Evaluating Commercial Off-the-Shelf COTS Electronic Records Management ERM Applications. Enterprise-wide records and document management in an information-intensive organization is a complex undertaking. Identifying a Commercial Off-the-Shelf COTS system which meets an organization's needs can be a daunting task. In approaching this challenge, it can be helpful to understand how other organizations have tackled this effort. While no single organization's experience can possibly identify the myriad issues which can arise, it can provide valuable information on how to get started and issues that should be considered.

This document summarizes the Environmental Protection Agency's EPA experience identifying the COTS products that would best meet the needs of agency staff for both Electronic Document Management EDM 1 and Electronic Records Management ERM 2 functionality and has been informed by review from partner agencies in the E-Gov ERM Initiative.

We hope this document can be used as a case study as other organizations move forward in examining their requirements and identifying systems to evaluate. It should be used in conjunction with existing Office of Management and Budget OMB policies in OMB Circulars A and A, and in other OMB guidance for managing information systems and information technology IT projects, and with other NARA records management regulations and guidance.

The goal of this document is to provide practical guidance to federal agency officials who have a role in the selection of enterprise-wide ERM systems; a subsequent document will deal with developing and launching an ERM pilot project. This document is composed of five sections, followed by a Glossary, and two Appendixes:.

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Overview of Steps Leading up to Evaluation of COTS Requirements. Criteria Used by EPA for COTS Evaluation. Resources for the Evaluation of Commercial Off-the-Shelf COTS Software. The strategic focus of the Office of Management and Budget's OMB Electronic Government E-Gov Initiatives is to utilize commercial best practices in key government operations.

The National Archives and Records Administration NARA is the managing partner for the ERM E-Gov Initiative. NARA's ERM Initiative provides a policy framework and guidance for electronic records management applicable government-wide. NARA's ERM Initiative is intended to promote effective management and access to federal agency information in support of accelerated decision making. The project will provide federal agencies guidance in managing their electronic records and enable agencies to transfer electronic records to NARA.

This practical guidance document is one of a suite of documents to be produced under NARA's ERM Initiative. These documents form the structural support for ensuring a level of uniform maturity in both the Federal government's management of its electronic records and its ability to transfer electronic records to NARA.

This is the third of six documents to be produced under the Enterprise-wide ERM Issue Area, providing guidance on developing agency-specific functional requirements for ERM systems to aid in the evaluation of COTS products. The first document provides guidance for Coordinating the Evaluation of Capital Planning and Investment Control CPIC Proposals for ERM Applications 3 and the second, Electronic Records Management Guidance on Methodology for Determining Agency-unique Requirements 4offers a process for identifying potential ERM system requirements that are not included in the Design Criteria Standard for Electronic Records Management Applications, DOD This document is issued as a recommended practice or practical guidance to assist agencies as they plan and implement ERM systems.

Subsequent documents will consist of advisory guidance for Building an Effective ERM Governance Structure, developing and launching an ERM pilot project, and a "lessons learned" paper from EPA's proof of concept ERM pilot as well as other agencies' implementation experience.

Based on EPA's experience with and learning from the development and implementation of its own electronic records and document management system, the guidance documents are aimed at helping federal agencies understand the technology and policy issues associated with procuring and deploying an enterprise-wide ERM system. This practical guidance is meant to help agency staff effectively identify and assess ERM systems capable of managing the electronic records that an agency must maintain to comply with legal mandates, recommending appropriate applications for agency-wide use.

While many agencies have established records management systems for retaining and retiring paper records, many do not have electronic systems to assist individual staff members in their day to day creation, management and disposition of electronic records, including e-mail. The primary audiences for this document are the officials, teams, and work groups charged with the task of selecting an ERM system. It is meant to help agencies develop criteria important to the selection of COTS products, and a method for weighting the criteria.

As with other IT systems, agencies must adhere to OMB policies and guidance when planning for and selecting an ERM system. This practical guidance was borne out of the experience of federal agency managers whose aim was to have one enterprise-wide system that could accommodate records and document management, as well as E-FOIA requirements, and who needed to evaluate potential product solutions.

