Abstract
Rand Water was one of the earliest institutions to introduce electronic records management in 1991. Over the period of three decades, there have been numerous changes at the institution, and within the South African legal framework, there is a need to transfer the digital records into archival custody. However, there is no infrastructure to ingest digital records into archival custody. This poses challenges to institutions such as Rand Water as they are forced to create an interim solution for electronic records preservation. The challenge is compounded by the fact that since implementing electronic systems, Rand Water has migrated to several products. There is a danger that some records might have been lost during migration. This chapter narrates on the electronic record-keeping within Rand Water from yesteryear to today in order to map the way for the future. It has established that Rand Water has implemented several ECMs and migrated to different products over the years. A further study on data loss and recoverability during migration to the different ECMs is recommended.
TopIntroduction
The value of electronic records for business efficiency cannot be overlooked in almost all industries, including the water sector. This sector plays a vital role in ensuring that the people have access to clean water to survive on the daily basis and businesses can run efficiently. Organisations in the water sector are also among the many institutions that have implemented electronic records management to efficiently run its business. Water utility companies such as Rand Water has a rich history of records management dating back to the end of the 19th century just before it was established (Mohlabi, Ferreira, Mello, Mile & Maraba, 2015). The company is one of the earliest public institutions in South Africa to introduce electronic document and records management system (EDRMS) applications in the early 1990s. Over this period of three decades, there have been numerous changes and according to archival legislation in South Africa, procedurally, there is a need to transfer the digital records into archival custody. However, studies by Ngoepe and Keakopa (2011), Katuu (2012), Katuu and Ngoepe (2015), Ngoepe (2017), as well as Modiba, Ngoepe and Ngulube (2019) indicated that there is no infrastructure to ingest digital records into archival custody in South Africa. This poses serious challenges to organisations such as Rand Water as they are forced to preserve electronic records that are due for transfer to national archival custody even though they do not have the skills and mandate for this task. This challenge is compounded by the fact that since implementing EDRMS in the early 1990s, Rand Water has migrated to several EDRMS products from the original one. There is a danger that some records might have been lost during this migration process and recovery of such records might proof impossible. Although the records management practitioners at Rand Water have managed electronic records using the EDRMS applications, they face the challenge of preserving these records due to a lack of skills, infrastructure and mandate as indicated (Mello, 2020). This poses the danger of losing valuable historical records dating back to the late 1800s.
This chapter provides a historical narrative of the management of electronic records at Rand Water from yesteryear when the water utility company was established to today when electronic records management systems were implemented in order to map the way for tomorrow with the possible integration of systems to manage digital records efficiently. The chapter shares lessons learnt from Rand Water in terms of records management with the transition from paper-based to digital records management. This is so as many organisations in South Africa are still grappling with implementing digital records systems. Digital records are either stored in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system or electronic content management (ECM) system, or managed without the benefit of either system (Stancic, Ngoepe & Mukwevho, 2019). In many organisations, including Rand Water, ECM and ERP systems have been implemented. However, such systems are not integrated, and records that are due for transfer into national archival custody in such systems are not transferred and sometimes records are lost during migration from one system to another, hence this chapter recommends the integration of the two systems in the future, as well as the audit and recoverability of lost records during migration. It is worth noting that this chapter is not based on empirical study but on literature review, as well as the involvement of the authors in some of the records management projects at Rand Water. Similar studies carried elsewhere such as by Keakopa (2013) used literature review and the author’s personal experiences to report on the implementation of a records management strategy at Botswana Unified Revenue Services. Therefore, the chapter contributes to literature and knowledge on practical case that have been successfully implemented following best practice in electronic records management over a period of 30 years. The achievements and challenges experienced during the implementation phase can be used by other organisations that are still to develop and implement electronic records management systems.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Enterprise Resource Planning: The term enterprise resource planning is a comprehensive, packaged software solution that seeks to integrate the complete range of business processes and functions to present a holistic view of the business from a single information and IT architecture ( Chen, Wang, Wei, Ren, Shao & Li, 2013 ). The breadth and tight integration of ERP have only become available in current years, as now ERP has a pedigree in large, packaged applications software that has been widely in use since the 1970s ( Klaus, Rosemann & Gable, 2000 ). In other words, it is an automated system that creates or manages data about an organisation’s activities, such as e-commerce system, client-relationship management system, purpose-built or customised database, and finance or human resources systems ( Stancic, Ngoepe & Mukwevho, 2019 ).
Record: The National Archives and Records Service of South Africa Act defines a record as a record created or received by a governmental body in pursuance of its activities ( Ngoepe & Saurombe, 2016 ). This definition works extremely well for paper records, but it does not identify requisite aspects of a record that would render it useful for defining complex electronic forms such as geographical maps or changing data visualisations ( Ngoepe & Saurombe, 2016 ).
Enterprise Content Management: The term enterprise content management was introduced in 2001 by the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) and it is well adopted by vendors, users and analysts in the industry ( Kunstová, 2010 ). The electronic content services can present information by using different information technologies ( Trappey & Trappey, 2004 ). ECM involves integrating systems, storage, databases, applications like e-mail, data capture, e-discovery, tools such as search, and the provision of services to manage electronic content in a full life cycle manner ( Vellante, 2006 ).
Electronic Document and Records Management System: An electronic document and records management system is part of an evolving class of computer application oriented toward the management of records in the digital environment (O’Brien, 2015). EDRMS is an automated tool to control and track the creation, use, modification, management and disposal of both physical and electronically created documents and records, encompassing a workflow capability that extends functionality toward content management as an aspect of business intelligence systems (O’Brien, 2015).
Electronic Records: The term electronic records refer to records created electronically and managed by means of a computer technology. Some organisations in South Africa are managing electronic records through ECM while others have enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and still others generate digital records without the benefit of any controlled system ( Ngoepe, 2017 ).