Indicator 4
An overall increase in the number of organisations building IM requirements into new business systems
What we asked and why it is important
We asked if IM requirements are built into new business information systems. (Q.23)
Building in IM requirements means that the principles for creating, managing, storing and disposing of full, accurate and accessible information are applied across all business systems.
Business information systems may include:
- business systems that create and manage business information, such as finance, HR information, and line-of-business systems unique to the organisation’s environment;
- electronic documents and records management systems, enterprise content management systems;
- network drives;
- collaborative systems between government organisations and/or external parties; and
- email and email archiving systems.
What we found
As seen in Figure 7, only 23% of organisations reported that requirements for creating, managing, storing and disposing of information were built into new business systems. The majority, 62% of organisations, stated the IM requirements were partially built in. Thirty-three organisations (15%) stated they were not built in.
Figure 7: Whether requirements for creating, managing, storing and disposing of information are built into the organisation's new business information systems
Figure 8 shows the challenges faced by the 175 organisations that stated their IM requirements have not been built into any or all of their systems (i.e. they responded ‘partially’, ‘not built in’, and ‘don’t know’). (Q.24)
Figure 8: Challenges faced in building in requirements for creating, managing, storing and disposing of information in the organisation’s new business information systems
Recommendations
The challenges listed touch on many areas of the business, including ICT, IM staff, vendors and management. Steps to address these challenges could involve the Executive Sponsor directing coordinated improvement from the governance level, and ensuring IM staff are involved in new business system projects.
Other recommendations are to:
- ensure that systems specifications for business that is high value and/or high risk include IM requirements; and
- ensure that systems specifications include minimum requirements for metadata needed to support information identification, usability, accessibility.