It focuses on the identification and selection of COTS products to meet the needs of an agency. Implementation of portions of this guidance may be facilitated by third-party analytical services. The process described in this document provides insight into the evaluation of products that meet an agency's requirements for an ERM system and perform effectively within the agency's environment.

In an agency such as the EPA, with its relatively independent operating units, the process to identify and select products was inclusive. How much of this process you choose to adopt for your Agency's ERM initiative can be affected by many variables, such as:. Based on this information, the methodology can be modified to better suit the particular needs and concerns of your organization. Before you determine your agency's requirements for an enterprise-wide ERM system, you must assess its particular needs for automating the records management process.

Appendix A provides a helpful overview of what should be considered for inclusion in the system and the steps that must be accomplished. An agency endeavoring to implement enterprise-wide ERM should consider the following steps when performing a COTS software evaluation to identify and assess products that will meet the requirements and perform effectively within its particular environment.

The time required to complete each step will vary with the size of the agency, complexity of the project, availability of staff to participate, and the number of products to be evaluated.

For EPA, the entire process required nine months, as depicted below. The first critical component for Step One is involvement of agency staff in the identification of existing requirements. Appropriate staff to involve may include: Ensure appropriate geographic representation in the user groups and evaluation team. The more varied the responsibilities of the individuals consulted during the requirements analysis, the more comprehensive and accurate the set of criteria developed will be.

This will yield an ERM system that better meets the needs of users, assuring usage by those who had input to the initial stage of development. Begin the COTS software evaluation with an analysis of your agency's requirements for managing documents, records, and E-FOIA.

These "functional requirements" are critical to determining which COTS products should be evaluated. The following resources can be helpful:. In addition, you will have other technical and programmatic requirements, such as Section or interoperability with other systems, than should be addressed as part of the COTS evaluation.

You also should evaluate your agency's existing systems and their functionalities to determine how a selected COTS application will be integrated into existing, related systems. Combine requirements into a master table, functionally organized into categories e.

This breakdown will also facilitate the evaluation of COTS tools for their functionality across multiple components. You have now identified the functional requirements that exist in your agency. These will be further refined during Step Two of the COTS Evaluation and form the foundation on which you will build your ERM product analysis. Step Two - Develop a manageable set of high-level criteria and scoring guide. The purpose of Step Two is to help you take the requirements you have assembled in Step One and create a manageable set of high-level criteria important to the selection of the products.

Weighting the criteria and creating a scoring mechanism will allow you to rank the products selected for evaluation. Mapping the detailed functional requirements developed in Step One to high-level criteria. Mapping the numerous, detailed requirements to more general criteria will minimize the level of effort needed for the product evaluations. For example, a requirement such as "ability to set milestones in the workflow," and "the ability to set conditional routing in the workflow," can both be mapped to the criterion "Workflow.

Aggregating these high-level criteria into categories will further expedite the process. As an example, EPA identified requirements. These were mapped to 23 criteria aggregated into five categories Functional Requirements, Integration Requirements, Technical Requirements, Deployment, and Market Presence.

Figure 2 depicts the process for mapping requirements to product evaluation criteria. Mapping Requirements to Product Evaluation Criteria. Weighting the high-level criteria to reflect the relative importance of the functions they represent will make the product evaluations more meaningful and easier to compare one product to another.

At EPA, members of the RMA Steering Committee were asked to assign a total of points to the five criteria categories Functional Requirements, Integration Requirements, Technical Requirements, Deployment, and Market Presence.

Next, committee members were given points to distribute to the criteria within each category. Their results were combined to calculate an average weighting.

Enterprise-wide ERM functionality is so essential to the project that agencies may choose to assign a mandatory criteria level for this criterion. Also identify any other criteria that are mandatory. It is necessary to have the results of this weighting process approved by the governance board before the evaluation begins. Developing questions related to the criteria will aid in product evaluations. Often, requirements will be expressed in general terms. For example, "System shall provide a web interface.

