Page 13 - FCW, May 30, 2016

responding to FOIA requests, congressional inquiries, and legal discovery orders. Successful M-12- 18 implementations will position federal agencies as stewards of the
often need material like email, policy memos, and action reports. Program execution generates policy documents, transaction data, and financial data. Records
either for three or seven years. According to NARA, the Capstone
approach also “optimizes access
to records responsive to discovery
or FOIA requests.” It stages email
for eventual transfer to NARA. It
also lowers the risk of accidental
or deliberate email destruction. Capstone can help agencies meet
the 2016 deadline in a manner that
is transparent to users, defensible
in courts, and responsive to FOIA requests and congressional inquiries.
TAKE AN ENTERPRISE APPROACH
Given agency CIO priorities such as World Class Digital Services, Driving Value in Federal IT, and Protecting Federal IT1, the best practice to meeting the goals of the Managing Government Records Directive is a comprehensive enterprise approach that goes beyond Records Management.
A well-formulated, overarching information governance strategy does more than just preserve email and other documents as records.
It also supports the move to
digital government that will make agencies more efficient and secure. An enterprise strategy is needed
to meet the needs of the agency’s mission while also making it much easier to support the requirements of eDiscovery, FOIA, auditors, Congress, and the media.
Successful enterprise Informa- tion governance planning and implementation requires teamwork and multi-level support. Agency IT leaders must work with all stake- holders to ensure all requirements are met and plans don’t result in soon-to-be obsolete systems.
For example, if an agency established an email-only approach for the 2016 deadline, it would have to replace that to
MEETING THE 2016 AND 2019 DEADLINES REQUIRES CAREFUL PLANNING AND APPLYING THE RIGHT
TECHNOLOGY. IT ALSO REQUIRES A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO AVOID FUTURE OBSOLESCENCE.
national shared history. Information governance is an
integral element of information management. It encompasses ECM, records management, and content lifecycle management. Properly implemented, an information governance program provides automated, transparent control over the increasing amounts of information agencies must manage. It should also fit seamlessly into
the way people want to work. Agencies need to re-think the
way they have implemented these systems in the past and look toward a new approach that is less complex to manage, simpler for agency employees and citizens, and easier to maintain over time.
A well-architected ECM system makes the right information easily available to the various agency stakeholders. It will ensure the information they generate is captured, tagged, and preserved according to government policy and in such a way that it is easily available in the context of the agency’s processes and workflows.
For example, agency legal staffs
managers need to know they are receiving everything they should have under law and regulation. Agency CIOs must ensure agency official information in all forms doesn’t end up in rogue systems or non-systems of records.
A GOOD PLACE TO START
Given the volume of email and other agency records, NARA has recognized records management automation as the most practical way to determine what must be retained and for how long. For the 2016 deadline, agencies must electronically manage millions
of emails. NARA has proposed an automated approach agencies can use called “Capstone.”
Capstone outlines a way to automate email management so agencies can avoid relying on users to decide which emails to retain. The automatic classification and scheduling under Capstone depends on the email account holder’s role within the agency. Senior officials’ email is saved permanently as a historical record. All other users’ email is saved as temporary records,
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