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Integrated information and records systems

Integrating information and records management requirements

Take a ‘by-design’ approach

Taking a ‘by-design’ approach ensures you consider IM at every stage when:

• developing new business systems, processes and practices

• improving existing business systems, processes and practices.

This approach is proactive and preventative. It focuses on:

• identifying information and records requirements, and

• building these into your organisation’s business systems, processes and practices.

Plan information and records management requirements

You need to have a thorough understanding of your business and its information needs when planning IM requirements. To do this:

• identify the value of the information and records your organisation needs to create and maintain

• undertake a risk analysis of your systems, processes and practices to check your information and records:

  • stability

  • accessibility, and

  • usability

• define minimum requirements and appropriate strategies for creating, maintaining and monitoring your information and records

• plan for integration with current business systems and processes

• be aware of, plan for and manage any information-related impacts of organisational change

• assess your current and future needs for documentation about business systems, processes and practices.

Consider IM requirements when using or adopting AI technologies

For guidance, see Artificial intelligence and public and local authority records.

Know your business information needs

Mitigate risks

Business systems are often used without an understanding of the information needs they must support. Without this understanding, key business information and records can be at risk. You can mitigate risks with clear business system planning and governance.

Mitigate risks when developing or improving a business system by discovering:

• the business operations that the system will need to support

• what part of your organisation will ‘own’ or be responsible for the system, processes and practices

• what information is critical, both for staff performing the business and for clients

• what information will be critical into the future, both for staff and for clients

• how long information will be needed under current business and regulatory requirements

• what information currently supports this business

• what additional information would improve business processes

• what post-migration testing has been conducted to ensure information, records and metadata have been migrated successfully.

You also need to discover:

• what contractual arrangements are needed to verify that authorised destruction will be complete and secure for outsourced systems

• what the implications are for business systems containing AI technology — see Artificial intelligence and public and local authority records.

Plan for stability and longevity

Depending on the nature of your business, it’s likely some information and records in current systems will need to remain accessible and usable beyond the life of the system.

To make transitions into new or improved systems as seamless as possible, it’s important to consider your long-term information and records needs early in business system planning and development.

Questions to consider

Consider the following questions when planning new or improved systems or undertaking strategic planning:

• How will your organisation identify and plan for mitigation of any issues that may arise when shifting long-term value information to a new system?

• What specific migration pathways do you need to develop for long-term value information?

• What legacy systems will need long-term support?

• Could you use platforms that support open formats for data management and export where business services have been outsourced?

• Could you set and manage outsourced agreements that include information management obligations for high-value and high-risk information, or both?

Information, records and data volumes in organisations are growing exponentially and unsustainably. The impacts of this are starting to be felt. To ensure there is no large legacy of information, your business system planning needs to identify:

• what information can be routinely disposed of and when

• what long-term information needs to continue to be maintained and how this will be achieved

• what risk-appropriate management strategies can apply to high-value information and records.

Risks of not planning for longevity

Risks of not planning for information, records and data longevity may include:

• poor management of information needed for long-term business purposes

• failure to comply with regulations and requirements for information and records retention

• having to pay ongoing software licensing and offsite storage costs for legacy systems where business areas need ongoing access to information in these systems

• data duplication and dual processes through concurrent maintenance of legacy systems with current business systems.

Be aware of information-related impacts

Implementing new or improved systems allows organisations to rethink business processes which are often simplified and streamlined as a result.

This can mean information and records that once had a long-term value beyond the immediate needs of the business process may no longer need to be captured and managed in the same way — if at all. This may be a necessary trade-off, but one that should still be made with full understanding and documentation of any implications.

Plan and manage change

When using new systems for the first time, your organisation needs effective change management and training. This helps maintain an organisational culture that values IM.

If change is not managed well, implementing new systems can lead to extensive duplication of information, records and data. Staff may be unclear about the new business processes they’re expected to use, leading to inappropriate practices such as:

• storing information in multiple places

• adopting unofficial parallel processes

• continuing to retain paper documents despite new automated digital processes.

Consider metadata requirements strategically

Metadata is an essential and powerful tool for IM. When designing information and records systems, consider what metadata will:

• best enable the flow of business and the creation and management of effective, useful information

• best enable the ongoing use, understanding and accountability of the information

• need carrying forward through business system changes and remain persistently linked to information to ensure:

  • meaning

  • context, and

  • accountability.

Balance these considerations against:

• the potential workload of manually creating certain metadata

• the need to check and improve metadata quality to maintain legislative requirements over time.

Automate the creation and capture of metadata where possible. Integrate metadata logically within business processes (for example, by using naming conventions).

Assess your business system documentation needs

Information about business systems may be critical for their ongoing use and management.

When developing or improving a business system, consider your current and future business needs for information about the system's:

• rules

• metadata

• validation and security processes

• workflow authorisations

• workflow processes

• migration projects.

You may also need to capture point-in-time documentation of this information to identify what processes or rules were in place and when.

When outsourcing a business system, process or practice, you need to consider whether the service agreement includes the right to access business system documentation. If it does not, you should think about whether this could be problematic or an unacceptable risk in the long term.

For more IM guidance about outsourcing, see Outsourcing business.

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