Case Study: Structured Approach to Document Management (HCC)

Transcription

1 Case Study: Structured Approach to Document Management (HCC) iworkplace Intranet, Extranet & business process automation The project Hamilton City Council has recently undertaken a major systems upgrade, Project Phoenix, with new information technology systems implemented across the organisation. As part of this project, an information management upgrade was also undertaken to an EDRMS system, HP s TRIM. The council appointed Information Leadership Senior Consultant Meta Mair to provide an implementation plan for the new EDRMS system, develop metadata, and provide guidance on migration and change management. The starting point The first step Meta undertook was to align the objectives of the TRIM implementation with the council s current information management processes. Meeting with various business groups, Meta asked how they managed their information and what their processes were when things like mail arrived, a document was created, or an needed to be filed. From the different and conflicting responses, it quickly became apparent that developing comprehensive records management processes would be required prior to implementing TRIM. While requirements had been defined for the project, they weren t specific enough to meet the council s needs, and without thorough processes in place the migration to TRIM wouldn t achieve the benefits they were looking for, says Meta. The council agreed, and widened the project scope to include a thorough development of councilwide records management processes. we ll make it work. together.

2 Finding common ground Records management processes determine at a very basic level how information is treated once it is received or created within an organisation and ensuring these processes were in place was essential to the foundations of TRIM. If people were not sure what to do when (for example) a piece of mail arrived, or they created a document, then the value of the document management system was not going to be realised. Meta and the project steering group decided to undertake an exhaustive consultation process across the organisation meeting with all of the business units to develop consistent processes for records management. To speed up the process and provide a starting point for discussions, Meta developed a straw man document. The straw man document took the stated objectives for the document management system, and then included some draft processes alongside these which would apply for records management across the organisation, says Meta. The document showed business units the objectives, policies and projects and outlined a 7-step process for records management. For each step, the document stated the current situation, and provided two process options, e.g., customer service receives a piece of mail, which could either be scanned centrally or be scanned within a business unit. By meeting and talking with key individuals from each of the business units Meta was able to determine which of the options she was presenting would work best for the greatest number of people. The straw man document was refined during conversations with business units as they discussed what would work and what was required this ensured that the processes to be put forward to the project steering group (who would have the final say) were well grounded and practical. Fitting the pieces together Once the information management processes were confirmed, we evaluated TRIM against these and determined where the gaps were, and tweaked the processes or developed solutions to ensure the processes were workable from a technical standpoint, says Meta. One of the items that the council had decided to implement that came out of the record management process consultation was mail scanning, and Meta also provided advice on this and its integration into the TRIM system. we ll make it work. together.

3 Putting together the framework The migration to TRIM also required the design of an information management structure to ensure that TRIM was set up to meet the council s needs. For any document management system, a well thought out and practical taxonomy is incredibly important. Being able to browse to a document is as vital as being able to do a keyword search, and this requires a good structure and framework that links to the business context of the organisation, says Meta. To begin this process, Meta again met with business units speaking with their subject matter experts to determine how they classified information. One of the tools used in this process was Information Leadership s Mind Manager which helped make the process more interactive and also helped the business unit representatives visualise the way the design would work. These workshops canvassed what documents the council made and created, where the documents were coming from, what area or business unit needed to deal with them and what they needed to do, and developed predefined categories and tags for the information. This exercise produced the classifications and metadata the classification provides the business context (what the business does), and the metadata outlines what the business does with the information. Having good information design gives a clear structure, helping with adoption of new systems, and prevents over-customisation. If the information management design is poor, and people can t find useful tags for information, they will end up feeling that the system doesn t meet their needs, says Meta. Driving change The final part of the brief for Information Leadership was to provide change management advice on rolling out TRIM to 900 council staff in the council s five-month timeframe. We worked with the steering group, talking them through the pitfalls and where they needed to look at better engagement with business units. We also had the opportunity to speak to the council s Senior Management Team, drilling home the consequences if they were not 100% behind the project, says Meta. Information Leadership had recently undertaken a survey on what made information management implementations successful so I was able to provide evidence-based critical success factors to we ll make it work. together.

4 make sure that both the project steering group and Senior Management Team understood what would be required. The Senior Management Team was very receptive to adopting some of the suggestions made, as were the members of the communications team within the project steering group. A key aspect to communicate was what made users jobs easier and more efficient. We have found in our experience, which was backed up in the survey, that the most effective way of getting staff on board is to determine and emphasise specifically what is in it for them, personalising what the system can do, rather than provide bland messages about a system s functionality. Setting up for success The foundations for the rollout had been laid during the consultation process, because by working through the records management processes that needed to be established, staff had been able to immediately visualise how the system was going to work. This wasn t simply a technical solution saying here s the button you click when you save a document but illustrating on a day-to-day basis how information management would help their work, says Meta. Staff could visualise how they would use the system, what they would need to save, what metadata they would be adding to information, who would be monitoring it and do the chasing up to make sure things were responded to within the council s timeframes. What this delivered was better buyin, because people really understood what was going to happen. The result The pilot programme was rolled out to three business units for a month before the rest of the organisation began using the system. Within five months, 900 staff were up and running on TRIM. What was unique about this project was the thorough definition of records management processes from the outset. Often this work has already occurred within an organisation, and a technical solution fits around what is already there. With this project, the two went hand-in-hand, and processes were developed while keeping in mind the capabilities of TRIM. Trying to implement a system without processes in place is doomed to failure and I think this is why a lot of implementations can fail. The council s commitment to going back to basics to make we ll make it work. together.

5 sure there was a solid foundation is one of the key reasons that this project was a success, says Meta. More about Information Leadership The leading provider by far in New Zealand of SharePoint based EDRMS Microsoft Gold Partner (Content and Collaboration) Microsoft SharePoint Elite certified Full set of skills in-house IM Strategy & roadmaps Information & Systems Architecture Training & self sufficiency Change Management & Governance Recordkeeping Contact us for more information and a demo Phone kaye@informationleadership.com we ll make it work. together.