NARA and the Electronic Records Management (ERM) Automation Working Group have launched several activities this summer that can help you and your agency meet the goals of the Managing Government Records Directive.
These activities support goal A3.1, which is about finding economically viable automated solutions to reduce the burden of records management responsibilities by making it easier for agencies to learn about what other agencies are doing and what solutions are available on the market.
ERM Automation Working Group
We invited Federal agency staff interested in goal A3.1 to get involved in helping identify find more economically viable automated solutions for electronic records management when we issued AC 14.2013.
In response to that call, a lively group of agency records officers, records managers, eDiscovery, and IT staff formed an ERM Automation Working Group to share information, discuss automation strategies and challenges, and support NARA’s work on the comprehensive plan for goal A3.1, which is due in December 2013. The group has monthly teleconferences and collaborates on a wiki between calls.
The Working Group has discussed different technical approaches for autocategorizing e-mail and other records. We’ve also discussed the value of standards in encouraging interoperability among different business and records systems.
All interested Feds are welcome in the ERM Automation Working Group!
If you’d like to join the discussion, provide a demo of your agency’s solution or pilot of an innovative way of automating electronic records management as called for in A3.1. Contact PRMD@nara.gov to be added to the group and its OMB Max wiki and start participating!
Agency Presentations
The Working Group is organizing a series of presentations about automated solutions that agencies are implementing and their lessons learned. Attend these presentations to learn what your peers in other agencies are doing and get ideas for your own automation projects.
Host agencies will provide connections for web conferencing and in some cases will also host participants in person.
NARA will post agency presentations and the web conferencing connection information on the RM Communications distribution list and here on the blog.
Vendor Presentations
The working group is also publicizing a series of vendor presentations. Vendors need to answer a short list of questions about their automated information management solutions. Vendors schedule their own presentations and forward the invitations to NARA, which forwards the invitations to interested agency staff. NARA is not screening or endorsing the vendors that provide presentations.
NARA is compiling a list of agency staff members who want to receive invitations to web-based vendor presentations related to automating electronic records management. If you’d like to be added to this mailing list, send a request to rm.communications@nara.gov. Only people who join the list will get vendor invitations through NARA.
Web Site
And finally, you can explore the Automated Records Management Solutions page on our web site for more information about these solutions and other projects under the directive! The page can be found here.