Questions developed concerning the strength of a web interface will help to clarify what is meant by the requirement, both for the agency and the vendor. EPA project team, in consultation with a consultant, developed a series of questions for each criterion to be sent to vendors. Alternatively, these questions may be posed during vendor demonstrations.

Examples of questions supplementing specific criteria are provided in Figure 3. Establishing numeric values to assess how products meet each criterion e.

Designing a guide to scoring the product solutions for each criterion-for example, by assigning a value to each question, contributing to the total value of the criterion-will permit a weighted score to be computed for each criterion by multiplying the weight for a particular criterion to the score assigned during the product evaluation phase of the project. This weighted score will determine the solution rankings. Figure 3 presents a sample page from a COTS Scoring Guide, illustrating the values assigned to questions developed to enrich the evaluation.

Sample page from COTS Scoring Guide for Web-based Criteria. You now have a manageable set of high-level criteria by which to evaluate your ERM product solutions, weighted to reflect the relative importance of the functions they represent, and a guide by which to score the products. Step Three will help you determine which product solution to include in your evaluation.

Step Three - Gather information about each product solution. If the key to success in Step One was involving a diverse group of agency staff in the identification of existing requirements for ERM, the success factor for Step Three is employing a variety of mechanisms to gather the information that will be required to evaluate product solutions against the criteria.

You will want to begin by identifying COTS ERM products. While many listings are available, a good place to start would be those products that meet DoD The Joint Interoperability Test Command JITC performs testing of RMA products for compliance with DoD Products that have been successfully tested are listed in the compliant Product Register along with vendor and product information. More information on the DoD Another valuable technique for identifying sources of COTS products is a Request for Information RFI.

RFIs can generally generate a lot of vendor interest in your project. Establishing a set of requirements that ERM solutions need to meet in order to be considered for further evaluation is the first step in product examination.

These minimum requirements, a subset of the COTS product evaluation criteria, will establish a threshold for products to be considered. Vendors that demonstrate competencies during the initial screening should be asked to provide a demonstration to review specific software functionality and to answer additional technical questions. These initial vendor screenings will limit evaluation to the best possible field of candidates. Some requirements may be suspended as a result of the initial screening because they too severely narrow the pool of potential solutions.

When contacted, some vendors may choose not to participate in the evaluation, further reducing the number of COTS products included in the evaluation. As part of either the initial screening or the initial briefing, you will want to gather information on the vendor's ongoing responsibility for updating software, the integration of new versions as they are issued, and how this whole process will be handled in the future.

Vendor demonstrations can be performed in stages, each with its own purpose. In preparation for the initial briefing, a generic project overview should be created and sent to the vendors.

The objectives of the initial briefings are to:. In preparation predictions for indian stock market the technical briefing, a written set of questions should be sent to the vendors for response. The objectives of the technical briefing are to demonstrate specific software functionality and answer additional technical questions.

In preparation for the follow-up demonstration, scenarios should be sent easy money maker club penguin no download no ban the vendors. The objectives of the follow-up demonstrations are to expose the agency to potential ERM products for a pilot, providing an opportunity to ask questions of vendors and verify analysis, and compare and contrast ERM products.

Ask each vendor how it employs its product to manage its own company's information. Review of technical literature plays an important role in product evaluation.

Sources for technical literature include brochures, technical specifications provided by the vendors; white papers provided by the vendors and independent parties; vendor product websites; association websites; and the Department of Defense Joint Interoperability Test Command JITC RMA Certification website http: Federal agency user interviews. Use ford motor stock quote morningstar with federal agency users who have firsthand experience with ERM or who are in the planning stages for acquiring ERM systems to gather generic lessons learned in transitioning or piloting electronic records management, and technical insights on specific ERM systems.

You have now identified the COTS products you will evaluate and have amassed the information you need to perform a thorough evaluation Step Mock stock market app in this COTS Software Evaluation.

Step Four - Evaluate COTS products against criteria and score each product. The purpose of Step Four is to evaluate COTS software, based on the criteria established and the questions developed in Step Two, creating product scores.

Product scoring will permit comparisons on a variety of functional requirements. In this respect, presentation that is, the creation of tables that can easily be read and understood is critical.

