Comments on: Evaluating Caloundra City Council’s EDMS classification

By: James Robertson

James Robertson — Tue, 19 May 2009 10:33:17 +0000

@Ray, I’m not sure what to recommend here. The DIRKS process clearly states that the classification scheme should be adapted to the business, but this doesn’t seem to happen in most cases. All I can suggest is to talk to other Councils, to see how they have tackled similar situations…

By: Ray Sanderson

Ray Sanderson — Sun, 17 May 2009 07:04:49 +0000

Hi – I work for a regional council that introduced EDMS a while back and it uses Keywords for Council. Management have asked that my procurement unit improve the effectiveness of procurement to obtain better value. My role is to oversee procurement procedures and processes for governance reasons. I requested that a Level 1 term of procurement be introduced but our Records section says that the 32 level 1 terms can never be changed,. I feel I am making a change to the way my Council does business, surely the EDMS should reflect that, not just an archiving system. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Ray

By: James Robertson

James Robertson — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:09:42 +0000

@Grace, no easy answer on what classification system to use. Instead, I would recommend following a process to determine this:

1. identify the scope of the recordkeeping activities
2. highlight key (targeted) areas
3. look at current practices
4. design or obtain a classification scheme to match
5. conduct actual tests, as per this case study

If in doubt, keep it simple! Better to get 100% of key documents, rather than trying to cover absolutely everything, any only getting 20% of anything.

By: Grace Palmer

Grace Palmer — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:27:08 +0000

Hi James:
I find your articles real helpful as they are to the point and scratches where it is itching.

What classification scheme would you recommend for records of a fledging tertiary institution of 100 students? What eRMS would be helpful?

By: James Robertson

James Robertson — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:33:34 +0000

Hi Sylvia, while most functional classification schemes seem to be three levels deep, I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t be two.

The key message of the article is: develop a classification scheme that can be understood and used by all staff; and these use practical testing to ensure that this really is the case.

By: Sylvia Lopez

Sylvia Lopez — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:51:43 +0000

Is there a two-step classification process.