PURPOSE OF REPORT AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Transcription

1 Committee: Cabinet Date: 18 February 2013 Agenda item: 9 Wards: All Subject: Electronic Document Management System Lead officer: Sophie Ellis, Assistant Director of Business Improvement Lead member: Cllr Mark Betteridge, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Performance and Implementation Forward Plan reference number: 1224 Contact officer: Sophie Ellis, Assistant Director of Business Improvement Recommendations: A. That the council s electronic document management system, SMART, is replaced. B. That a maximum budget of 1,218,300 is made available from existing reserves earmarked for modernisation to fund the replacement system. C. That a replacement system is procured as part of the competitive dialogue exercise to be undertaken as part of the Customer Contact programme to ensure best value is secured. 1 PURPOSE OF REPORT AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.1. The purpose of the report is to recommend that the council replace its current electronic document management system, SMART, and existing scanning software The current system is not meeting business need and there are a number of chronic issues relating to functionality, compliance with relevant legislation and ease of use. The system is also likely to become obsolete in the medium term as the provider has ceased any developmental or improvement work and will undertake only basic support and maintenance In addition, the scanning software (which facilitates the translation of hard documentation into electronic files) is not adequate for business need. It lacks some of the basic functionality required by services, and there are also a number of system issues that are leading to high levels of rework within the scanning function. These factors combine to make it impossible to expand the service to meet growing business demand for document imaging and prepare for the impact of the flexible working programme A replacement system would deliver a number of business benefits to the organisation (set out in greater detail in the body of the report): More responsible ownership of information: reducing the risk of lost and mislaid documents and the consequent likelihood of a fine from the Information Commissioner and enabling the organisation to meet its 183

2 requirements under the Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts. Improved version control and automated document deletion/retention: reducing the level of duplicated documentation currently stored on the councils servers and in storage facilities and office space (and costs associated with these). Automatic redaction functionality ensuring personal data is not displayed publicly and thereby protecting the council from a fine by the Information Commissioner. Improved record management: making visible a wealth of councilowned data that is currently stored in, what are effectively, stand-alone Outlook folders to which only individuals have ready access. This is a critical consideration in relation to data transparency and evidence-led business execution. Better support collaborative working and multi-location initiatives, such as shared services: by allowing documentation to be accessed from any physical location. Allow all documents to be quickly identified, located and retrieved, ensuring that the council makes full use of data as assets to enable sound business execution and decision making. Introduce automated workflow management to speed up business processes and enable cost efficiencies to be realised Alongside these overarching business benefits, there are a number of pressing business demands that require that the failings of the current solution are addressed now. Officers in social care, planning, housing need, legal services and transactional services all urgently require an effective and current electronic document management system in order to deliver improvements and efficiencies already identified and agreed as part of the Medium Term Financial Strategy Perhaps even more critically, however, the absence of document imaging and electronic storage will inhibit the ability of the council to transform its services and deliver the necessary efficiencies and financial savings that it needs to achieve in the future. An effective electronic document and record management system (henceforth EDRMS) is a critical dependency to at least three of the council s highest priority improvement programmes: Flexible (and mobile) working: alongside the planned changes to equipment and working culture, it will be necessary to implement the technology needed to enable operatives to access and update information necessary to their function from any location electronically. Customer Contact: enabling resolution to customer issues at the first point of contact will require quick and easy access to a range of documentation across a range of services. Migration to self-serve will demand that customers themselves also have similar access. 184

3 Lean business improvement and the Public Value Review programme: both require efficient access to information and documentation currently held in physical and virtual locations across the organisation Finally, but significantly, the availability of EDRMS is an important factor in the overarching transformation of the organisation as part of the Outstanding Council Programme. There is a clear commitment to a high standard of professionalism and the streamlining of work processes so that they are efficient and not unnecessarily bureaucratic. It is essential that officers are supported to make this transition and enabled to continue providing high quality services to customers in a constrained economic environment. It is also essential that the organisation is able to respond effectively to the changing needs of service users. Existing reserves have been earmarked to facilitate the investment required to make this possible and mitigate against the impact of budgetary reductions across the organisation It is therefore recommended that the council replaces its current EDRMS. A recent high-level options appraisal indicates the range of solutions available to the authority; further work will be required by officers, as part of the development of a more detailed specification of requirements, to determine which of these is the right approach for Merton. This decision will need to be taken in the context of, amongst other things, planned investment in technologies to support Customer Contact. In order to ensure that these improvements take full account of each other, in recognition of their interdependence and to ensure the fullest potential of the market is explored, it is recommended that the replacement EDRMS technology is procured in tandem with the technology required to support the Customer Contact programme as part of a competitive dialogue exercise Pending further clarity, through the detailed specification of requirements and competitive dialogue, on the exact scope and cost of the replacement technology, it is recommended that the council sets aside the sum of 1.3m (the estimated cost of the most costly solution taken from the high level options appraisal) from the earmarked reserves identified above (item 1.7) and authorises the procurement of replacement technology as set out in this report, with the requirement that officers ensure best value is provided for the council across these technologies and long term viability assured. 2 BACKGROUND & CONTEXT 2.1. The council s existing electronic document management system, SMART, was implemented in Merton in 2006 to meet the government requirements for an electronic children s social care record. It has since been extended to other services within the organisation: Pensions, HR and Parking. There is also some limited use within elements of Corporate Services though this is ad hoc and patchy SMART has not been able to meet departmental and corporate requirements and as these grow and develop the issues pertaining to the current system become only more chronic. These are: Compliance 185

