Provisioning a modern, compliant and digital personnel records management solution
This client is a joint venture company that provides regional gas, electricty and utility services within Australia.
This client had begun to face a number of challenges related to the management and lifecycle of personnel records across the organisation, including:
- Disconnected systems and roles for management of physical personnel records
- Overhead of creating physical records
- Ongoing management and tracking of the physical records
- Access to the physical records where and when you need them (internally & externally)
- No removal or destruction of personnel records
- Access and authority to release process is ad-hoc
- Duplication between paper files and e-files (work in progress files)
The approach to delivering this SharePoint Online intranet was focused around the initial delivery of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in the first instance, which could then later be improved by a series of enhancements and upgrades.
Velrada’s approach to this engagement was split into 6 main phases:
- Discovery: the aim of this phase was to confirm the scope, onboard the team and set up the environment. The following key activities were performed:
- Project kickoff meeting, and initial document review.
- Set up on 3 x Environments (Development, UAT and Production) and Azure DevOps.
- Design: the aim of this phase was to focus on the requirements and design themes. The following key activities were performed:
- Assessing the viability of Microsoft 365 security and compliance against 3rd party record tools to ensure regulatory requirements could be met.
- Information Architecture workshop to better understand the complexities in digitising personnel records – defining libraries, document set structures, content types, and metadata
- Governance workshop to identify stakeholders and permissions required in supporting the ongoing management of the digitised personnel records.
- Record Management workshop to flesh out all retention and disposition regulatory obligations.
- Information Protection & DLP workshop to understand how the client wanted to protect the digitised personnel records.
- Migration planning workshop to identify a suitable migration approach so that physical files can be migrated to a digitised format and securely stored.
- The final output from this phase was a detailed Functional Specification document, capturing all design and decisions made within this phase.
- Build: the aim of this phase was to implement the solution identified within the Discovery phase. Our approach utilised Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview. The following key activities were performed:
- The delivery of the project was performed over a number of sprints, each focusing on a key area of development.
- Velrada began with building the information architecture agreed on within SharePoint Online – the creation of a new site to house all digitised personnel records.
- Velrada then worked on configuring all Microsoft Purview related activities ranging from the creation of a File plan to meet all retention and disposal obligations, to creating sensitivity labels and DLP policies for security and auditing purposes.
- The development of all Power Automate workflows required in assisting stakeholders to automate business processes e.g. sending files as PDF, Timeboxed sharing of files internally, and Payroll checking processes.
- User Acceptance Testing: the aim of this phase was to complete User Acceptance Testing. The following key activities were performed:
- Demonstration of end-to-end process, focusing on a number of pre-defined scenarios
- Perform User Acceptance Testing
- Log any defects, potential enhancements or questions, and subsequent remediation activities
- Deploy package into Production environment
- Training: the aim of this phase was to complete User Training. The following key activities were performed:
- “Train the Trainer” training for identified users
- Production of training materials
- Launch and Project Close Out: the aim of this was phase was to launch the solution, and close out the project. The following key activities were performed:
- Go Live launch.
- Technical handover.
- Lessons Learned workshop and Project Close Out Report
The project delivered a number of successful outcomes for this client including:
- A new single source of truth for all digitised personnel records moving beyond physical files.
- Adoption of Microsoft 365 security and compliance solution (Microsoft Purview) by utilizing E5 capabilities.
- Corporate brand and identity, ensuring a familiar look and feel.
- Improved collaboration on personnel records for stakeholders involved in managing (central repository for records, stub management).
- Reduction in time spent searching and managing physical records.
- Automated sharing and packaging of personnel records for collaboration or audit purposes (timebox sharing or emailing PDF versions).
- Tracking and Auditing capabilities (version management, usage reports etc.).
- Content classified and secured lead to a match of 1,400k~ DLP rules.
- 700+ employee personnel manila folders digitised, OCR scanned and migrated to Office 365.
- Automated retention and disposition of records aligned to regulatory obligations
In addition to the project outcomes, the following successful business outcomes were also delivered:
- Ability to access all personnel records from anywhere at any time.
- Increase in business process by reducing the amount of time spent on managing employee records.
- A single source of truth creating a holistic view of employee information from within a single location.
- A modern and simple solution for managing and sharing information in a compliant way, increasing staff satisfaction.
More like this