to last year’s Senior Agency Officials for Records Management (SAORM) reports, agencies are facing some steep challenges.
But here’s the good news: agencies aren’t alone. Outside vendors, including Electronic Records Management (ERM) technology providers, can provide an enormous amount of support and guidance to facilitate the processes of meeting the deadline. Here’s five ways in which a vendor, supplier, or partner can help.
1: Supplement Manpower
One of the biggest challenges in meeting the 2022 deadline is the sheer scope of work relative to available labor. An outside vendor can help here in several ways. They can supplement internal staff by assigning their own people to various projects, including crafting strategy, handling digital conversions, and training end-users. In other cases, the products and technologies they offer can reduce the overall workload. Automation in the records management workflow, for example, can reduce what human workers even need to do.
2: Consolidate Electronic Records Management
By choosing an ERM that can handle all of the different tasks and record types associated with the mandate, agencies can ease the process of meeting the final deadline overall. In other words, if the agency selects an ERM solution that can handle both analog and born-digital records, it becomes much easier, much less expensive, and much less labor-intensive to meet all of the requirements to fully convert to electronic record keeping.
3: Assist with Conversions and Migrations
Consolidating into a single technology platform will probably mean migrating existing records into the new system and going through a process of converting analog records into electronic format. This is also an area where the vendor should be able to help. They may be able to handle the process themselves: just hand them access to your ERM or your boxes of paper documents to be digitized, and they’ll take care of it. Or they may be able to help the agency set up smart, streamlined workflows for handling those tasks in-house faster and more efficiently.
4: Ease Information Governance
Electronic records management is a new (or new-ish) frontier for many agencies, and it introduces brand new considerations, issues, and questions that have to be addressed. No single tool is going to ensure compliance with the 2022 mandate from NARA if that tool is not supported by a smart strategy, good policies, and a well-executed digital transformation process. The right vendor can supply, support, or guide agencies in developing the information governance protocols they need.
From this perspective, NARA’s deadline may actually represent a great opportunity for agencies to develop sustainable records management processes that work in tandem with a new all-digital approach to records. “We’re using this as an opportunity to not just get paper into a digital form,” Catherine Cole, a member of the Directives, Forms and Records Management Branch within USDA, said at an American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council event. “This is an opportunity to also look at our business processes that will allow us to sustain this moving forward.”
Where Can You Find Help? GSA Schedule 36.
Thankfully, it’s a lot easier to find qualified help in this area than it used to be. NARA worked with GSA to create an “Electronic Records Management Solutions” category in its GSA Schedules. These schedules make it easier for government agencies to find and buy from pre-authorized, pre-negotiated vendor partners, while minimizing waste and time. This ensures that the federal agencies can easily identify and verify the individuals who provide the goods and services they require and represent a great starting point for agencies to look for help.
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PSL is a global outsource provider whose mission is to provide solutions that facilitate the movement of business-critical information between and among government agencies, business enterprises, and their partners. For more information, please visit or email info@penielsolutions.com.