4 It fails to comply with national standard ISO It offers limited functionality in relation to document retention and is structured to work with several different databases, which makes document sharing difficult and leads to duplication Functionality Parts of the system do not work, for example the linking of documents is not possible and documents cannot be sent between databases. There are also a number of operational issues in the system that impede effective document management, for example using a hyphen in a document title destroys the document itself, and some staff are unable to view colour images. For a summary list of current issues with the system that the provider is unable to resolve, please see appendix Document retention Complexity A sound EDRMS should automatically manage and control document retention so that documents are held for the required amount of time in line with the council s security retention schedule 2 and destroyed thereafter (to avoid unnecessary storage costs). SMART does not allow the central control of document retention and the version control functionality is difficult to use and incomplete. SMART is a very complex system to set up, use and maintain. A higher than ideal level of interference is required by specialist IT staff in order to establish new workflows and work spaces which makes the system not just inefficient but costly to use as it requires more than a reasonable level of technical staff time (at a cost to the council). Each service that uses the system requires that a dedicated workflow structure be established; setting up such a workflow is a complex task that can be completed only by specialist IT resources and this takes at least six weeks, with the further creation of roles and permissions also a complex task. Since its implementation in 2006, take-up of the new system has been low. Just four services currently use the system along with some limited use within corporate services. The unintuitive nature of SMART, at even the most general level, as well as the complexities and limitations of the system, mean that take up is minimal and therefore the benefits of effective storage are not being realised even where they are currently available. This makes the technology an ineffective use of resources in its current state as staff struggle to use it and require specialised training A final, but significant issue with the current solution is that the system providers, OpenText, are no longer investing in the product s on-going development, seeking instead to move clients onto other EDRMS platforms within their product range. This decreases significantly the likelihood of ongoing issues with the system being resolved by the provider and of it meeting future legislative changes. 1 The national standard of good practice for a records management system. 2 Prescribed lengths of time for retaining various classes of records 186

5 2.4. The system has required a substantial amount of customisation in order for it to be effective within Merton. An upgrade was released in June 2012 which will likely be the last upgrade OpenText develop. This has not been implemented, however, as it would require a significant investment of time given the level of customisation within the system and as it makes only minor changes and does not fundamentally improve the system. There are insufficient business benefits to justify such an investment Support for the system is available until 2014 at an annual cost of 54, It should also be noted that the scanning software utilised within the Post and Print Room where hard documents are digitised is out of date and extremely slow. It provides only basic functionality that does not meet business need. This leads to significant inefficiencies, with officers dedicating time to rework such as rescanning documents (because the limited functionality of the software doesn t allow scanned images to be amended and edited). The council s Print and Post Manager estimates that on average approximately 25-30% of officer time is spent on such rework. Given this level of unreliability and its implications for staff resources - the Post Room is unable at present to expand document scanning from the current scope (parking, pensions, HR) into other services where demand is increasing (notably planning, transactional services and housing needs see items of this report) Currently the Post and Print Room scan for some of the teams (parking, pensions, HR) using a SMART front end but this technology is very dated and slow to use. Other teams (transactional services, revenues and benefits, planning and children s social care) carry out their own scanning, either because the Post Room is unable to meet this scale of demand or because they have concerns about the quality of the service (linked to technology issues set out above). Scanning undertaken by these teams is of mixed quality and it would not always be possible to prove legal admissibility (BIP ), i.e. that the correct procedures had been followed for scanning so that documents hadn t been tampered with or mislaid and therefore could be used in Court or similar proceedings If the existing technology were brought up to date, the Post and Print Room would be able to scan for all areas of the council, rather than different teams have their own scanning staff Analysis has been undertaken to understand why the current system has failed to meet business need. This suggests a mix of technical and implementation issues; a full and detailed log of lessons learned is set out as Appendix 2. It is essential that any project to replace the system draws on these lessons if success is to be achieved. 3 THE BUSINESS BENEFITS OF IMPROVED EDRMS 3.1. An effective EDRMS organises, tags and tracks electronic documents so that a single version can be held securely for a pre-determined period of 3 The standard code of practice for documents to be accepted in court. 187

