The Council was keen to avoid difficulties with the organisation-wide introduction of EDRM as part of its transformation strategy. Socitm Consulting ran a facilitated workshop to identify potential problems and subsequently helped the Council to address them – the most significant requirement being the development of an Information Governance strategy and culture for the organisation. The Council is now adopting the recommendations in order to achieve the desired benefits of more flexible working practices, reduced office space requirements and greater efficiency.
The project issues
As part of their ‘Worksmart’ initiative in support of flexible working and new accommodation strategies, the Council had begun deploying an Electronic Document and Records Management (EDRM) solution to achieve more efficient working practices in a ‘less paper’ environment.
However, whilst 10 different teams were piloting the EDRM system, there were concerns about planning, deployment strategies, and user and corporate acceptance issues.
The Council therefore commissioned Socitm Consulting to help assess progress to date and to devise a provisional action plan to ensure successful implementation of the EDRM system.
The Socitm Consulting solution
The project began with a workshop for members of the Technology and Transformation division to help them understand potential issues around corporate-wide EDRM and to assess and prioritise ways of avoiding these.
We then produced a number of discussion documents focusing on potential problem areas. As an immediate interim measure to enable EDRM deployment to progress, a checklist was provided on EDRM configuration, benefits realisation and related issues.
A follow-up meeting was arranged with the Technology and Transformation division to discuss these documents. At this it was decided that the most pressing priority was to establish a governance framework and process, covering both EDRM and wider, associated good practice in Records Management. It was agreed as most important that governance arrangements were put in place before Worksmart moved into Phase II so that it progressed under a structured, consistent and sustainable approach, with change embedded and lessons learned.
Finally a closing report was produced making recommendations in areas of sponsorship, strategy, a programme board, challenge and scrutiny, monitoring and audit. The report also outlined a number of activities to be assessed, prioritised and progressed once the programme board had been established.
The benefits to the client
Through a structured workshop and follow-up assistance, Socitm Consulting was able to help the Council avoid problems that might stand in the way of successful implementation of the EDRMS – in particular, lack of an Information Governance strategy and Information Management culture within the organisation. Once this core issue had been identified, Socitm Consulting was able to recommend specific and pragmatic steps to enable the introduction of best practice in Records Management. This in turn enables more flexible working which will lead to greater efficiency and improved customer service.
Project identification
Client organisation: London Borough of Lewisham
Client contact: Shirley Watson, Corporate Transformation Manager, 020 8314 6000, shirley.watson@lewisham.gov.uk
Lead consultant: reynold.leming@socitm.gov.uk
Project no: 6022