We are pleased to announce the release of the Universal Electronic Records Management Requirements as part of our Federal Electronic Records Modernization Initiative (FERMI). Through this initiative, we have been working to improve the way agencies acquire ERM services and solutions.
Agency staff can use the Universal ERM requirements as a starting point when writing a Statement of Work or Performance Work Statement for ERM tools or services. Records officers can share these requirements with their procurement and IT departments as a basis for work on specific requirements for agency systems.
We also expect these requirements to be used in other ways. GSA is developing a new Special Item Number under Schedule 36 for electronic records management services based on these requirements. GSA plans to award this new SIN to vendors who self-certify they meet these requirements.
We also envision integrating these requirements into each of the shared services being developed by the Unified Shared Services Management office. This could ensure any of the shared services’ IT systems will manage electronic records according to NARA guidance and potentially reduce the records management burden on individual agencies.
This represents a significant milestone in our ongoing effort to improve records management throughout the Federal government as mandated by the Managing Government Records Directive.
This a monumental
While I commend NARA for its efforts, the new ERM requirements and GSA Schedule 36 efforts need significant modifications in order to be effective. The ERM requirement include requirements for agencies as well as requirements for software products. These should be separated out. The software requirements should be much more detailed and extensive. The draft requirements for the Schedule 36 offerings include records management operational services as well as requirements for software solutions. Software solutions should be on Schedule 70. It is important to note that major software vendors and integrators provide different services than scanning services, records management operational services and the like, and have very different cost structures.
The software requirements should be much more detailed and extensive. The draft requirements for the Schedule 36 offerings include records management operational services as well as requirements for software solutions.