6 time in line with the council s retention schedule 4. Complex access arrangements can be easily set up to enable multiple but controlled access to the same document, with an audit trail available to track changes made by individual users and version control facilities to ensure the latest, approved document is always used for decision making and publication. Comprehensive search facilities enable documents to be located quickly and easily against a wide range of variables (including but not limited to document content), with the ability for documents to be linked together where they relate to each other without having to be stored in the same virtual or physical location. Records can be protected against editing where appropriate. A number of retention options are usually available, including automatic deletion, the option to review before deletion and, where documents are linked, the longest timescale for deletion to be in place. Each of these reduces unnecessary storage and duplication Effective electronic document management such as this i.e. above and beyond the functionality currently provided would deliver a wide range of generic business benefits to the organisation as set out in this section Responsible ownership of information An effective EDRMS increases responsible ownership of information. Currently the amount of information the council generates is hard to control, and every time information is duplicated the problem becomes worse this has implications for a public organisation where sound information governance and complete transparency are paramount An effective EDRMS helps to ensure that documents are not lost or mislaid; that (through enforceable controls) they are saved correctly; that they are easily and efficiently accessible to all those who require them; and that they are kept only for as long as required. Co-existing with a robust information policy, the EDRMS will assist in reducing the growth of information stored (and therefore the costs of accommodating this in servers and hard office space) In practical terms, then, effective document management would assist the Council in meeting its requirements under the Data Protection Act through increased security and automated retention and an increased knowledge of what personal information is held. It should also help to make the process of responding to access-to-file requests from customers quicker as information will be easier to locate. Automatic redaction functionality would ensure personal data is not displayed or made available Importantly, a sound EDRMS will help reduce the risk of an information loss or security breach, and therefore the likelihood of a fine (up to 500,000) from the Information Commissioner. In the past two years, 14 Local Authorities have been fined for breaches in information security many of which would have been avoided had an EDRMS been in place (see appendix 3). Earlier in 2012 Merton had to inform the Information Commissioner of a breach when sensitive LAC case papers were found in Streatham after an officer of the council lost them on their way to an external meeting. In this case the council avoided a fine because it took prompt and 4 Prescribed lengths of time for retaining various classes of records 188

7 adequate action when the loss was brought to light. EDRMS, however, should eradicate the need for hard copy documents to be ported from site to site and therefore the likelihood of such an event occurring again (with an ensuing fine for the authority). Coupled with the fact that the council encrypts electronic devices and has the ability to wipe some devices if lost or stolen, this would ensure the council s approach to information security continues to evolve in line with the use of technology to ensure continued robustness Security permissions can be completely controlled at every level in an effective EDRMS, which is not the case for shared drives such as are currently in use where SMART has not been taken up. Permissions can be set at any point in a file plan from the function level down to the record type, and can be set for a group or an individual depending on the business need. The right staff can access documents from any specified location and this, in tandem with the council s Flexible Working programme will reduce the risk of security breach through hard documents being ported around council buildings and increasingly to and from home when mobile working Through such controlled but facilitated access, an effective EDRMS would help support the Council s duty under the Freedom of Information Act through simplified and digital collation of related information to answer a request (see also locating documents quickly and easily below). This would ensure that information supplied is both correct and up to date, and provide clarity where information is not suitable for publication. Redacted 5 responses could also be saved alongside the original record so that responding to similar future requests would be easier and consistent. Improved scanning functionality would also facilitate automatic redaction for publishing to the web; this would be especially useful for the planning web portal, where the current solution defaults to automatically publish the personal details of individuals who reject or challenge an application. This has been the subject of a number of complaints from residents and clients of the service Version control Version control in an EDRMS improves data quality, ensuring that the most up to date document is always used for decision making and, through an electronic audit trail, that change is controlled and therefore on-going data quality assured Importantly, version control assists in the reduction of duplication, with a single and current version available to all who require it and all changes to documentation controlled, tracked and managed. The move for the council to rely on electronic rather than paper documentation is an important one not just in terms of the potential savings on (although there would be a degree of cashable savings in terms of paper, printers and ink 6 ) but, as is discussed later on in this report, to enable more flexible and mobile working practices. It s also important to note, however, that duplicated documentation has a financial cost to the council in relation to storage space both physical (Garth Road and Ravensbury document storage facilities 5 Censure or obscure (part of a text) for legal or security purposes 6 Estimated costs: paper c 37k pa; printer contract 400k pa 189

8 cost the authority around 37k pa) as well as external storage contracts which are estimated to cost in the region of 6.5k pa record management correspondence is currently stored within individual Outlook folder systems across the organisation, to which only individual parties to the exchange itself have easy access (further restricted access is available via the archive system). As more and more important decisions, and in some cases contracts, are agreed via and it is used more commonly to correspond with customers and partners it is critical that individuals s are treated in the same way as records recorded in other media such as post i.e. accessible to the service more widely An effective EDRMS enables to be held securely in conjunction with the other documents to which they relate (see locating documents quickly and easily below) whilst still given the necessary consideration to staff privacy. This means that the necessary information, correspondence and decisions are available to support any decision Collaborative working and shared services It is not unusual for silos of work to appear in a large and diverse organisation such as the council. An EDRMS helps to counterbalance this and promote the culture of information and knowledge sharing with recognition that data belong to the council as a whole and not to specific teams or individuals. Its functionality supports collaborative working by enabling documents to be accessed and contributed to by numerous officers whilst the history of a document is tracked and audited so that any mistakes can be changed by reverting back to previous versions. Collaborative workspaces avoid duplication and delays due to information not being easily or quickly shared amongst a group of professionals situated in different services or physical locations This does not just have benefits for internal collaboration; a sound EDRMS will enable the council to share documents or undertake electronic transactions with any partner or supplier. The system would support and facilitate shared services and multi-location initiatives and enable savings from these to be realised in the past these have presented significant efficiency opportunities to the authority (for example in HR and Legal Services) and this is likely to be the case in the future. The EDRMS will provide a secure repository that could be connected using extranet technology to hold customer records, contracts, reports etc Automated document retention/deletion An effective EDRMS will allow automatic retention to be set up as per Merton s retention schedule 7. This will enable the council to meet ISO15489 (the standard for records management), as well as Section 46 of the Freedom of Information Act (Lord Chancellor s Code of Practice on records management). The council would retain records for a specified period after which they would be automatically destroyed. In addition to increased compliance, a systematic and programmed approach to document 7 Prescribed lengths of time for retaining various classes of records 190

