Large municipal organization reduces the time and effort required to remain compliant and guarantee data trust

The challenge

A lack of technical infrastructure meant records management tasks were time-consuming.

A 2018 electronic records management assessment found the management of records and information was occupying significant staff time, resources, and effort.

Behind this issue was a lack of the technical infrastructure needed to enact and to demonstrate actual compliance. Existing tools were limited and lacked the required disposition capabilities.

Compliance with records retention laws and disposition of electronic records took significant work.

Adoption of remote-work tools made existing issues worse

These issues came to a head with the implementation of Microsoft 365 and the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.  

One records analyst says the volume of information created increased dramatically as a result of the pandemic, which exacerbated existing issues.

“We had limited controls, there was a belief the issue would snowball if we didn’t create control. But with the pandemic it happened immediately.

“We knew Microsoft 365 would push us to that digital work environment. I was thinking, maybe a babbling brook, but it just became a Category Five storm.”  

The RecordPoint solution

The organization engaged several vendors to provide a proof-of-concept implementation, taking the solution through common records management activities such as retention application, record disposition, legal hold application and transferring data across systems. The solutions were rated on their ability to perform these tasks accurately and efficiently, as well as along dimensions such as searchability and usability. Parties involved in the proof-of-concept process included the organization’s records department, the attorney’s office, along with general end-users. It quickly became apparent that RecordPoint was the preferred tool.  

“RecordPoint was more user-friendly product, it was easier to work with, easier to function, especially the retention and disposition aspects at all levels.”

Federated data management centralizes governance

RecordPoint provided a single data trust platform offering centralized governance and search across relevant file repositories and business systems: on-premises file shares, OneDrive and SharePoint Online. The platform allows the organization to manage records from a single dashboard, a more usable and efficient solution than they had been using prior.

In-place management reduces overhead

The organization has been able to streamline its records management activities, freeing up users and empowering records and information managers to manage and dispose of records in place.  

A flexible pricing model minimizes budgetary impact

As a municipal government, minimizing cost on the citizens was a priority. RecordPoint requires zero upfront capital expenditure and a pricing model based on the number of records managed and Connectors used.

This meant the organization could “right-size” the plan as they rolled the solution out to more and more departments.

“We selected a product that would be able to grow with us,” the records analyst says.  

Results

A rapid transition to digital tools

The organization was relatively early in issuing work from home orders on the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This required a rapid transition to a more digital environment and under this added pressure, RecordPoint delivered.

“RecordPoint was seamless in that transition,” the records analyst says.

Increased confidence that everything has been managed

Records managers can ensure they are fully compliant with their retention policies across SharePoint, OneDrive and their file networks. The Classification Intelligence feature successfully locates records on which it has been trained, increasing confidence that everything has been located and managed.

Disposition can be completed and documented without significant effort

RecordPoint also makes it easier for the records managers to document the disposition of electronic records.  

With their previous solution, using Microsoft365, the records analyst and her team had limited access to disposition capabilities.

“We were able to do it previously, it just took a lot of time and effort to do that, and a lot of extra steps to document that process. With RecordPoint disposition, authorization, and approval are at my fingertips.”

This is just the beginning of the partnership

The organization’s records management team is making adjustments internally to workflows, and rolling out RecordPoint to more and departments, with the goal of having RecordPoint managing content for most departments in the organization.