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First, create a product profile for each solution, summarizing the technical information you have gathered in Step Three. In addition to basic vendor information, present the technical information by the categories into which the criteria have been organized.

In the case of EPA, there were five: Functional Requirements, Integration, Technical Requirements, Deployment, and Market Presence. Using the technical information you have collected in Step Three, and the numeric values and guide to scoring product solutions for each criterion established during Step Two, calculate scores for every make money selling nothing on ebay free against each criterion.

Note that few will reach the highest scoring in terms of any functionality. You will want to reserve the high end of the scoring range typically, 3. A weighted score can be computed for each criterion by multiplying the weight assigned to each criterion in Step Two by the product score.

Totals for each product can be computed for both the raw and weighted scores by adding the scores for each criterion. These can be presented in how do drug dealers spend their money convenient table appended to each product profile, as illustrated in Figure 4. Figure 5 shows raw unweighted and weighted scores for ERM solutions in this evaluation; values presented in this table are for illustrative purposes only.

ERM Solutions Criteria Scores. Depending on the number of criteria and products involved in your evaluation, this table can be difficult to digest how does globalization affected the stock market activities read.

To make it more manageable, each of the categories how much money did america make off of slavery be assessed separately to see how it addresses your agency's overall strategy for an ERM system in terms of categories.

Figure 6 shows the percentage of total possible score each product received for each category. For example, if Product X received a total raw score of 5. Rankings high, medium, and low can be applied to the category percentages and color coded:. Those products represented primarily in green would be worthy of consideration. Figure 6 shows strategy weighted product score percentages for major categories of evaluative criteria.

These categories are used for illustrative purposes only; your assessment may yield other functionality requirements aggregated into different, higher-level criteria categories. Figure 7 shows the relative scores of the ERM solutions reviewed during the evaluation, illustrating the systems that best meet the agency requirements. You now have a profile for each COTS product that has passed the initial screening process and tables that provide a comparison for each product by the criteria you have put and call option agreement sample based on your agency's ERM requirements.

Using these, you will be able to identify the top COTS solutions with functionality matching your organization's requirements. The next step is to consider what you will want to tell a governance or decision-making body about those products, their strengths and weaknesses, and their ability to integrate into your agency. Step Five - Determine how the top three COTS solutions match your agency's specific requirements.

Having scored and ranked several COTS products, you are now ready to focus on the solutions that are the most likely candidates for acquisition. The purpose of Step Five is to provide new insight into the top COTS solutions, comparing and contrasting them against criteria that may not have been emphasized in your previous analyses.

All of 247 digital binary options trading work is in preparation for presenting the ERM product analysis and the solution recommended for your agency to a Governance or Decision-Making Body. Create a table that provides detailed comparison of the top product solutions. The higher scoring products will all work well nanningbob trading system your agency, but the success of ERM will ultimately depend on system implementation.

The criteria you select to present in this table should reflect the needs your agency valued most highly during the requirements assessment Step One and criteria weighting Step Twoas well as other criteria that will make the system easy to use and increase acceptance, agency-wide.

This can be helpful as you determine how well the system will fit into your organization's environment.

Your COTS software evaluation must identify and assess products that would meet the requirements of the agency staff and mission, and perform effectively within its environment. Consider the following as you narrow the product selections toward a recommendation:. By now, you have collected quite a bit of information about each product and created several tables that highlight different aspects of the products with regard to specific sets of criteria.

Each of the solutions will have its strengths and weaknesses. The higher scoring forex kishore in the evaluation will all work well within your agency, but the success of the ERM system will ultimately depend on its implementation. The solution must be integrated to support the agency's business processes and configured to meet the needs of agency staff.

Based on your analyses, identify the product that best meets your agency's business needs and will work best in its environment. The final step is to most volatile currency pairs in forex what you will need to convey to cattlemens livestock market harrison ar Governance or Decision-Making Body and how you will convince its members that the solution you have chosen is the best option for your agency.