9 deletion would prevent accidental or purposeful deletion of records before they should be deleted, without approval from another senior user. This functionality also supports the realisation of efficiencies in relation to storage (discussed under version control above) Locating documentation quickly and easily The council holds a vast amount of data, information and knowledge. These are assets that should support sound business execution. An effective EDRMS would incorporate a search facility, supported by document linking enabling disparate documents related to a similar case or issue to be linked regardless of where they are saved in the system, a facility not currently supported This functionality would allow users to locate documentation in a variety of ways easily. Searches can be saved and those used repeatedly can be shared between teams. Accurate searching enables answering of customer queries quickly and in real-time, ensures all relevant information is considered in a decision, and will enable responses to Freedom of Information and access to file requests to be made more timely and thorough. Importantly, it would also enable information to be recorded once and use many times, a stated aim within the Information Strategy Workflow management EDRMS systems come with workflow packages which can be utilised to automate and speed up business processes to make cost efficiencies. For example, document forwarding and escalation can be pre-programmed so that a document moves through a series of officers for approval or action these can be fairly intelligent so that they react to an action or even the failure of an action taking place within a specific period of time. The council can benefit from workflow management in a number of areas; it could be used to transfer documents between locations and individuals, to manage workloads, to notify when new documents arrive, to aid collaborative working, and, using alerts, to notify when a required action has not taken place or is due. Whilst workflows are technically available within the current SMART solution, they do not function in a way that enables the council to make use of them It is worth noting that workflows in the EDRMS could also allow all outgoing post to be directed to the Post and Print room for printing, and then with other technology available on the market (Planet Press or Print Manager or similar) collate all post for each address, saving on postage costs and printing by teams Scanning There are a number of improvements that need to be introduced in the current scanning software in order for other process improvements and efficiencies to be realised. These include the introduction of bar codes to speed up automated recognition and ensure documentation is sent to the correct team and saved in the correct place first-time-round; and automatic indexing of documents such as invoices, which will speed up data processing tasks. Automatic redaction will enable documents to be ready for 191

10 publication, and allow both the original and redacted version to be available and saved (see item above) A number of local authorities have expressed an interest over recent years in Merton s Post and Print room providing their scanning function. There may also be scope for the Print and Post room taking on this work for other public sector organisations. This would, however, require improved scanning functionality as proposed in this report. 4 WHY INVEST NOW? 4.1. There are a number of reasons why resolution to the issues with our current EDRMS and scanning technology has become a critical issue demanding urgent investment Principally, this work is a major part of the infrastructure that will be needed if the organisation is to achieve the aims of the Outstanding Council programme. The council is committed to achieving the highest standards of professionalism and proficiency, modernising and streamlining its business processes so that they are as efficient as possible. Labour-saving technology, such as EDRMS, is required and increasingly so on into the future to support such an environment and enable officers to continue providing high quality services with reduced resources. Such technology will help mitigate against the impact of service and budgetary reductions by supporting staff to work in new, more economical ways. It also responds to the changing needs of customers and service uses who expect easier access to services and information. Existing reserves have been earmarked to facilitate this transition on an invest-to-save basis Another significant factor is that at least three high priority improvement and transformational initiatives and activities either planned or already underway within the organisation depend on an effective and efficient EDRMS in order to deliver a return on investment and realise target savings. The current system, SMART, will not provide for them an adequate operational environment. These are: 4.4. Flexible (and mobile) working The flexible working programme is challenging managers to think differently about how they use both IT and accommodation for the delivery of services. To facilitate new ways of working, the programme is introducing the necessary infrastructure and cultural change to support mobile, home and field working. These can only realistically be supported by an infrastructure that allows access to documents electronically. The programme is scheduled to deliver capital receipts in year one in excess of 2m and associated revenue savings of approximately 900k over four years Central storage of electronic documents will determine the degree of flexibility available over where and when staff work. For example, staff working in the field (e.g. social workers, planners etc.) must be able to update information electronically rather than constantly returning to a central office space to update systems, and for many practitioners this way of working will require access to existing records and documentation (for example social care case notes). For other workers, post and other 192

