Update on ERA Rollout

An update from the ERA Adoption Coordinator.

As many of you know, on November 16, 2010, NARA informed the 30 Departments and Agencies that constitute the Chief Information Officers’ Council that it would begin expanding the use of ERA in their agencies starting in March 2011 and ending November 2011. The list of agencies and the months in which they will start using ERA is located here.

To date, we have met with the following agencies and gone over the rollout plans with them:

  • Department of State
  • Health and Human Services
  • Department of Justice
  • Department of Army
  • Department of Commerce
  • Department of Treasury
  • Department of Interior
  • Department of Air Force

Meetings with the other agencies will take place over the next few months.

Also in November, NARA announced a second phase of the ERA rollout. The over 200 headquarter records officers in non-CIO Council agencies received emails asking them to select a month between July 2011 and September 2012 in which to start using ERA. The emails were sent to the records officers during the week of January 31, 2011. Another email soon followed that gave them instructions for using the online sign up portal. We gave the agencies until February 18 to select a start month. So far, 92 agencies have met the deadline. We  left the sign up window open until February 25. Now, however, we will begin assigning months to the agencies that did not meet the deadline.

Agenda topics during the initial rollout meetings include:

  • Rollout timetable: How will ERA be rolled out in my agency?
  • Potential workload: What workload can my agency expect?
  • Training: What training do I need?

We have asked agencies to begin using ERA for scheduling and/or transferring permanent records to NARA during their start month. Although the amount of work they generate in ERA is at their discretion, we ask that once they start using ERA for a particular ERA function, they continue to use ERA. We also let them know that the use of ERA will be mandatory for scheduling and transferring permanent records after September 2012.

At this time, the online training has been changed to reflect the Increment 3 update to ERA. As Increment 5 enhancements are deployed throughout FY2011, the training will updated to reflect the changes. Before the March 2011 rollout month, we also intend to post additional information in the form of “quick start” guides on how to sign up to become users of ERA and an online sign up process.

Much work still needs to be done. We have only addressed rolling out ERA within the headquarter levels of agencies. We need to incorporate the regional components of agencies into the ERA rollout plan. The planning for a regional rollout will take place over the next few months.

Many thanks to all of you who have participated in the ERA rollout to date and we look forward to everyone playing a part in the successful rollout of ERA throughout the next two fiscal years. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments.