Administrative efficiencies within the City of Cape Town have been given a shot in the arm through the launch of its new Web-based records classification search facility developed by empowered IT firm DLK Consulting Services.
The search facility, which took about 10 months to develop and is gradually being phased into the unicity`s records offices, enables any clerical worker to quickly find the location of any paper-based information stored in its archives by using key-word searches to find the correct filing classification code.
Clerks can use the online system to quickly and correctly allocate classification code to new documentation needing to be filed without having to page through the paper-based records classification system, or phone the records management section within the city`s Corporate Administration Directorate to ask for the correct filing code.
The directorate`s records manager Andre Coetzee says the search facility, which works with the municipality`s CityWeb, makes "life a lot easier" for all those working with the city`s correspondence, reports, memoranda, council minutes and agendas.
"It also enforces rigour in that all our filing must, by law, conform to the standards set by National Archives, which is notified of all amendments to our records classifications."
The unicity`s documents are filed under 42 main series headings. Changes and additions in records classification are made daily and, before the new system went live, the pages with these changes were copied and, with a covering letter, were delivered by courier to all relevant records offices where they were manually inserted into the records classification file. Now these changes are communicated by e-mail.
DLK Consulting conducted initial training courses in the use of the search facility for the core Records Management staff who are now leading training sessions to pass on their newly acquired skills to records clerks throughout the unicity.
"Some of the clerks still find it easier to phone us for the classification code but, over time, they will become comfortable with the new system," Coetzee adds.
DLK Consulting`s CEO Leon Hendricks said the unicity`s search facility is based on Inmagic, a world-leading information management and library automation software application, but "we made considerable complex amendments to ensure that the records classification codes conformed with those laid down by National Archives".
Coetzee commended DLK for the thorough approach it took to developing the search facility. "They took time to listen to us and to gain an understanding of how we work. They worked closely with us to fine-tune the complexities of the codes which contain both numbers and letters. But they knew their product and had the technical abilities to amend it to support our needs."
He stresses that the current system is not an online storage and retrieval system for the unicity`s documents, only an aid to their storage and retrieval. Online document storage may be implemented at a later stage.
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DLK Consulting Services is a Cape-based specialist IT consulting company with a track record of developing and implementing customised solutions to government and business customers, particularly in the areas of record and library management, distribution systems, and project management.
CEO Leon Hendricks was a finalist in the 2002 Vodacom/BMF Entrepreneurial Initiative Award.
DLK`s client base includes the City of Cape Town, Nampak, Caltex, Provincial Administration of the Western Cape, De Beers Marine and Wesgro.
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