National Weights and Measures Lab lightens load

National Weights and Measures Laboratory lightens document load with TOWER Software

Electronic document and records management project prepares one of the UK's oldest government function for e-government.

12 August 2005 - Wokingham, Berkshire - National Weights and Measures Laboratory (NWML), founded as the Board of Trade Standards Department in 1869, has installed electronic document and records management software from TOWER Software. Initially considered to ensure compliance with Government legislation including handling inbound enquiries created by the Freedom of Information Act (FOI), the system’s main benefit has been to make document processes more efficient. The £80,000 system spans 52 users and was rolled out in just three weeks during December 2004.

David Williams, the Agency Records Officer at National Weights and Measures explains, “The project was initiated last year in order to meet e-government requirements. We were keen to follow the National Archives route map, so looked at all of the systems already tested and approved by them. We eventually selected TRIM Context because it was not only the first to be approved against the National Archives standards, but was also a newer version of the system used by 5100 users at the DTi, of which we are part. By utilising a similar system, there is little operational impact resulting from staff moving between the DTi and our agency.”

The system manages a variety of documents and files including Word, PowerPoint, PDF, pictures and email, and according to Williams the main advantage has been bringing all records and documents to a single location. “We’ve dramatically reduced the duplication of documents,” continues Williams. “As we’re able to locate and retrieve existing documents so readily, the need to recreate files has diminished. As an example we’ve been able to cut the time taken to document the staff assessment process.” More recently, NWML has added the Microsoft SharePoint Client Access functionality to the environment so that staff can access TRIM Context through the SharePoint interface.

Tony Sumpster, Managing Director for TOWER Software EMEA adds, "We've had dozens of public sector clients in recent years initiate EDRM projects on the basis of FOI, e-government and other regulatory compliance. Once up and running, they are consistently impressed by 'secondary' benefits such as process efficiencies, cost savings and improved public service. One of the biggest wins is usually email management," he adds. "Around 35% to 60% of business-critical information is stored in personal messaging systems. This information is unavailable as a resource to the organisation, becomes a potential liability in a legal or audit situation, and creates mayhem for IT departments concerned with data back-up, recovery and storage. NWML will now be capturing all appropriate information - from Word, to PDFs as well as email using TRIM Context - and we're delighted to have them on board."

For further information contact:
Natalie Sutton
Proud Public Relations Tel: +44 (0) 7768 026197 / +44 (0) 1276 679570
natalie@proudpr.com
or
Mehreen Qayum
TOWER Software Marketing
Tel: +44 (0) 118 977 7510
mehreen.qayum@towersoft.co.uk