Corporate-wide EDRMS

"Single, corporate-wide EDRMS serves the whole Council ensuring minimal use of paper documents and ready access electronically to all relevant information"

Although most councils have some form of Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS), most have implemented it in only one or a few services (often starting with Revenues and Benefits, PLanning or Social Care), and have not extended it throughout the organisation.

Having a corporate-wide EDRMS is a crucial element of the Council of the Future - without it, many of the potential savings from mobile, flexible and home working, and from a near-paperless office environment cannot be achieved. For customer-facing staff it is vital that they can access all relevant information relating to the customers they are dealing with, and that means that all information, whether it be letters, e-mails, notes or records, must be accessible electronically.

The benefits of the corporate wide EDRMS are:

• Customer-facing staff have access to the information they need to provide a complete service
• If combined with mobile, flexible and home working, staff can access that information wherever they happen to be
• Holding information electronically means that paper orginals can (mainly) be destroyed, greatly reducing the need for filing space in the office
• Roughly 20% of office space can be freed up by holding information electronically instead of on paper
• Significant efficiency savings can be achieved, resulting in reductions in staff numbers.