11 incoming documentation (such as invoices) will need to be scanned and delivered electronically so officers can work from home whilst still accessing all of the documents they require. Failure to adopt a reliable and easy to use system for scanning, processing and retention of documents will have a detrimental impact on the delivery and success of the flexible working programme and in some areas of the council will mean that flexible working cannot be implemented or efficiency savings realised As noted above, more sophisticated and up to date technology in scanning is also required. The Post and Print room will need to expand its scanning capability and provide a service to suit a mobile and flexible workforce who will need their documentation delivered to their work location wherever that may be Customer Contact Merton s Customer Contact programme is designed to respond to the rapidly changing needs of customers and services users, who increasingly look to use digital channels and expect swift resolution to routine enquiries and issues outside traditional office hours. In doing so the programme aims to improve services at the customer interface (more issues resolved at first point of contact) and, importantly, enable efficiencies to be realised through improved channel management and migration; that is to say moving customer interaction related to more generic processes to cheaper channels wherever possible, principally via the internet (and therefore 24/7 availability). The initial phase of the programme has been allocated a budget of 2.3m and will run over the next three years. Officers have been cautious in estimating the savings the programme will realise as these are enabled by the programme but will be driven and delivered by individual services. However, it is envisaged that the programme will deliver in the region of between 600k and 1.2m in cashable savings over the lifetime of the Medium Term Financial Strategy Over the coming weeks the council will undertake a Competitive Dialogue exercise for the procurement of the key enabling technologies, related services and ongoing support to deliver the Customer Contact Strategy. Learning from the experience of other local authorities, officers will be inviting proposals that cover a range of technologies and systems against a series of key outcomes. This will ensure maximum value for money and a scope of work that both incentivises the marketplace and engages the expertise of providers in the critical work of integrating the different components. Electronic management of documentation and information will be critical to successful, efficient customer contact, as it ensures that residents and clients records are held in a single location and are easily accessible to any member of staff to whom they speak There is an opportunity, therefore, to incorporate the identification of solutions that meet our needs in relation to electronic document and record management and further maximise the investment Lean business improvement A significant strand of work to realise our vision for Merton 2015 relates to the adoption of lean tools and techniques in order to achieve not only a 193

12 culture of continuous improvement, but also efficiencies and cashable savings There are two principles within our lean approach that require that we ensure the most efficient access to information and documentation: Process and workflow lean processes rely on smooth workflows, i.e. the smooth transition of work through different processes and/or individuals with minimal handling or unnecessary interruptions. These in turn rely on efficient storage and retrieval of information: it needs to be where you need it when you need it, something only an effective EDRMS can enable within our new peripatetic ways of working. Automation - Scanning software recognises document characteristics and is pre-programmed to automate specific processes such as invoice management. The reduction of officer interaction with processes not only releases officer time, but also reduces human error leading to failure demand and re-work, both of which introduce additional and unnecessary costs (often referred to as waste ) An example: In the Parking team, an area where SMART has been able to deliver some business benefit, processes have become less wasteful (leaner). Previously a customer would call about a parking ticket; the member of staff would note their details and inform them to expect a callback. The staff member would then go to the filing area and find the required customer information, and then return to their desk to call the customer back (at a cost to Merton). They would then deal with the customer enquiry, update the paper record and replace the file in the cabinet. Electronic document storage albeit partially functioning has enabled staff to locate and amend customer records while on the phone Through our three-year programme of Public Value Reviews for all services which complement the deployment of lean service reviews it is anticipated that more and more of such workflow process improvements will be identified. Indeed such an outcome is critical given that the PVR programme underpins our approach to the council continuing to achieve challenging savings targets. The implementation of these improvements (and the realisation of associated benefits), however, will rely on the right technology being in place to support new, leaner ways of working, such as an efficient EDRMS with the capacity to support an expanding business base In addition to the high level of dependency on a fully functioning EDRMS within these improvement programmes, several individual businesses urgently require a more effective solution to electronic record and document management. These are discussed below Social Care Social care practitioners within the council s Children, Schools and Families department (CSF) are currently using SMART. Back scanning has been undertaken to digitise records dating back to the 1970s. This has the advantage of allowing relevant members of staff to access electronically all case notes, reports and other documentation for any given case and thus removes the risk of single points of failure, whereby only one individual has 194