Step Six - Present analysis and recommendation to governance or decision-making body. Your presentation should help the Governance or Decision-Making How does globalization affected the stock market activities determine which solution is the best for your agency. Consider both the content of your presentation and the presentation itself.

The recommended solution should be among the top scoring COTS product in your analysis. Your recommendation should highlight how the product solution selected for your agency addresses the primary needs and concerns of your agency with regard to ERM, as uncovered in Step One. Since the success of the ERM solution lies with its implementation within your agency, your recommendation should focus on:.

Anything you can recommend that will improve the chances that this product will be successful i. A key decision factor might be your agency's previous investment in one of these products, perhaps as a pilot project or non-enterprise-wide application. An existing relationship, experience working with a vendor, and the fact that an investment may have already been made i. Understanding what an audience expects is essential to a successful presentation. Your recommendation is more likely to be accepted when the Governance Body does not have to struggle with the format calgary stock market courses the presentation in addition to its content and decision factors are clearly and succinctly presented.

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Refer to successful product presentations from others in your agency to guide you as you create your recommendation for a COTS solution for enterprise-wide ERM. The importance of an effective ERM governance structure will be addressed in another ERM Initiative guidance document and made available on the NARA website http: EPA sought an independent analysis of its ERDMS plans and evaluation criteria, ads banner earn exchange featured links money monsterlinks text traffic the Information Technology Resources Board ITRB 10 to conduct a review.

This section focuses on the lessons learned from the Requirements and Evaluation stages of a selection of a COTS product for ERM at EPA as well as how other federal agencies have determined and set priorities for their ERM requirements.

The knowledge gained during the conduct of a pilot ERM system will be discussed in another guidance within this suite of documents developed under the umbrella of NARA's ERM Initiative. Based on the trading holidays in mcx collected, interviews performed, and analysis conducted, the lessons have been grouped into four topic areas: Strategy, Leadership, Organization, and Technology.

Programs are changing regularly and their records management needs change along with the programs. Where agencies have not stayed abreast of their changing program environment, they face a labor-intensive catch-up exercise before they are ready to implement any COTS ERM. The COTS evaluation for ERM had focused more on developing a process for evaluating software rather than on analyzing and streamlining the business processes before seeking a technical solution.

The emphasis was placed on repository creation rather than users' ability to access the information they need to do their jobs. Conceptualizing the full process as it exists, understanding the workflow and the importance of content management is crucial to enterprise-wide search and retrieval capabilities. A framework for excellence focuses on quality and the ability to sustain excellence throughout the lifecycle of the project, from initial discussions through implementation enterprise-wide.

Agencies are advised to take a phased approach rather than seek a "total solution" for ERM projects. Aligning ERM performance earnest money check cashed short sale with your agency's vision, mission, strategies, and goals, and quantifying benefits derived from ERM to measure success, will provide additional material for the ERM team's communication with management and the rest of the agency as part of celebrating successes, discussion of existing challenges, and plans to overcome them with further improvements.

This will reinforce the notion that the ERM project is not finite, but will continue to evolve as the needs of the agency change and functionality is added to the technology solution. An enterprise-wide solution will have a better chance for success if there is an executive-level business line championing the hedge forex position. Motivators are needed, particularly from the ranks of senior management.

Success of an ERM project lies with involvement of a cross-section of individuals throughout the agency, including records managers, users, technologists, and management, and a team that is capable of executing the project plan. Equally important is leadership from within the team and sponsorship from senior management. One key office, or one workflow tool, such as electronic signature, can "sell" the whole concept of ERM. Leaders must create a vision of what might be-how implementing the proposed technology is likely to affect and improve operations-and communicate that vision to compel people into collective action, motivating and encouraging team members.

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Using the capital planning process outlined in the E-Gov Guidance for Coordinating the Evaluation of Capital Planning and Investment Control CPIC Proposals for ERM Applications http: Optionsmarter binary options is the leader who formalizes the governance structure for ongoing collaboration and decision-making specific to the enterprise-wide nature of ERM by including adoption of a national computerized identification reference system stakeholders, from throughout the country, programs, and headquarters offices.

