Managing Records: Records Management Software
Records Management Software
Guidelines
Minimum Functional Requirements
Performance and Operating Criteria
Selecting Software
Resources
Related Workshop Offerings
For More Information
Minimum Functional Requirements
Records management software should support the following core records management activities:
- identifying records series held by governments and agencies and their locations, i.e. in offices, in inactive storage or in an archives or archival facility;
- determining retention schedule for a record series;
- creating and maintaining inventory files, i.e. updating files to reflect disposition;
- providing accurate reports on record series due for destruction/disposition;
- identifying vital records, confidential records, records in poor physical condition, archival records, official copies, record format types, and records to be transferred to other media;
- providing State Archives Schedules pertaining to the user government available on line;
- capturing and maintaining the fields and data elements in the form they appear on the State Archives Inventory Worksheet;
- generating standard reports such as:
- record series by location;
- record series by department
- record series by destruction date;
- archival series;
- vital records;
- confidential records;
- format type.
Reports should be easily formatted by users and able to be generated to answer ad hoc queries such as a request for a list of all records of a given department in a specific location sorted by destruction date. Reports should be made available in tabular form when required or desired.
Performance and Operating Criteria
In addition to supporting essential records management activities, software should minimally meet the following criteria:
- perform, at an acceptable speed, on the government's current computer configuration;
- save and export files in comma separated ASCII;
- provide for quick, easy, non-redundant data entry with little user training required;
- assure security/data integrity through the use of protected passwords and other appropriate means;
- include from the vendor, functional and tested user documentation including user manual and help screens;
- feature easy to read, understand, and navigated screens and menu choices that are clearly presented and meaningful to the user menu;
- for software written on a commercially supported database management system (DBMS), license fees or other fees, if required for the DBMS, should be included in the initial cost of the software;
- provide for vendor-supplied troubleshooting, support and maintenance, either included in the initial price or specified as an additional expense;
- provide for vendor-supplied training for a specified number of users, either included in initial price or specified as an additional expense.
The State Archives strongly recommends:
- purchasing only those software products for which the vendor supplies names and phone numbers of New York State local governments using the software;
- contacting user governments to determine ease and cost of learning, use and maintenance;
- attending vendor demonstrations, and
- arranging to visit a current user (without the vendor present) to see the system at work in a local government environment. Go to that visit prepared with a list of queries to which you would like to see the system respond, or reports that you would like to see the system create.
As you make your records management software purchasing decisions, keep a few things in mind:
- software should be the right "size" and complexity for your government;
- know what is and isn't included in the price: "free" software may become very costly if you have to arrange for its maintenance or up-grading: "expensive" software may actually be reasonably priced if maintenance and upgrades are included or available for a modest fee;
- "test drive" products before you buy them: date entry, system queries, report generation, and other topics should be covered;
- check vendors before you contract with them: financial stability, length of time providing any kind of software and specifically records management software to New York State Local Governments are important considerations.
Inventory and Planning: The First
Steps in Records Management (Technical Information Series # 76)
Explains the value and uses of a records inventory, provides a step-by-step
explanation of how to conduct an inventory, and shows how to develop a
simple plan to guide the development of a records management program.
Using Records Retention and Disposition
Schedules (Archives Technical Information Series #41)
Explains how and why local governments should use the records retention
and disposition schedules developed by the New York State Archives, how
to develop office retention schedules, and how to destroy obsolete government
records.
The State Archives provides a wide variety of workshops over the course of three workshop seasons each year. Check the current online workshop catalog for information on when workshops will be offered.
If you wish to discuss your planned purchase of software, contact your Regional Advisory Officer or RECMGMT@mail.nysed.gov.