Johannesburg, 23 Aug 2005
Legislation such as the ECT Act demands that businesses correctly manage electronic documents and records. According to Intervate - a software development house that assists organisations in attaining compliance with legislation and corporate best practices - local companies need to implement comprehensive electronic document and record management (EDRM) solutions to attain this compliance.
"There are still a number of organisations that do not recognise the need for a comprehensive EDRM solution to assist in compliance. However, this is crucial in ensuring that data is accessible to all staff and meets regulatory requirements," says Richard Dickerson, EDRM solution specialist at Intervate. "A comprehensive document management solution enables compliance with local legislation and corporate best practices."
Legislation such as the ECT Act is set to have a major impact on the manner in which local businesses view document management, due to the legal liability implications. One of the most significant aspects to the ECT Act is that electronic communications and transactions are now viewed as legally binding. This means that a person is able to place an order or change the contents of a contract via a mobile phone or e-mail message.
"In environments where there is a large volume of paper movement, it is necessary for information to be available and accessible to all necessary parties, at any given time and regardless of the source medium. This is critical in terms of meeting compliance requirements," adds Dickerson.
"In the coming year, businesses will need to increasingly focus on implementing solutions that enable compliance, as this is set to be a defining factor for the success of many organisations. Document management is an essential element of the compliance mix and should not be ignored," he says.
In selecting and implementing a document management solution, it is vital for the organisation to look at factors such as version control and change management. Version management is critical, as many organisations have duplicate copies of documents saved on local machines and servers with no way of identifying which is the correct version. This presents a severe risk, in that staff can provide inaccurate information to external stakeholders, which can damage the company image and negatively impact shareholder value. Thus, the synchronisation of data is an important ingredient in ensuring the entire organisation utilises the same version of documents.
However, the most fundamental challenge when introducing a document management solution into a paper-based environment lies not with the technologies involved, but in the organisational change that needs to occur to utilise the solution correctly. For document management to be successful, staff need to move away from the idea of document storage being a physical process that involves paper and filing systems, and begin to think in terms of electronic storage.
"Implementations of this nature require a substantial change management element, considering the pervasive nature of the technology. Therefore, a full gap analysis should be undertaken prior to execution and an education drive needs to be employed, to drive the effective use of the EDRM solution. It is critical that this is run as a joint project, with both the solution provider and customer involved in the change management process," Dickerson concludes.
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