Options for ERM governance structures will be included in another guidance document to be made available on the NARA website http: Sponsors must present concrete evidence that the changes suggested as a result of the analysis and implementation of ERM are essential for the health and growth of the organization.

Typically, they use influence i. Managers focus on getting the job done efficiently, allocating resources to specific tasks, adoption of a national computerized identification reference system maintaining the project's documentation, assuring accountability and traceability.

Managers create and maintain an effective working relationship between the ERM project team, users, and vendors. They coach other members of the team about how to improve their performance on the project. For example, it is the manager who is responsible for seeing to it that team members are trained so that they can perform their project tasks within the required timeframes.

All teams require leadership, management, and sponsorship to succeed. While these are distinct functions within the team, they are not mutually exclusive, and leaders must possess management skills and, in particular circumstances, must assume management roles. A strategic lesson was learned concerning the importance of reviewing and improving existing business processes during the preliminary steps leading up to assessing requirements for an ERM system.

This review allows an agency to validate its current practices and identify areas for change as part of a comprehensive approach to the implementation of an ERM system. While documenting the current business processes, the desired future state should also be described as it may indicate the need for policy changes. All departments whose work will be affected by these changes will have to be brought on-board and made to appreciate why these changes are necessary.

This reinforces the importance of communication about the ERM project throughout the organization and duration of the project, from pre-planning through implementation and on-going training of staff as improvements are made to the system. An ERM project must develop and implement a marketing and communications plan to publicize ERM, encouraging and enhancing collaborative efforts both inside your agency between and among departments throughout the organization and outside e.

Your communications should describe how ERM supports and facilitates your agency's mission and its business objectives, providing a clear understanding of the scope of the project and its desired outcomes. Continuous communication with both management and staff throughout the agency concerning ERM project schedules and milestones achieved, including risks involved along the way as well as the risk of not taking on ERM in a comprehensive manner will further assure buy-in from management and users alike.

These communications and recognition of milestones can take on a number of forms and employ a variety of vehicles. Mechanisms for two-way communication, allowing employees to pose questions concerning the ERM project, will solidify this notion of inclusion. Identifying challenges to be faced during the course of the project will let others know that the ERM project management team is aware of how ERM will affect the work of their colleagues throughout the agency.

This communication will help colleagues appreciate the role of the ERM project team within the agency and its importance to the agency's mission and success strategy. Key elements to making your ERM communication and marketing effort successful include: Success of any technology project relies on collaboration and teamwork. Adequate staffing is crucial. ERM projects need a staffing strategy that in is line with the agency's practices and project requirements.

The focus should be on building a team of players possessing managerial and technical skills, all of whom understand the vision for the project and its desired effect on the agency's operations and who are committed to the success of the project.

When building teams, concentrate on the desired results of the project and assemble talents and perspectives that complement each other.

This approach will better assure that your ERM project meets its desired outcome. Even if contractor staff provides ERM technical support, it is imperative that agency staffs ensure technical oversight. Key individuals providing project oversight should have a sufficient blend of both technical and subject matter expertise to effectively manage the ERM system.

Key technical positions include:. The overall business need, rather than the technological features of a COTS product, should drive the selection of a vendor partnership. Developing a modular strategy for a total solution that will meet an agency's business needs for records and document management will give the project team more flexibility in phased project development and ERM implementation.

By instituting consistent, enterprise-wide use of metadata i. Agencies should ensure that data taxonomy, metadata standards, and a partition in content in relevant collections are developed and implemented for their ERM projects. Keep in mind your existing information architecture and requirements, recognizing that changes to it are likely and unavoidable. Lessons learned from ERM initiatives at other federal agencies include the importance of keeping the development process simple and limited, with phased deployment recommended.

Agency experience shows that progress is best made in phased steps rather than all at once. A phased approach will limit the number and magnitude of errors, keeping them manageable. Your ERM team will take what they learn from one phase, and apply it to the next, avoiding unnecessary delays and costs. A phased approach also helps with evaluation measures, limiting the number of metrics one needs to gather at any one time.

