Digitalise all your documents, records

OPINION

By Annie Ninkijuka Katushabe

In the early hours of September 20, 2020, we awoke to the catastrophic news of a fire outbreak that had gutted the iconic Makerere University Ivory Tower. As if that was not bad enough, more shocking news came in later that day that the other wing which initially had not been affected, was also up in flames.

Preliminary reports indicate that the extensive damage due to the fire has not only affected the building, but also volumes of records kept in the Central Registry and the departments of Finance & Administration, Human Resources, Audit and Pension. The full extent of the damage is yet to be ascertained.

While buildings can be restored as will be the case for the iconic Ivory Tower, it is next to impossible to replace the invaluable active, semi-active and archived documents & records possessed by a historical institution such as Makerere University, unless they were already digitised and uploaded onto an Electronic Documents and Records Managements system (EDRMS), with an offsite backup functionality.

An EDRMS can be described as a software programme that encompasses a set of standardised practices that convert paper-based records to electronic formats through scanning; control the creation and authentication of documents; exercise version control where multiple versions of a document are maintained; manage storage of documents in a way that facilitates convenient retrieval of a particular document when needed; ensure security and safety of documents with the dual objectives of preventing unauthorised access to documents and allowing recovery from physical damage or loss of documents and creates the policy for archiving old documents and disposing them at the end of their life cycle.

According to a research by Gartner, 80% to 95% of the current company data is kept on paper and local personal computers (PCs). Again, according to another research by Gartner, an average of 25% of documents are kept in the wrong place in the system and employees spend 60% of their time searching for these documents.

Therefore, an organisation that invests in an EDRMS to convert paper files to digital formats will not only get a return on investment, but will as well establish a solid foundation for business growth through streamlining key processes and workflows.

Some of the specific benefits of the EDRMS include; convenient search and retrieval, version control, enhanced document sharing and workflow, better collaboration, improved regulatory compliance, optimised storage space, cost reduction, enhanced document security, backup and disaster recovery. These advantages can be gained only by selecting the right EDRMS and implementing it in the right manner.

The current new normal of working remotely brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic has also created a strong need for organisations to have in place a secure and easily accessible EDRMS. However, there is still limited uptake of technology systems necessary to manage the creation, use and storage of documents and records created by different organisations in the execution of their various mandates.

Thanks to the Government through the Ministry of ICT & National guidance, our company, Info Consults LTD, benefited from the National Initiatives ICT Programme (NIISP) to scale up the features of our locally developed EDRMS (eDocs+) and make it robust enough to handle records and documents of significant volumes. The system was developed in consideration of the existing legal frameworks such as the National Records and Archives Act (2001) and the Access to information Act (2005). Some of the key features of the eDocs+ include; document and record creation, classification and storage, movement and tracking, retention and disposal management, user access control and security management, physical storage mapping of files and boxes, E-mail integration, multiple site management, audit trail, reporting and application programming interface (API) to enable integration with other systems. The eDocs+ can be customised to suit any organisation's records and document management policies, processes and workflows.

Whereas organisations should aim to digitise documents and records, a key prerequisite is to ensure that the manual system is well organised and properly functioning in accordance with relevant laws, standards and best practices in order for the digitisation process to yield the desired results. It is, therefore, imperative that before installing an EDRMS, the organisation first establishes comprehensive document management policies, file classification schemes, retention and disposal schedules and operational manuals for central registry, records centres and archives. As with all systems, you want to guard against the old adage of "garbage in, garbage out" as you implement the EDRMS.
 
Whether it is to guarantee the unfettered productivity of your employees working on-site and off-site or to safeguard the preservation of records of enduring value, it is now critical that organisations take decisive steps to digitise their vital records. As such, the migration to digital document workflow management and records preservation should be an essential consideration of any organisation's disaster recovery and efficient operations.


The writer is the Managing Partner of Info Consults International akatushabe@infoconsults.info/anniekatushabe@gmail.com
www.infoconsults.info