DRM in the Public Sector - etude de marche

SynopsisIn the Public Sector the challenges and drivers in the deployment of DRM solutions are multiple:

Targets for achievement of e-Government.

Legislation requiring greater openness and transparency, such as that covering Data Protection and Freedom of Information.

The increasing use of e-mail.

New working relationships with the private sector.

Butler Group does not believe that many Public sector organisations have a clear understanding of their obligations, to keep electronic copies of information, such as e-mails, as well as hard copy, such as letters and faxes, to address regulations and deliver e-Government. This is leading to confusion as to whether information should be kept at all, and if so for how long it needs to be retained. In our opinion, the only effective way to safely retain information, in a format where it cannot be altered, is to implement a Document and Records Management (DRM) solution. The Report explains the important differences between Records Management (RM), and Document Management (DM) and how these apparently similar disciplines can be used to support service delivery

This Report will be of interest to IT Directors, CIOs, and e-Government officers who will be likely candidates to hold the responsibility for managing DRM strategy in an organisation.

Key FindingsKey Findings

To meet operational and legislative demands, Public Sector organisations must implement Document and Records Management (DRM) solutions.

DRM is central to the delivery of e-Government.

In the Public Sector information is more likely to become a permanent record than in the private sector.

E-mails are increasingly important as records, and need to be treated as such.

DRM requires a change in culture from secretive to public, individual to corporate, and paper to electronic.

20% of the knowledge capital of all organisations is still in a paper format.

Paper-based records have no built-in provision for disaster recovery.

Far too much information is retained by organisations; records should be retained that are required to deliver services, or to meet statutory requirements.

Organisations need to balance the risk of disposing of information over that posed by retaining it.

Organisations need to have a Records Manager in place to oversee DRM.

The selection of a DRM solution should be driven by the ability to address the organisation's requirements in conjunction with mandated standards.

Without a DRM system, knowledge workers spend up to 80% of their time looking for information.

DRM should be available to all employees and not just a few, and must be transparent to the end-user.

Management Summary

Introduction

Document and Records Management (DRM) is now essential for all organisations in the Public Sector, to meet both the requirements of improving service delivery, and to address the compliance demands for transparency. Whilst the technologies that can support DRM in the Public Sector are identical to those used in other verticals, the multiple agendas faced by Public Sector organisations, and the issue of changing the cultural attitude to the value of information contained in documents or records, presents significant challenges for those charged with implementing DRM solutions. However, the Public Sector in general will have a much better developed Records Management (RM) function than the private sector for its existing large volumes of paper records, and it is much more likely that a piece of information will be considered a record from the time of its creation, ranging from a speeding ticket, to the Project Initiation Document for the construction of a national arena. Consequently Public Sector organisations are more likely to have Records Managers in place, to support the processes of RM, and these skills are needed in DRM deployment.

Access, retention, and audit, are essential in order for information to be used in support of both the delivery and planning of public services. However, despite formal guidance, there is still much confusion as to whether information should be retained, and if so for how long it needs to be retained. In Butler Group's opinion, the only effective way to safely retain information, in a format where it cannot be altered, is to implement a DRM solution.

Business Issues

In the Public Sector the challenges and drivers in the deployment of DRM solutions are multiple:

Targets for achievement of e-Government - This in itself is a dual agenda covering both the increasing expectations of citizens/clients, and of political leaders, for greater levels of service at a higher quality, at the same, or lower cost; and the need for 'joined-up' government. Creating a single view of the citizen/client across the organisation, or even multiple agencies, whilst ensuring the confidentiality is maintained.

Legislation requiring greater openness and transparency, such as that covering Data Protection and Freedom of Information.

The increasing use of e-mail as a communication mechanism within/between organisations, and the citizens/clients they serve, and the recognition that such e-mail is often a record and needs to be managed as such.

New working relationships with the private sector, through long-term (30 years plus) contracts such as Private Finance Initiative (PFI), or Public Private Partnerships (PPP), that require active management of documentation across the contract lifecycle.

Whilst most Public Sector organisations may not yet have implemented a DRM or Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solution, many will already have some form of physical records management in place for the large volumes of existing paper records they maintain. However, an absence of centralised management of their electronic information often results in duplicated information, multiple versions of the same document, and even inaccurate information, which may be sent to other agencies, or citizen/clients. Butler Group believes that the absence of an effective information management system can directly affect both the performance, and the reputation of the organisation.

Numerous studies have shown that it can take information workers, in all industries, up to 80% of the time spent on a piece of information actually locating it, with the other 20% spent working on it. If the information being searched for is a record, and its retrieval is required for reference only, then this percentage can be even higher. In one hospital, the inability to retrieve records was reported to have resulted in 5% of operations and outpatient appointments being cancelled. This undoubtedly is a major area of inefficiency in organisations and one where demonstrable benefits of effective RM can easily be seen.