The purpose of monitoring and tracking a project's progress is to identify areas in which a change is warranted. The key to a successful evaluation lies in how responsive you are; i. Try to integrate the best functional components rather than seeking the perfect product. Appropriate training of users is another essential lesson for ERM projects, not only on the system, but on basic records management.

Staff trained on systems are more comfortable using them and use them more often and more effectively than those who do not receive adequate or timely training.

Training should occur while installation is going on so that users can immediately apply what they learned as soon as the ERM system goes live. Several federal agencies have adopted a policy that all new staff receive records management training. Procedurally, each has implemented the policy in different ways. In one agency, staff cannot get a network password until they have taken a records management training course.

In another agency, the first time a new employee attempts to use a function, such as email, the system requires the employee first to complete computer-based training.

Vendors sell training separate from software and customer support installation and servicing the software on the customer's site. It is important to note that:. Agencies that view their ERM as a partnership-with sponsors, senior management, target user groups, information technology departments, and vendors-are likely to have a smoother process from initiation through implementation.

Involving people, keeping them informed about the progress being made, and training them to be good records managers will encourage them to use the new ERM system.

There are six basic steps for in the process for selecting COTS software for Enterprise-wide ERM systems:. Critical success factors for conducting comprehensive evaluations of COTS systems for ERM include:.

Consider the lessons learned by others who have been involved with ERM projects. Reviewing your own project at the close of each phase, noting things that, upon reflection, you might have done differently will help you as you move to the next phase of this project.

Maintaining a record of these "lessons learned" will assist others planning technology projects at your agency. Let others know of the existence and location of those "lessons learned" so that they might access them easily when they are needed.

This document, the third of six documents to be produced under the Enterprise-wide ERM Issue Area, provides guidance on developing agency-specific functional requirements for ERM systems to aid in the evaluation of COTS products. Upcoming documents within the Enterprise-wide ERM Issue Area will consist of guidance for Building an Effective ERM Governance Structuredeveloping and launching an ERM pilot project, and a "lessons learned" paper from EPA's proof of concept ERM pilot as well as other agencies' implementation experience.

All are aimed at helping federal agencies understand the technology and policy issues associated with procuring and deploying an enterprise-wide ERM system. It specifies design criteria needed to identify, mark, store, and dispose of electronic records. It does not define how the product is to provide these capabilities. It does not define how an agency manages electronic records or how an ERM program is to be implemented.

E-FOIA - Electronic processing of Freedom of Information Act FOIA requests, determination of fee charges and waivers, workflow, redaction, and response. Electronic Content Management ECM 12 - the technologies used to capture, manage, store, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes; also called Enterprise Content Management. Electronic Document Management EDM 13 - Computerized management of electronic and paper-based documents.

EDM includes a system to convert paper documents to electronic form, a mechanism to capture documents from authoring tools, a database to organize the storage of documents, and a search mechanism to locate the documents. Electronic Records Management ERM 14 - Using automated techniques to manage records, regardless of format. It supports records collection, organization, categorization, storage of electronic records, metadata, and location of physical records, retrieval, use, and disposition.

Enterprise and Enterprise-wide - Implementation of a single software application suite throughout all levels and components of an agency or organization.

Metadata - A term that describes or specifies characteristics that need to be known about data in order to build information resources such as electronic recordkeeping systems and support records creators and users. Records Management Application RMA 17 - A software application to manage records. Its primary management functions are categorizing and locating records and identifying records that are due for disposition.

RMA software also stores, retrieves, and disposes of the electronic records that are maintained in its depository. Include a cross-section of staff representing a diverse set of responsibilities and levels to assure that the system purchased will possess the functionality needed by the agency. Involve representatives from the following groups:. NARA defines ERM as the use of "automated techniques to manage records regardless of format.

Electronic records management is the broadest term that refers to electronically managing records on varied formats, be they electronic, paper, microform, etc. The records created by the E-FOIA application e. Other systems installed in your agency, such as a Correspondence Management System used to manage your agency's controlled correspondence, should be included in your enterprise-wide ERM initiative.

