Moving from Paper to Less Paper (but not Paperless): Implementing an Electronic Document and Records Management System Rob Lake Information Technology Planning and Forecasting Officer Andrea Hare University Records Officer Osama Al Baik Program Manager University of Alberta

A content management system that will enable the university to manage its records throughout their lifecycle, from creation to final destruction or preservation at the University Archives A system that will facilitate business critical collaboration and automation of record-intensive business processes What is an Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS)?

Why do we want such a system? Disaster recovery Search and access capabilities Space recovery Better efficiencies with workflows A greener environment Better adherence to audit and regulatory standards Cost savings in the long term

An opportunity exists here! A chance to re-engineer our business processes An opportunity to work as an institution instead of as separate business units A chance to improve the management of a valuable asset – the University’s records and information Think digitally!

So……

How does one get started?

First of all, understand this is a big project. A REALLY BIG project It will take years to implement You can’t do it by yourself How far are you willing to go?

Start collecting the key ingredients of your EDRMS “recipe”.

1.Develop a Business Case. Base it on the benefits to the institution as outlined earlier

2.Establish your underlying key principles. Ours are: A single University supported records management system – no shadow systems! Housed in the IST secure server room Hardware and software covered centrally – business units responsible for scanners and personalized training Integrated with PeopleSoft ERP and the IMS (security roles) Authentication through the Campus Computing ID (CCID) Will adapt our business processes to match the software – no customizations! These can be part of the Business Case

3.Obtain support from senior administration (need funding). Our project sponsors are: Vice-President (Finance and Administration) and Vice-Provost & Associate Vice-President (Information Technology) Regular updates to our Executive Change Advisory Board (X-CAB) and to the President’s Executive Committee - Operations (PEC-O)

4.Check if your institution has a records and information management (RIM) framework in place. Involve your Records Management Office Work within your institution’s RIM framework Sooner or later you will need to apply RIM principles and best practices

5.Sell your vision to the business units (faculties, departments and administrative units) – get their support and buy-in. You won’t get far without them Highlight the underlying key principles This is an opportunity to save money, improve business practices and effectively manage the University’s records It is also (initially) a coalition of the willing – they need to be ready to invest human resources into this

6.Establish your governance model. Ensure the over-arching steering committee consists of senior management from key business units that have records encompassing the entire institution, and from several faculties Other committees and working groups will be required as the project unfolds

7.Obtain the resources you need (project manager, business analysts, records officer, technical resources). Rob Lake (Project Owner) Andrea Hare (University Records Officer) Osama Al Baik (Program Manager) Sandra Kereliuk (Finance and Administration Liaison) Suresh Joshee (Developer) Business Analysts and other Technical Resources External Assistance, if necessary

8.Decide what software product will drive this. COTS or Open/Community Source? Get the Steering Committee involved with any RFP Be careful with the scoring factors with an RFP – you need to carefully balance functionality to cost Ensure your solution is scalable to the entire institution and will meet your underlying principles The system will be nearly as important as your ERP! We have chosen Alfresco (an Open/Community Source Solution)

Alfresco An Open/Community Source solution Alfresco Community and Alfresco Enterprise Used by Athabasca University and the Edmonton Public School Board Evaluated Alfresco Community and upgraded to Alfresco Enterprise for one year No campus Alfresco expertise…. back to RFP we go

Program Preparations (1) Needed a certified Alfresco Gold Partner to assist with Alfresco development work RFP awarded to Abstractive Consulting in Edmonton Program Manager appointed Preliminary work required with Alfresco before it could be deployed into production and the projects begin

Program Preparations (2) Abstractive assisted on the program level with:  Developing a University of Alberta “skin”  Integrating Alfresco with the Campus Computing ID  Integrating Alfresco with Google Mail  Developing “drop box” functionality  Developing a form builder Conducted two small pilots while this work was done A Security Model was developed and approved by the EDRMS Steering Committee A Privacy Impact Assessment was undertaken

Program Preparations (3) Alfresco cluster purchased and set up in the IST secure server room Alfresco Enterprise 4.1 installed on the cluster Three environments established:  EDRMS-dev  EDRMS-tst  EDRMS-prod EDRMS Technical Working Group established Alfresco Developer hired

Program Preparations (4) Records and Information Management – a key ingredient for the EDRMS recipe The implementation of an EDRMS is a records management project that requires significant IT support and collaboration While the software and hardware was being prepared, the framework for Records Management was laid

Records and Information Management Policy for managing University records developed and approved Function-based record classifications  University-wide, but still flexible  Horizontal implementation by record series Recordkeeping metadata standard  Business specific metadata must also be captured Controlled vocabularies/thesauri Naming conventions Scanning standard Records retention and disposition schedules  Meet legal and business requirements

Before going into production, have you considered: Audit capabilities Digital signatures Digital preservation strategy Additional equipment to facilitate efficiency  Dual monitors End-user training Records management education  Records management will become a responsibility of the individual employee

The ground work is laid. We are ready to go.

Now what?

Many academic and administrative units want “in”. How can we accommodate them without being swamped? Can we say “no” to some at the risk of having them get their own shadow system? Solution: get them all involved by handling records common to all units in the University

So, let’s launch three major projects: 1.Undergraduate Student Records  Office of Primary Responsibility: Office of the Registrar 2.Employee Records  Office of Primary Responsibility: Human Resource Services 3.Donor Records  Office of Primary Responsibility: Office of Advancement

For each major project: Assign a Project Manager and a Business Analyst  Funding for the Business Analyst provided by the OPR Get all the interested units and major faculties involved Establish a working group  Faculties, Office of Primary Responsibility, PM, BA, Alfresco Developer, University Records Officer, Project Owner and other Ex-Officio  Program or Project Manager provides regular updates to the Steering Committee This is a chance to re-engineer our business processes and adopt a set of common processes and forms How can we get them to think digitally?

Solution: Alfresco “hands on training” Held three two hour “hands on training” sessions for all members of the working groups and potential end users Intent was to get a flavor of Alfresco and how the proposed file structure and security model works (not really “training”) Virtual student / employee folders instead of real folders They “got it” Validation of the proposed folder structures by the Student and Employee Working groups shortly followed

For the Student and Employee Records: Digitization will follow the lifecycle of the student / employee  Graduate Students have their own records; a separate project has been completed with the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research Will occur on a function-based record series basis  Only one authoritative source of truth  Eliminate duplication of information

For Donor Records: Further investigation required for the Alfresco Mobile app

Current Status Preparations just about complete to begin digitization of undergraduate student and employee records Scanning standards developed; may develop an RFP for scanners Storage of electronic transcripts from Apply Alberta Purchased a five year Alfresco Enterprise licence Ephesoft pilot complete; campus-wide Ephesoft license being investigated Hopefully we have a well prepared recipe rather than a baked mess

Future Work Complete integration of Alfresco with PeopleSoft Complete integration of Alfresco with the IMS Integrate Ephesoft with Alfresco Upgrade Alfresco to version End user education and training  Glazr interactive training package Continued change management Additional workflow development

Future Projects Major records series including:  Financial Services Management  University Governance  Student Support Services  Academic Operations  Legal Services  Research Services Many rounds of golf (for some of us)

Questions?