13 access to information and data about a given case. It also allows all of the data contained in these records and documents to be interrogated in different ways to aid service and performance management; for example it is possible to monitor the record keeping and case management documentation of individual practitioners However, officers within the service find SMART awkward and difficult to use. Regular episodes of system failure create difficulties for the service as the data cannot always be as speedily accessed as we would like. In addition, the system is not integrated with the council s case management system, CareFirst, and therefore officers are required to use several systems in parallel to gain any business benefit. Whilst the solution offers some business benefit, therefore, this is limited and needs to be improved As long as these and other system failures and deficiencies within SMART persist, senior managers within Community and Housing (C&H) will uphold the decision not to implement the system for use by the social care practitioners within their department. Without any electronic document management functionality, the service locates records and documentation on servers which are over-subscribed. This leaves practitioners routinely unable to save documents at all, and having to respond to regular requests from the council s Infrastructure & Transactions division to delete files to relieve the ever-growing pressure on storage space Whilst officers within the service continue to operate to the best of their ability within the constraints of technology available to them, there are risks associated with the lack of a standardised approach across the service (such as would be supported and enabled through effective EDRMS). It is not possible for officers to search for documents, for example, but instead effective and timely access to documents relies on intuition and individual professional practice substantially increasing the risk of the right information not being available to officers when needed Managers within the service describe an urgent need to introduce a system that allows practitioners to quickly and easily access all the information relevant to any given case or individual this is particularly important for effective safeguarding. The urgent business need is for a system that enables and supports intelligent working organised around social care practice so that professionals can get an up to date and accurate picture of any given issue in the shortest possible time As the organisation reduces in size it will become only more important to ensure that staff within these critical services are supported and empowered to deliver their work through the availability of basic supporting systems Planning The planning service is currently using three systems, including one that is no longer supported and therefore poses a risk to the organisation. Automatic redaction or web publishing facilities in an EDRMS will improve the process of publishing information to the web portal for direct access by customers. An EDRMS will also remove the service's need for scanning. In the absence of an adequate corporate solution, the team is currently considering purchasing its own EDRMS; doing so would lead to fragmented 195

14 solutions that do not deliver the same scale of benefits and are costly to implement, support and maintain Housing Needs The Housing Needs service has around 8,000 current clients; with the Welfare Reform Act coming into effect in April 2013 this number is forecast to increase. An EDRMS with better access to information and improved processes will allow the service to take on this increase (and related increase in documentation) without additional resource. An effective solution would enable documentation to be scanned and dealt with efficiently and will ensure extra storage is not required. It would also enable improved processes as staff currently have to bring paper files to Merton Link in order to check with other colleagues about last actions on the case; advice to customers is often repetitive as information is not up to date. The ability to access the whole case file of the client at point of access (i.e. via Merton Link) is required so that clients can be provided with up to date information about their case immediately. It should be noted that one of the biggest causes of challenges from clients is missing information, which causes gaps in the client's history. Workflow in an EDRMS would improve performance, with managers being able to see which cases need immediate action Transactional Services Transactional Services currently carry out their own scanning. If scanning was to be carried out by the Post Room using upgraded scanning software there would be a number of improvements. Firstly there would be a time saving for Transactional Services; this would include the time currently spent scanning, and if automated processing of invoices was to be introduced further time savings would be made, allowing for an increase in volume of invoices processed. This would also allow for other areas of their work to benefit from improved processing times, for example the raising of debt invoices, helping ensure that the council is paid in a more timely way for services it provides. Secondly, invoice scanning would enable the team to work from home as paper invoices would not have to be carried to and from the Civic Centre for inputting but would be accessible to the team through the EDRMS wherever they are. Thirdly, it would enable a higher quality of image which has several implications; currently documents scanned into Proactis are reduced to 150 dpi (dots per inch). This means that scanned invoices are not be legally admissible, so all paper copies are currently stored simultaneously for up to seven years in Garth Road.. In addition to the additional storage required, the poor image quality of current scanning means that Facilities Management are unable to approve invoices while working in the field and require paper copies for this task which fragments workflow Legal Services The Legal Services team currently scans its own documents. Images scanned by the Post and Print room would be likely to carry more weight in terms of legal admissibility due to the procedures followed, the use of a secure scanning area, and the fact that the Post and Print room has no influence over decisions made from the documents that they scan. Secondly, Legal Services are heavily reliant on paper documentation, and 196

15 increased scanning (through the Post and Print room) would reduce the costs of storage, paper and printing that the team requires. Thirdly, as the service is shared with LB Richmond it would benefit from the ability to transfer electronic documentation between the two councils than paper documents. This will also facilitate information sharing with any further councils should the shared service expand. Lastly, the team use their own system for storing documentation; a link with an effective EDRMS would enable the appropriate sharing of legal documentation within the council without duplication Each of the business areas set out above needs to progress to using an effective EDRMS quickly in order to introduce new ways of working that realise agreed savings and efficiency targets. Rather than introducing isolated systems which will result in additional costs in terms of procurement, licensing, support and maintenance and also exacerbate existing problems around sharing information between systems it s important that the council moves to a single EDRMS solution. This means that the implementation of a single solution needs to meet the timescales of these (and other emerging) priority business areas. This places an urgent need on the authority to resolve the issues with the current system The final driver for investing in EDRMS and scanning technology urgently is that there is an opportunity to capitalise on the planned procurement for technology to support the Customer Contact programme. Drawing on the experience of other local authorities, the programme is undertaking a competitive dialogue procurement exercise that spans a range of business systems and technology. The exercise will be initiated once approval to proceed is gained from the Procurement Board and will consist of a Pre- Qualification stage (including a bidders day where our requirements are presented to potential suppliers and initial questions are answered). Shortlisted suppliers will then be invited to tender detailed proposals that meet our requirements and by doing so enter the Competitive Dialogue stage, where detailed proposals will be aligned with our requirements through a number of iterations, following which our preferred partner (or partners) will be selected for the contract. The advantage of such an approach is that it engages the market more fully in developing integrated solutions that meet a range of outcomes, and offers sufficient scope to attract significant interest from market leaders. Expanding the exercise to incorporate EDRMS and scanning solutions will maximise value for money, both in terms of officer time (using a single exercise to achieve several outcomes) and through efficiencies achieved in the responding proposals. 5 RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1. This report has set out the urgent business need for the failings of the current EDRMS technology, SMART, to be addressed, as well as the range of positive benefits an effective EDRMS would deliver for the organisation During 2012, officers undertook a high level options appraisal to determine how best to resolve the issues, the results of this exercise are set out in more detail in section 6 below. 197

