Managing our Information Assets

State Records Commission Standards and ISO 15489:2016 Records Management continues to guide best practice recordkeeping, supported by ISO16175:2011 Principles and Functional Requirements for Records in Electronic Office Environments. Our Recordkeeping Plan 2022 has been approved by the State Records Commission and provides guidance on the changing needs of our workforce and how we do business.

Our records management application has been upgraded to TRIM Opentext CM 9.4.4 with 2,605 licensed users. Our records management processes have been re-certified to ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management and our bulk-scanning and document processing application is now at the latest version, Kofax TA 7.9.

Our Service Delivery

Our information assets captured and used by employees to conduct work on behalf of Government includes 7 kilometres of boxed records held offsite, 3 kilometres boxed records held onsite, 418,371 hardcopy files onsite, 155,648 hardcopy files offsite, and 99,000 virtual files containing 16.1 million digital items held in a 37 terabyte TRIM database. Library information assets include 23 research databases, 39,000 books/reports – 22,000 digital, held in an 8 terabyte Db Text library database linked to historical information and records held within the TRIM database.

A dedicated Main Roads ‘Working from Home’ SharePoint website provides general users with information to assist in saving and searching for documents using Microsoft 365 (M365) and the TRIM Web Client, including during COVID-19 restriction periods.

Our Digital Roadmap has given high priority to application connection between M365 SharePoint Online and TRIM following progressive rollout of Microsoft (MS) Teams during implementation of our modern workplace with improved governance processes, collaboration standards, technology and training. Business application databases, including TRIM, have been converted to 64-bit in preparation for our next TRIM upgrade.

An Information Classification Policy is being refined for staged implementation to:

• Target TRIM, M365 and the Data Catalogue to determine labels that comply with Western Australia’s State Government policy
• Work with a specialist company to review and update the current TRIM security model
• Conduct pilot projects to set up proof of concept using MS Purview Information Protection, provide user and administration training and develop a formal implementation plan

Our system of capture, Kofax TA7, provides bulk scanning and document processing using machine learning to automate the capture and storage of information to TRIM for further processing. All forms of incoming correspondence received at our head office go through Kofax TA7 and this year 53,062 items have been processed for storage to TRIM, as depicted in the table below.

Day boxed scanned hardcopy continues to be legally destroyed in accordance with the General Disposal Authority for Source Records.

In addition to core records activities, best practice recordkeeping and information management was used to complete the following projects and initiatives:

• Conducted a second comprehensive TRIM CM 9.4 System Health Check prior to our next upgrade where the priority will be on document lifecycle management between SharePoint and TRIM
• Submitted our Recordkeeping Plan 2022 and gained approval from the State Records Commission
• Implemented the PEPPOL e-invoicing network with processing through Kofax TA7 and document storage to TRIM
• Updated and submitted the Main Roads Retention & Disposal Schedule to State Records Office for approval
• Reviewed and minimised hardcopy compactus holdings resulting in dismantling and removal of a 20-bay compactus to create floorspace for ongoing processing of regional legacy records holdings to offsite storage/archiving
• Re-organised and consolidated hardcopy Library resources
• Finalised upgrade of the records management application to TRIM Opentext CM 9.4.4, including updates to affected procedures and user guidelines
• Upgraded third party Sigma applications for data imports, logs, drawings and pictures in TRIM
• Maintained the Main Roads mandatory in-house Online Records Awareness training course and TRIM Essentials course
• Continued our State Archiving Strategy to remove hardcopy legacy holdings from each of the Regions
• Scoped Derby/Broome/Kununurra Archiving Project (225 boxes) plus drawings
• Scoped Bunbury Archiving Project (200 boxes)
• Processing Albany Archiving Project (600 boxes)
• Processing Kalgoorlie Archiving Project (840 boxes) plus drawings
• Implemented triage of road planning referrals from within Information Services rather than Road Access Planning
• Reviewed scope of video storage, moving storage in TRIM to corporate Nomad video application
• Reviewed lifecycle management of social media records using the corporate Brolly application and archiving to TRIM
• Reviewed and incorporated the Information Services Business Continuity Plan (BCP) into the Branch
• Reviewed resourcing and delivery of records services within Head Office at DAC

Our Record Keeping Code of Practice for the Management of Contract Records is available on our website and guides compliance with the State Records Commission Standard 6: Outsourcing. Under this Code, submission of a Contract Recordkeeping Plan is required from contract companies within 28 days for approval. Contract Recordkeeping Plan reviews are conducted by a records practitioner prior to sign off and four reviews were completed this year.

Records management operations and projects are supported by our TRIM support help desk which triage customer enquiries and performs daily audits to protect critical records from deletion. This year 6,848 TRIM enquiries were received through multiple communication channels with most resolved within 24 hours. Documents and other items stored to TRIM (1.34 million) indicate substantial ongoing storage. Whilst there has been a drop in usage due to implementation of Microsoft Teams, audit logs indicate that 85 per cent of employees consistently use TRIM.

Our Response to Future Trends

The suitability and dependability of information systems is crucial to the delivery of information, technology, and communications for our business.

Services provided to our people and customers are delivered over a complex state-wide technology network consisting of three data centres with 1,300 servers (1,200 virtual), 3,500 end-user devices delivering 350 software applications accessing 608 terabytes of data, wireless connectivity, and a voice over IP (VOIP) network including Microsoft Teams.

A more holistic approach to managing information is now being taken to improve information lifecycle management, data modelling and effective information governance. This is a prerequisite to the sharing of information across the Transport Portfolio and other Government agencies, whilst addressing agreed focus areas in our Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Strategy. To support this focus, an Enterprise Data Governance Committee has been established, Terms of Reference endorsed, Enterprise Data Management Plan developed, Data Release Policy endorsed, Data Licensing and Copyright Guideline endorsed, and our Information Classification Guideline is under review.

Real-time analytics using large volumes of data requires new skills, tools and processes to link, interpret and extract value from the many data sources available to Main Roads. This requires advanced analytics competency to provide advice, tools and techniques to business areas for decision making purposes. Efforts continue to broaden our data and analytics capabilities.

Cyber security remains challenging in reducing security risks for both Federal and State Government and we are proactively improving resilience to threats, vulnerabilities and challenges to drive protective security improvements using a systematic and managed approach.

Traditional ICT no longer applies given a rapidly changing technology landscape demanding stability, mobility, agility, and responsiveness. This has resulted in considerable change to the ICT structure and how it conducts business. Challenges remain in upgrading aged systems, hardware, and services as we progressively shift focus to cloud storage and technologies with an ICT Program of Works this year that totalled 90 projects valued at $11.7 million.

Our Training

We support good recordkeeping practices through our training programs providing a suite of training courses, online and localised inductions, business process re-engineering, short courses, and a range of delivery methods. Regular updates to policies, procedures, user and system training guides, FAQs, news items, available services and contacts have been provided to users through our internal intranet and email distribution lists. Individual assistance is also available via remote online support and a dedicated TRIM support helpdesk.

The Online Trim Essentials, together with the mandatory Recordkeeping Awareness course, has been rewritten and tailored to the organisation. These courses are now provided to end users through the Learning Management System.

Limited training resources resulted in fewer lecture-based courses able to be run. To assist with demand, custom sessions were held ranging in topic from general TRIM functionality, such as workflow and searching, to more in-depth sessions on business processes, such as interdepartmental approvals and file structure.

This year there were 264 training enquiries received and the uptake, progress and completion of records training continues to be monitored