Thurrock solves compliance issues with purge of old e-files

Non-departmental public body Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation has got rid of some 800,000 corrupt, redundant or incorrect electronic documents to help meet key compliance and information management objectives.

"This exercise has made our information both much more readable but also much easier to access under any Freedom of Information or Data Protection Act regulations," CIO Jason Oliver told PublicTechnology.net.

Funded by the Department of Communities and Local Government, the Development Corporation was set up in 2005 to drive economic growth and regeneration in the 'Thames Gateway' area of South-East England.

As part of that drive the organisation needed to improve efficiency and to better manage, track and audit information, Oliver added.

His team is working with a supplier called Active Navigation which has been helping collect, store and process all legacy electronic information in preparation for implementing a full Electronic Document Records Management (EDRM) system in the near future.

In the document clean-up phase of the work Development Corporation’s 1.2 million stored files have been rationalised (e.g. de-duplicated and organised more logically) by more than 60%, a project that delivered return on investment in just three months, says Oliver.

Working with the supplier meant Oliver saved the equivalent of two extra members of staff, with everything now in place for a move to EDRM as a way to further save money.