Managing Silos of Knowledge Within Government Agencies

Virtually every government agency has invested substantial capital and resources to implement specific systems for different departments to create and manage documents. This has historically been done for numerous reasons:

• Different departments have different needs, therefore best served with different document, imaging, content or e-mail management systems;

• Some departments have additional applications (e.g. case management, accounting) that manage documents; and

• Government re-organization has led to the merger of agencies with pre-existing systems.

The effect has been the creation of different repositories, or "silos of knowledge," such as:

• Physical records in one or more records centers, or those stored off-site;

• E-mails stored in an e-mail and/or e-mail archiving system;

• Documents in a document management, content management or collaboration system;

• Electronic documents in specialized systems; and

• Images in an imaging system.

These silos, although coveted for departmental efficiencies, create challenges as well. Agencies are mandated to manage records in accordance with federal, state, local and departmental policies and procedures. These include:

• Retention schedules that define how long records, independent of media or form, should be retained;

• Proof the record is an unedited original; and

• Detailed audit trails.

The challenge is how to apply these rules across independent silos of knowledge:

• The U.S. DoD 5015.2 Standard—mandated to most federal agencies and adopted by state and local levels—defines requirements for the management of records.

• Document discovery becomes more complex as silos to search increase—especially important given the Freedom of Information Act.

Managing Silos of Knowledge

Agencies are presented with three alternatives to managing silos of knowledge:

• Separate silos with separate records, where each silo is managed separately;

• Existing silos are replaced by a single-vendor solution; and

• Federated RM, in which all silos are managed by a single enterprise-wide records management system.

Separate silos with separate records systems: While managing silos separately can be efficient for departmental needs, meeting records requirements with them, or adding records capabilities directly into each system, can fall short for several reasons:

• Many of these applications have limited, if any, retention management capabilities. Their capabilities are often inconsistent or incomplete, resulting in failure to meet records requirements;

• Most applications do not meet DoD 5015.2. Even if not mandated to deploy a certified application, by using a certified product an agency ensures functionality and compliance to requirements;

• Records capabilities of e-mail archiving systems are limited; and

• Discovery and FOIA searches must be performed separately in each application, leading to an arduous and inconsistent document-hold process based on differing functionality across products.

With this approach, riddled with inconsistencies in process, the agency can expend valued resources while still not meeting records management requirements. Single vendor solutions: Under this approach, the agency would select a single vendor's solution to manage all documents, e-mails, images and physical documents together, replacing existing systems. This approach, while idealistic to some, has drawbacks as well:

• Hard costs (e.g. license fees, hardware, consultants, document/data migration, training) and soft costs (e.g. productivity loss) of replacing existing systems are often substantial;

• This solution may not offer specific functionality required by the agency and custom development would increase ongoing costs, failing to meet requirements; and

• These solutions typically do not have sufficient functionality to manage the physical records of the agency, resulting in lost records and/or costly attempts to image assets.

Implementation of a single agency-wide solution is expensive, and often leads to decreased efficiency due to limited functionality. In many cases, this results in a "check box" rather than an actual working solution that will haunt the agency when legal or regulatory discovery occurs.

Federated RM: Under the Federated RM methodology, records knowledge and functionality exist outside the silos in much the same way that an agency's network infrastructure exists separate from the agency's servers and workstations. This approach has the following advantages:

• Assures that all records are managed consistently while simplifying administration, allowing records to remain in their source repository while controlled by the records management system;

• Agency-wide discovery and FOIA compliance become simple, while disposition holds can be quickly applied;

• A natural outgrowth is the ability to run agency-wide searches, within the limitations of the security paradigm, effectively gaining a substantial knowledge management advantage;

• Agency-wide document security becomes available; and

• Substantial cost advantage with one records system to maintain—compared to the management of many with separate silos, or requiring the replacement of existing systems.

This best-of-breed approach is the most cost-effective, feature-rich and scalable approach offered for agencies with disparate repositories that must be managed.

Summary

As agencies attempt to meet the growing requirements to manage their records, they have three basic options:

1. Manage records separately in each silo;

2. Convert to a single vendor for management of all content; or

3. Implement an agency-wide Federated RM solution that manages records across existing silos of knowledge.

Each solution has some advantages, however the best solution for most agencies, based on ROI and flexibility required to meet diverse departmental and business requirements, is to implement a Federated RM approach.

---

MDY Advanced Technologies, Inc is the leading provider of records management innovation. FileSurf®, MDY's signature product, integrates all physical and electronic files—including emails—regardless of media type, source of origin or storage location, into a single, scalable and extensible enterprise-wide system. FileSurf tightly integrates various repositories of content, including many email and document management systems, and provides a server based rules engine, that combined with flexible schedule creation tools and powerful discovery and disposition hold capabilities, assures that all content is managed according to government regulations and organizational policies. FileSurf is certified under the U.S. DoD 5015.2 Std. for records management applications (Ch. 2/4). For more info visit www.mdy.co