Clients - Case Studies
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s State Records Center: Proactive with inactive records |
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"OmniRIM® had
a clear idea of what we
were facing, what we needed,
and
where we wanted to go with
our records management
responsibilities, initially within
the State
Records Center."
— Linda Avetta
BAH Project Manager
“The support team at OmniRIM® have been tremendous. They are professional and address issues and implement solutions quickly.”
— Steve Musser, State Records Center Manager
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The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania knows about the importance of preserving government documents; some of the most significant documents in Pennsylvania History are the royal Charter from King Charles II establishing Pennsylvania on March 4, 1681, William Penn’s First
Frame of Government May 5, 1682, and the 1776 Constitution of Pennsylvania which responded to the call for new colonial governments. These documents are still in existence in the Pennsylvania State Archives more than 300 years later.
THE SITUATION:
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum
Commission, in conjunction with the Office
of Administration, is responsible for
administering all aspects of the Commonwealth's
records management program. Through its
Bureau of Archives and History (BAH),
the Commission operates the State Records
Center for all 65 Executive Branch agencies.
The Records Center’s mandate is
to manage inactive government records,
for set periods of time, according to
retention schedules.
The State Records Center provides free
of charge off-site storage to state agencies.
Agencies send their inactive files to
the Records Center, which retains the
files for a designated period according
to detailed retention schedules. At the
end of the inactive retention period
the Records Center acts in accordance
to the retention schedule’s final
disposition and returns the records to
the agency, destroys them, or sends them
to the State Archives if they have lasting
archival or historical importance.
Managing millions of inactive records
is challenging. Different records from
different agencies need to be retained
for different periods of time. Many state
and federal statutes affect how long
inactive records must be retained. Although
the Records Center stores the inactive
records, the records remain the property
of the various state agencies. Thus the
Records Center must be able to quickly
and accurately retrieve any file that
may be requested by an agency.
By 2003 it was clear that better approaches
to managing the inactive records were
needed to serve the agencies. An outdated
commercial records management system
was proving to be inadequate because
of endless patches, bug fixes, and crashes
upon upgrading. These problems were compounded
by the vendor’s lack of technical
support.
Linda Avetta, BAH Project Manager for
electronic archives and records management,
and her team went looking for a 21st
Century solution to records management—one
that would facilitate all agency interaction
via the web and could handle a large
volume of inactive records quickly and
accurately.
THE SOLUTION:
After issuing a detailed request for
proposal and evaluating the responses,
the winning bid was clear—OmniRIM® Solutions Inc. and its Web-based records
management solution.
The Bureau of Archives and History purchased
OmniRIM’s Enterprise Web Edition,
which is specifically designed to meet
the needs of larger, more complex businesses.
OmniRIM® Enterprise Web Edition allows
a client to simplify and standardize
their most complex records management
processes easily through a single Web-based
solution. OmniRIM® can be rapidly deployed
across multiple departments and divisions
without requiring software to be installed
on each workstation.
OmniRIM® was selected for the following
key reasons:
- The Web-based nature of the
software with its inherent cost savings
and easy-of-use benefits
- The robust nature of the
software and its ability to handle
limitless numbers
of records accurately
- The ability to allow Records
Coordinators in the various state
agencies to run Web-based queries on
the records
being held in the Records Center
- The ability to allow Records
Coordinator’s and agency authorized
personnel to request retrieval of records
stored at the Records Center
- OmniRIM’s superior
technical support and personalized
attention
to detail
THE RESULT:
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s
Records Center now has a superior Web-based
system that allows it to manage its inactive
records online. Records coordinators
and agency authorized personnel throughout
the state can quickly and accurately
request files from the Records Center
via the Internet. When completely rolled
out to all the agencies this will reduce
the need for Records coordinators and
agency authorized personnel to telephone,
fax, or email the Records Center when
they need to review inactive records.
OmniRIM’s system has brought the
following tangible benefits:
- Increased organizational efficiency—Searching
and requesting inactive documents
are a mouse click away.
- Reduced transaction times—Shorter
request times mean quicker response
times by the Records Center staff.
Records
Center staff can now concentrate
on fulfilling the requests with less
distraction from
processing paperwork.
- Cost savings—OmniRIM® is reducing
the amount of staff time spent processing
email, telephone calls, and faxes.
State agencies will spend less on long-distance
telephone and fax charges. These
savings
will allow both the Records Center
and the agencies to divert more financial
and human resources to needed projects.
- Increased regulatory compliance—Failure
to manage inactive documents correctly
could expose state agencies to regulatory
and liability consequences. OmniRIM® allows the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
to destroy unneeded records on schedule
and also ensure that important records
will not be inadvertently destroyed.
In addition, the software maintains
an audit trail to track all aspects
of the
file destruction.
- Government officials
know that state agencies follow the
proper
retention
and disposal schedules for inactive
records, in accordance with state,
local, and federal requirements.
When records that are no longer
needed are
destroyed according to a set
schedule and as part of an ongoing
procedure,
the state reduces its liability
exposure.
Linda Avetta notes that OmniRIM’s
Web-based software has many more features
than the previous records management
software they were using. In addition
she says, “OmniRIM® had a
clear idea of what we were facing, what
we needed, and where we wanted to go with
our records management responsibilities,
initially within the State Records Center.”
OmniRIM® gets high marks for its technical
support as well, according to Steve Musser,
State Records Center Manager. “The
support team at OmniRIM® have been tremendous.
They are professional and address issues
and implement solutions quickly.”
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