16 5.3. Following on from this exercise, this report recommends that the council replaces the current system altogether along with the scanning software. As set out in items 2.3 and 2.4, SMART is an ageing system and it would be a significant risk for the organisation to invest heavily in a solution that may soon become obsolete When replacing the EDRMS and scanning software the council has the opportunity to procure a solution that incorporates the automation of management and control of the content of the council s web-based systems (intranet and external facing website(s)). This is described as a fully integrated EDRMS solution since it allows documentation and records to be managed across all potential outlets (see item 6.6 below) It is not possible to state with confidence which of these solutions the council should seek to implement at this stage a more rigorous options appraisal that takes account of the council s business need in greater detail is needed. If procurement takes place through a competitive dialogue exercise, it is this that will contribute to developing a detailed solution. Notwithstanding this, it will be necessary to explore options in the context of the impending procurement of technology designed to support improved and more efficient Customer Contact, as well as the outcome of the market consultation exercise currently underway to determine whether to approach the market for a new social care case management system. It is possible that either or both of these systems will involve content management and/or document management functionality. It is therefore critical that the decisions on each of these three system solutions are taken in the context of each other to secure the best outcome for the council overall It is for these reasons that this report recommends exploiting the opportunity to procure replacement EDRMS and scanning technology as part of the procurement exercise being undertaken through the Customer Contact programme It is recommended that the council agree to set aside from existing reserves earmarked for the modernisation of the organisation a maximum possible budget of 1,218,300 (see options appraisal below). This will allow officers to incorporate the procurement of a replacement solution within the competitive dialogue process planned as part of the Customer Contact programme. Detailed requirements (determining the level of investment required) would be refined through the process of the development of a specification and the dialogue itself It is recognised that this represents a significant investment for the authority. The financial return on this investment, that is to say the cashable efficiencies associated with the business benefits set out in this report, is impossible to quantify at this stage. This is because the interdependencies between the replacement technology and other activity impedes clarity on this point: it is a replacement EDRMS combined with the Flexible Working programme, lean business improvement and the Customer Contact programme that will release efficiencies and therefore any attempt to disaggregate savings and allocate them solely to a replacement EDRMS would be time consuming and inaccurate. In addition, the degree of analysis and engagement with businesses that would be required to confirm 198

17 associated efficiencies would not be possible within the timescales set out for the procurement exercise An effective EDRMS, however, is a critical enabler to at least three of Merton s high priority transformation programmes. If a replacement solution is not put in place these programmes will either not be able to proceed, or the benefits they are able to deliver will be considerably reduced. There are also a number of individual businesses who urgently require an effective EDRMS in order to implement agreed improvements and realise their benefits. As resources within these services tighten, it will become only more important that adequate supporting and enabling technology is available to officers in order that services can be maintained and improved. 6 ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS 6.1. During 2012, officers undertook a high level options appraisal. The options considered were as follows: 6.2. Option 1 Do nothing The current SMART solution is not fit for purpose and therefore either needs to be enhanced to meet basic minimum business requirements or replaced. An effective EDRMS is crucial to supporting the way in which the council wishes to operate now and even more importantly in the future and the current system fails to meet the business s needs. It is also a critical enabler for the achievement of a number of the council s strategic objectives, including flexible working and improved and more efficient customer contact Failure to take action would result in unstructured and unmanaged electronic document management solutions across the organisation, making information difficult to locate and access quickly and efficiently. This would create secondary issues around network capacity. It could also leave the council open to risk of breaching the Data Protection or Freedom of Information Acts, and receiving a fine (of up to 500,000) from the Information Commissioner Importantly, since the current SMART solution is unable to meet increasing business demand, in services where the potential of effective EDRMS is already understood or improvements reliant upon it identified, individual teams would simply purchase their own EDRMS systems and carry out their own desktop scanning. This would lead to an increase in the number of systems the council uses, increasing support and maintenance costs and missing the opportunity to achieve efficiencies of scale and expand the council s technology architecture in line with an agreed, strategic direction of travel. Benefits such as information sharing and legal admissibility of scanned documents would not be met. These systems would co-exist alongside the existing, inadequate SMART system for which the annual running cost (approximately 54,573 pa) would remain Option 2 - Enhancing SMART The existing system could be enhanced and rollout continued across the organisation. This would still require that the scanning software be replaced, new and improved workflow functionality introduced (since the workflow 199

