Electronic Records Management

Electronic Records Management

• Electronic records management is used for an increasing range of business activities, including communication, stock control, purchases, and sales.
• Organisations use electronic formats such as word-processed documents, digital images, online forms, emails, and instant messages.

Benefits of an Electronic Filing System

• Reduces physical space required for storing documents
• Information is immediately available online to workers and customers
• Reduces the number of staff required to manage records
• Increases the speed of document location and retrieval
• Records created in various departments are available throughout the organisation
• Enables multiple persons to view documents simultaneously
• Ensures only authorised persons can access records
• Prevents documents from being misfiled, misplaced, damaged, or lost

Classifying Records

• Records can be classified using various systems, including alphabetical, topical, geographical, subject, chronological, and numerical.

Filing Systems

Alphabetical Filing

• A system with which most persons are familiar
• May not require an index to the records
• Enables files to be found quickly

Disadvantages of Alphabetical Filing

• Some letters are used more frequently than others
• May have misfiling due to spelling practices
• Challenges in filing and retrieving if a name changes

Geographical Filing

• Organisations operating in distinct locations may find it advantageous to classify records geographically
• Major headings can be countries, states, counties, cities, or other geographical locations
• Records may then be sorted alphabetically, numerically, or chronologically

Advantages of Geographical Filing

• Related files are grouped together, making it easier to locate and analyse data within a region
• Large sets of records are broken up into more manageable sections

Subject Filing

• Involves grouping and arranging records according to their topic
• Requires a thorough knowledge of the organisation to correctly determine how an item should be filed

Guidelines for Using Alphabetical Systems

• Files must be placed in strict alphabetical order, letter by letter, according to surname first
• Different surnames are filed by surname
• Same surnames are filed by first name
• Same surnames and first names are filed by initial
• Same surnames, first names, and initials are filed by town in alphabetical order

Electronic Records Management

• Electronically stored documents are accepted by legal and regulatory bodies in many countries
• Must be prepared and maintained in keeping with government guidelines for user records, security control, audit trails, and document history

Limitations of an Electronic Filing System

• Records may be lost if the computer system crashes
• Requires a schedule for automatic backing-up of all records
• Some countries have not yet modified their laws to accommodate electronically stored documents

Processes in Electronic Records Management

• Electronic filing systems use computer programs to handle various processes involved in records management
• Processes include capture, processing, storage, retrieval, and disposal

Records Capture

• Documents may be electronic or paper and may be on various media
• Paper documents are captured by using a scanner to create a digital image
• Electronic documents are captured by importing them into the filing system

Processing

• Data input on a computer must be processed, organised, sorted, and indexed
• Processing can be either in batches or in real-time
• Indexing involves creating an ordered listing of all records that are filed
• Electronic document indexing involves associating a document with search terms