Often overlooked during the planning process are forms which, when completed, are usually records covered under NARA's General Records Schedules. Forms completed online will likely become federal records, particularly when the data pertain to matters such as regulatory reporting or applications for benefits.

As part of an ERM initiative, agencies should bring forms into their planning process. The foundation of an ERDMS is document management, including version control, workflow, and storage. Once a document or other "object" is designated as a record, the proper retention and disposition is applied.

EPA's goal is implement an agency-wide, integrated ERDMS to manage documents and records throughout their lifecycle. EPA began with a records management application RMA 21 workgroup charged with the task of looking at technical requirements for an agency-wide ERM system.

A Steering Committee reviewed business processes seeking opportunities for improvement and a Task Force developed an agency-wide strategy for document management. As questions arose, requiring expertise that did not exist among the members of these teams, input was sought from external resources within EPA, other federal agencies, and third-party experts.

Every employee is responsible for managing records. Therefore, each employee needs access and must be trained to use ERM tools. The primary focus of the system is documents and records created or received by the agency. A centralized system with a single RMA would best meet EPA's requirements. While integration with legacy systems was not the primary focus at EPA, the selected product must be able to accommodate legacy systems.

Over time, legacy repositories will be migrated to the new system; however, some number of integrations will be required. The selected product must work with EPA's infrastructure standards. The product must comply with Section of the Rehabilitation Act.

This is a statutory requirement that all agencies must consider. The following documents were referred to by EPA officials as they decided on the requirements for an ERM product to test in a pilot project. Association for Information and Image Management AIIM. Association of Records Managers and Administrators ARMA. DOD review task force comments to DoD.

It includes a system to convert paper documents to electronic form, a mechanism to capture documents from authoring tools, a database to organize the storage of documents, and a search mechanism to locate the documents. Guidance for Coordinating the Evaluation of Capital Planning and Investment Control CPIC Proposals for ERM Applications.

Retrieved July 13,from http: EPA employs 18, people across the country, including headquarters offices in Washington, DC, 10 regional offices, and more than a dozen labs. Its staff is highly educated and technically trained; more than half are engineers, scientists, and policy analysts. In addition, a large number of employees are legal, public affairs, financial, information management and computer specialists.

EPA has an information-intensive mission, and is heavily involved in public contact, as well as litigation, necessitating timely and thorough retrieval of documents across the agency. American National Standards Institute http: Members are drawn from a cross section of agencies and are selected for their specific skills and knowledge.

The ITRB provides, at no cost to agencies, peer reviews of major Federal IT systems. Additional information concerning the Information Technology Review Board can be found on the Board's website http: Records Management Application RMA Compliance Testing Program. Retrieved September 15,from http: Enterprise Content Management ECM Definitions. Context for Electronic Records. This page was last reviewed on February 2, Contact us with questions or comments.

National Archives and Records Administration NARA-NARA or Top Skip to main content. Evaluating Commercial Off-the-Shelf COTS Electronic Records Management ERM Applications Enterprise-wide records and document management in an information-intensive organization is a complex undertaking. This document is composed of five sections, followed by a Glossary, and two Appendixes: Present analysis and recommendation to governance or decision-making body.

Overview of Steps Leading up to Evaluation of COTS Requirements APPENDIX B: Criteria Used by EPA for COTS Evaluation APPENDIX C: Activity Months required Determine requirements Three months Weight criteria and create scoring guide Two months Evaluate and score vendor products Three months Determine product recommendation and create final presentation to governing body One month.

Product N Evaluation Criteria Weight Product Score Weighted Score Functional Requirements RMA Requirements Federal Records Officers NARA Appraisal Archivists Senior Agency Officials List. Office of the Chief Records Officer. I Want to Know More About…. Code of Federal Regulations FAQs Memos to Agency Records Officers Handbook Publications Records Management Glossary of Terms Records Storage Facility Standards Toolkit RM Consulting Services Scheduling Tools Toolkit for Managing Electronic Records Other Resources.

Appraisal General Records Schedule GRS Inspections and Oversight Presidential Records Management Directive PRMD Records Control Schedules RCS Training.