Even where organisations are looking to deploy a DRM solution, it is evident that there is often still confusion over the difference between Document Management (DM) and RM. Butler Group believes that this has arisen in part because of the integrated DRM functions in available technologies, which in turn means that the boundaries between the two are often blurred. Because there is the ability to embed DRM into applications that users are familiar with, such as Microsoft Word, and drive many of the DRM features through automated workflow, much of the functionality is hidden from the end-user and even the organisation's management. Furthermore, because records can be automatically declared using the workflow capability, the user may not even be aware that the status of a document has changed to that of a record. To address this we believe that every Public Sector organisation should have a dedicated professional Records Manager to provide oversight and control of all aspects of DRM.

For many Public Sector organisations the RM policy is to simply finalise an electronic document, or other piece of information, archive it off to off-line storage (typically tape) and store the tape or other medium off-site. Retained e-mails are also archived to back-up tapes and again stored off-site. It is not until the organisation is asked to discover and retrieve information, for example under Freedom Of Information or Data Protection legislation, that it realises that this approach is naive and actually places the organisation at risk of failure to disclose that information, in the required timescale.

It is in this type of situation that we feel RM has such a vital role to play. Many organisations have failed to realise that unless information is stored in a RM system where it cannot be altered, it is difficult to prove to a court that a piece of information has not been amended in any way. With an increasingly litigious society, Public Sector organisations must implement RM to provide this proof.

Traditionally, the role of the Records Manager in the Public Sector was to file and manage the distribution of paper-based records. With the development of Electronic DRM (EDRM) applications, this role has evolved into managing electronic as well as paper documents, with the Records Manager becoming a corporate Information Manager.

Perhaps the biggest prohibiting factor to the implementation of DRM is reluctance from users. Change Management is one of the trickiest areas that Public Sector organisations have to overcome in order to achieve a successful implementation. DRM involves huge cultural change in the perception of the ownership of information from secretive to public, and from individual to corporate.

The majority of the information within Public Sector organisations is still in a paper-format, despite the fact that we are supposedly in the era of the 'paperless office'. Storing records in a paper format carries inherent risks: because there are normally no copies, there is no disaster recovery provision, and we therefore urge those organisations to implement some form of EDRM for its key information, and wherever possible to maintain all records electronically.

Technology Issues

It is the belief of Butler Group that, to date, the majority of Public Sector organisations have failed to fully exploit technology to help in the management of their documents and records. One of the major issues is the ability to discover and retrieve information, both operationally and in response to Subject Access Requests (SARs) under Freedom Of Information or Data Protection legislation, which requires the effective use of search and retrieval technology. For those organisations implementing a DRM solution, search techniques are normally included out-of-the-box, but for organisations that have not yet deployed DRM, searching the indexes of back-up tapes, or searching the hard disks of storage devices are not cost-effective or time-efficient methods. We believe that it is inevitable that organisations will come under increasing scrutiny for a failure to disclose information when requested, through an inability to locate it. Organisations must therefore ensure that they have effective search technologies in place to provide them with the ability to discover information.

However, search techniques alone are not sufficient to discover specific documents and records from what in the future may be many petabytes of information. Effective indexing and classification of information is also required. Public Sector Records Managers have been creating fileplans or classification systems for records and documents for many years, and these skills need to be applied to DRM solutions. An effective classification system will make searching for information much speedier and more effective, which is one reason why Butler Group believes that organisations implementing DRM must have a dedicated Records or Information Manager, who can develop and maintain a classification system or fileplan.

To date, many DRM implementations have been departmental, or deployed only to select users. We believe that DRM must be implemented organisation-wide, with access to specific information and information-types via access rights and permissions. This is the only effective way that knowledge capital can be shared across the organisation, and also addresses the major issue faced by a large number of organisations, which is that of information being stored on local devices, where it is never backed-up or protected.

DRM runs much wider than simply creating, editing, and retrieving documents and records, since it manages the entire lifecycle of information, including its storage. Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) is therefore an important element of DRM, and we believe that organisations must implement an ILM strategy for cost-effective DRM. Although only around 10% of ILM is related to technology, this does include the media that the information is stored on at any point in its lifecycle. It is our opinion that information must be stored on the media that best reflects the age and value of an item of information, and that the ability must exist to be able to move the information - even if it is a record - back up the storage hierarchy to higher-performance disk should it, once more, need to be accessed regularly. Butler Group believes that in the future DRM will support the ability to automatically move information up and down the storage hierarchy, based on user demand, but this level of sophistication is currently not generally available.

Strategy, Selection, and Implementation Issues

There are two types of products that provide DRM functionality, ECM solutions where DRM is a sub-set of much wider information management capabilities, and niche EDRM products. Butler Group believes that there is validity in both approaches and has reflected this by reviewing both ECM vendors with DRM functionality and EDRM vendors for this Report.

