Situation

Our client was a major Ontario Agency that was responsible for regulating and implementing gaming and lottery services throughout the province. Building off previous work, the client authorized the Initiation and Planning Phase (IPP) of its Enterprise Documents and Records Management (EDRM) Actions Project. The important outcome of the IPP was the Project Implementation Plan (PIP), which details the work to be performed for the remainder of the project.

In order to have a meaningful estimate of the work to be accomplished during execution, the client needed to determine the order-of-magnitude for the inventory of documents and records within OLG that required management.

In this context, this project was composed of two main sections:

  1. PIP Component: PIP preparatory work, and development of work plan (the work plan or schedule was part of PIP which formed baseline for execution)
  2. Records Inventory Analysis and Estimate

Requirements

To ensure that the client fulfilled their business needs in relation to the above, SSI was required to deliver:

  1. An EDRM Phase 1 project implementation plan that included:
    • Numerous different elements, such as: operations acceptance criteria, risk management plan, quality management plans, WBS, requirements management, etc.
    • Specific criteria in supporting alignment around the management team, project owner, executive sponsor and other key stakeholders’ expectations for the Transition & Launch and project product acceptance
    • An analysis and confirmation that the project was achievable within the criteria stated in the EDRM Business Case
  2. Assistance in the development of a Records Inventory for all enterprise information including structured data in databases and unstructured electronic and physical documents and records; classifying the records across the client’s various lines of business. Records inventory and classification also had to consider and align with another initiative the client was undertaking, a large organizational transformation initiative that would dramatically alter the way it worked.

Challenges

  • Clarification around who had the authority to make major decisions
  • Clarification around ownership of the change management process and the management of any stakeholder resistance that might be encountered
  • Management of the overall organizational transformation – both within Enterprise Documents and Records management and within the context of the overall organizational transformation initiative

Actions

PIP Component

Working closely with the client’s staff, our consultants determined the client’s ERM vision, needs, challenges, obstacles and constraints. Our work consisted of seven major activities, which had a total of 55 steps. These activities were:

  1. Reviewing of client’s current EDRM program
  2. PIP preparation approach and plan
  3. Defined EDRM Project Scope, Approach and WBS.
  4. EDRM Key WBS Item Preparation Guidelines
  5. Defined EDRM Project Execution and Support Plans
  6. Final PIP Report Preparation and Presentation
  7. PIP Preparation Progress Meetings

Records Inventory Component

Prior to this engagement, Schroeder & Schroeder had already designed the tools for the client’s Records inventory; although a full analysis had not yet been completed. Our consultants therefore worked with the client to validate the data collection tool at a specific location on a subset of data, and refined it as necessary.

Key steps included:

  1. Conduct surveys at select locations to identify and gather information about the record series maintained there
  2. Get an inventory of all Lotus Notes Team Rooms
  3. Get information about emails by department and groups

Although the amount of information was greater than a traditional records series, the purpose of the additional work was to gather a full understanding of the client’s EDRM storage requirements and to build a strong foundation for future deliverables and actions.

EDRM-storgage-creation-implementation-process

Results

At the end of the project, the client received a Project Implementation Plan which outlined the steps and plans necessary for the client to go forward with the remainder of its EDRM project. Additionally, our work around the client’s records inventory and categorization gave the client a deeper understanding around the magnitude and scope of the information and types they possessed and an estimate of how much work was required moving forward. These 2 major deliverables formed the basis for subsequent steps the client took on the journey to Enterprise Documents and Records Management implementation.