Implementation Use Case
A federal government department initiated a program of work to implement and rollout SharePoint Online to deliver improved information management processes and records management (RM) practices.
The organisation saw an opportunity to leverage SharePoint Online, together with add-on applications, to deliver an integrated RM solution which will improve the user experience. In addition, it will be possible to take advantage of the collaboration and integration capability of SharePoint Online to drive improvements and provide business benefits other than the core risk and compliance requirements.
Business Challenges
- There was no central location for document storage – multiple locations were used including network drives, local drives and in email.
- The existing records management system was cumbersome and based on out-of-date technology.
- There was no consistency in how documents were managed with each business area effectively managing its own silo of information.
- It was difficult for staff to collaborate and share information across the different business areas.
- It could be a time-consuming process to locate information due the disparate locations that were used.
- The organisation was not compliant with its records retention obligations.
- Some staff worked in remote locations with poor connectivity.
Solution Overview and Functionality
A SharePoint Online solution was configured to meet the organisation’s requirements. This included a department-wide information architecture to drive consistent classification to all documents. A security model was defined that encouraged sharing of information where it was the exception to restrict access to documents.
In order to meet all the records management requirements (which included physical records), the solution included RecordPoint. This enabled the business rules for retention and disposal to be aligned with the system’s information architecture and automatically applied to the content as it was created or modified in the SharePoint solution. This also facilitated the management of records via automated notifications and workflow processes to manage the approval to dispose of records.
Critical to the success of the new solution, a comprehensive change management and training program was executed to prepare the end users for the changes that the new solution would introduce.
Business Benefits
- Organisation is able to meet their records retention compliance obligations
- Staff are more efficient when managing documents
- Provides fast, efficient, and simple method to locate documents
- Enable collaboration across different business areas
- Reduce the risk of an incorrect document version being accessed
- Drive a consistent approach to how to manage information across the organisation
- The end users do not need to know anything about managing records – this is automated in the solution