18 functionality in SMART is unnecessarily complex to set up and maintain) and the software generally enhanced and upgraded. Officers initial investigations indicate that the cost of this option would be around 711,000 with a projected annual running cost of 69, Whilst this option would address a number of the issues set out above in relation to inadequate functionality to meet business need, it would not address the fundamental issue that SMART is not intuitive enough to use, nor easy enough to maintain without a high level of technical resource input. It would therefore mean continuing with a difficult-to-use system that would not provide a whole organisational solution or meet the council s strategic objectives and thus not be fit for purpose. In addition, given that SMART will not be developed by the supplier, although it currently remains within support arrangement it is likely to be phased out and become obsolete in the medium term, raising questions about the value of any further major investment in the system Option 3 - Electronic Document Management System Replacement This option would see the replacement of the existing system, including the scanning software, with a more up to date solution that has similar attributes to SMART, including workflow management functionality and scanning technology. The estimated cost of this option is 914,000 with yearly projected running costs of 33, Option 4 - A single content and document management option This option would see the replacement of the existing system as set out in option three above, but extended to include the replacement of the content management system and Intranet application. This would mean that the EDRMS would be linked to the council s intranet and internet sites, making the publication and updating of this information more efficient The council currently uses a separate content management system called LiveLink, also supplied by OpenText. This solution is also about to go into past maintenance, which means that no further development will be undertaken by the provider on the system. Our current support contract with the provider costs 12, per year. It is not yet clear for how long OpenText will continue to provide support and past maintenance for the product. This option therefore offers an opportunity to resolve not just issues in relation to EDRMS, but also the impending need to move to a new content management system and for these to be fully integrated The estimated cost of this option is 1,218,300, with projected annual running costs of 52, This report proposes reserving, as a precaution, sufficient budget for the most costly option with a view to identifying through the competitive dialogue process the most cost-effective and fit-for-purpose solution for the council in the context of other technology improvements. 7 CONSULTATION UNDERTAKEN OR PROPOSED 7.1. As part of the initial options appraisal, businesses across the organisation have been consulted on their experience of working with the current EDRMS 200

19 (where relevant) and requirements for electronic document management going forward. Particular focus has been placed on understanding those services where the absence of supporting technology is having an impact on their ability to deliver improvements and efficiencies (planning, housing, social care and the Print and Post Room and legal services) Engagement across all business areas will be built into the more detailed options appraisal and specifying of requirements proposed within the report The project arising from these recommendations will be located within the Business Improvement Division to ensure there is synergy between it and the Customer Contact programme and any other planned technical implementations that impact on the project. 8 TIMETABLE 8.1. As part of the procurement exercise planned for the Customer Contact programme, the high level specification of requirements will be published in February, with potential providers invited to complete a pre-qualification questionnaire by the end of April Tenders will then be invited against a more detailed specification of requirements, suppliers shortlisted and competitive dialogue will take place up until October 2013 when the preferred partner or partners will be selected. 9 FINANCIAL, RESOURCE AND PROPERTY IMPLICATIONS 9.1. The implementation of a fully functioning, organisation-wide EDRMS is a critical enabler to the flexible working programme, which is in turn a key delivery strand of the council s accommodation strategy The council has existing earmarked reserves to meet the cost of the modernisation of the organisation. These are to be approached as invest-tosave, that is to say there is an expectation that activity funded will yield efficiency savings through increased productivity and new, more streamlined ways of working The report requests that 1,218,300 is set aside as a maximum possible budget for the replacement EDRMS. This figure is drawn from the options appraisal undertaken in 2012, the results of which are summarised in the following table. The table sets out a four year cost projection for each option including annual running costs. Option Capital Revenue Total 1. Do Nothing 0 218, , Enhance SMART* 230, , , Replacement system* 410, ,000 1,013, Replacement system with content management* 740, ,296 1,375,296 * options incorporate replacing scanning software 10 LEGAL AND STATUTORY IMPLICATIONS 201

20 10.1. Issues regarding compliance with data security and information management will be addressed as part of the detailed project planning once the solution is identified Legal input will be required as part of the procurement exercise and the establishment of suitable contracts with vendors and service providers The proposed approach will support the organisation to fulfil its duties in relation to the security of data and information under the Data Protection Act. 11 HUMAN RIGHTS, EQUALITIES AND COMMUNITY COHESION IMPLICATIONS An equalities analysis will be undertaken as part of the options appraisal and actions taken to mitigate against any potential negative impact identified A privacy impact assessment will be carried out as part of the project to ensure that appropriate regard is paid to personal, private and sensitive data. 12 CRIME AND DISORDER IMPLICATIONS There are no specific crime and disorder implications. 13 RISK MANAGEMENT AND HEALTH AND SAFETY IMPLICATIONS The current system poses a risk to the organisation in that it fails to meet business need. A log of identified risk associated with the current system is appended to this report (Appendix 4). 14 APPENDICES THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTS ARE TO BE PUBLISHED WITH THIS REPORT AND FORM PART OF THE REPORT Appendix 1: SMART Issues Log - Summary 2012 Appendix 2: Lessons learned from implementation of SMART Appendix 3: Local Authorities fined for information security breaches Appendix 4: Risks inherent within existing EDRMS Appendix 5: Glossary of terms 15 BACKGROUND PAPERS EDMS Business Case September 2012 EDMS Report to CMT 25 September