As the ECM market place continues to consolidate, we believe that the larger ECM vendors will acquire most of the niche EDRM players, particularly those that are UK The National Archives (TNA) 2002 and other standards approved. We have already seen the beginnings of this through the acquisition of Tower Technology by Vignette, and Valid Information Systems by Hummingbird. One of the major benefits of this approach for the ECM vendors is that they gain immediate TNA 2002 approval, which enables them to bid for UK public sector contracts. The reason that many of the major ECM vendors are only now seeking TNA 2002 approval, is because they are US-headquartered, and therefore have chosen DoD 5015.2 approval first, which is the US standard, as a priority over international standards.

It is not only the EDRM vendors that will be subject to acquisition. Many ECM vendors will also either be acquired, or will merge with other vendors to consolidate customer-bases and become more prominent players. Butler Group believes that eventually there will be around six major ECM vendors, and some of these will comprise vendors that do not currently play or predominate in this space. We expect Microsoft and Oracle to enter this arena through the acquisition of ECM or EDRM vendors. Furthermore, following the example of EMC, it is more than likely that other storage vendors will undertake vertical integration by entering this market, again through the acquisition of existing players.

We do not, however, see major risks for Public Sector organisations in this shakeout. Experience has shown, for example with Vignette and IBM, that the existing customers of the acquired vendors are offered security, long-term commitment, and additional functionality/options for the future

Butler Group Document and Records Management Market Lifecycle Ratings

This element, as with Sections 6-9 of this Report, is identical to that in the generic report Document and Records Management (RT010205DRM) for although UK Public Sector organisations have to deploy only those solutions that are approved by The National Archives (see Section 2.2), not all Butler Group subscribers are in the UK, and the comparisons should help the reader to have a greater understanding of the appropriateness of particular solutions and technologies for their organisation.

Butler Group's vendor ranking and assessment model groups suppliers of DRM solutions into Outperform, Perform, and Under-perform categories, and shows the predicted progress through the three major market phases of Early Adoption, Market Adoption, and Market Maturity.

Report Structure

Report Structure

A brief summary of each section of the Report is included below in order to help direct the reader to particular areas of interest.

Section 2 - Business Issues

This section provides the introduction to DRM and puts the subject into context. It includes Butler Group's definitions of documents, records, Document Management (DM), and Records Management (RM), and sets the scene for the Report, examining the various business issues and drivers that are pertinent to the Public Sector.

Section 3 - Technology Features

Section three of this Report looks at the various technology areas that Butler Group expects to see in DRM solutions and includes the core functionality of DRM; the lifecycle steps in a successful DRM solution through from the creation of a document to the disposition of a record.

Section 4 - Architectures and Models

This section examines the various architecture approaches offered by vendors such as the combination of servers and repositories, the various client options, and the interface options. Also covered in this section are the different approaches to DRM from the specialist Electronic DRM (EDRM) vendors and the functionally larger offerings from the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) vendors.

Section 5 - Strategy, Selection, and Implementation Issues

This section, which could also be referred to as Market Issues, examines the various DRM implementation options, and makes recommendations as to the best way to address this daunting task. There are a number of case studies of organisations, from both the Public and private sectors that have implemented DRM, to provide guidance to organisations considering an implementation.

Section 6 - Tables

This section first presents Butler Group's Features Matrix, which allows the selected DRM solutions to be seen side-by-side in terms of features and capabilities. A number of supplementary tables are also included in this section.

This, as with Sections 7-9, is identical to that in the generic report Document and Records Management for although UK Public Sector organisations have to deploy only those solutions that are approved by The National Archives (see Section 2.2), not all Butler Group subscribers are in the UK, and the comparisons should help the reader to have a greater understanding of the appropriateness of particular solutions, and technologies for their respective organisations.

Section 7 - Comparisons

This section includes comparisons of the vendors featured in this Report.

Section 8 - Technology Audits

This section contains in-depth Technology Audits for the vendors reviewed in this Report. These are as follows:

Diagonal Solutions - Wisdom

EMC Documentum - Documentum 5

Fabasoft - e-Gov-Suite Version 6

FileNet - Records Manager

Hummingbird - Hummingbird Enterprise

Hummingbird (Valid Information Systems) - R/KYV Version v9.1

Hyperwave - eKnowledge Suite and eRecords Suite

IBM - Document Manager, Records Manager

Interwoven - Interstage Business Process Worksite MP 4.1 � Enterprise Content Management Solutions for Business

Meridio - Meridio 4

Open Text Corporation - LiveLink 9.5

Stellent - Stellent Content Management Version 7.2

Tower Software - TRIM Context

Vignette - Vignette Records & Documents Release 4.4

Section 9 - Vendor Profiles

This section contains brief profiles of a number of relevant vendors and technologies not covered by a Technology Audit