Federal agencies still spend hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of staff hours each year to manage and store records that are still in non-digital formats. These paper records trap essential government data in archives that are difficult to access and impossible to automate — adding still more expense when agencies and their citizen customers must draw on them.
That must change by 2022, when agencies are required to make a full transition to electronic recordkeeping and the National Archives and Records Administration will stop accepting new paper records. The shift is essential to making government more effective and efficient, but hitting the milestones set out in M-19-21 will require agencies to fundamentally re-think how they process and manage documents and electronic content.
This kickoff event explored the challenges and opportunities that come with government's push to paperless records management, and what that means for 2020 and beyond. Discussion topics included:
- NARA's road map for M-19-21 implementation
- Expected changes to records management regulations and guidance
- Resource requirements — both technical and financial
- Workforce implications and skill gaps agencies must address
- Modernizing and leveraging legacy systems
- Digitizing and disposing of existing analog records