The digital archive of the organization is the digital memory of the institution, which is mostly composed of electronic documents, and therefore, it is necessary for organizations to keep documents digitally in an appropriate manner in order to preserve the memory of their archive over time. What is the importance of the digital archive and its strategies in preserving the document system of companies and organizations?, Read with us to find out the answer.
Digital World Challenge
Digital archives typically focus on choosing temporary storage media, the life expectancy of the digital system, and the expectation that digital files will be migrated to future systems while maintaining the functionality and integrity of the original system.
Digital archivists need to ensure that digital files are still readable in their original format, which can be a daunting task, and other challenges include decay of information within a digital file, hardware and software, aging of format, server disruption and other disasters. The growth of digital content has created critical conservation problems that cannot be solved by traditional archiving methods, but by digital archiving.
Why should companies consider adopting a digital archive?
There are many reasons why companies think about digital archives, first, can help them comply with regulations and preserve the company's history, In addition, digital archives can help companies save money on storage costs and reduce their impact on the environment.
Companies should consider adopting a digital archive because it can help them store and manage data more effectively, it can also help them track customer interactions and correspondence. The value of a digital archive is not only the digital elements it forms, but also the processes, relationships and methods adopted to shape, manage and preserve it over time.
What documents should I usually archive?
Once data and documents created in digital business operations are available, it is important to archive them accurately, the documents to be archived typically include:
- Books and records (e.g. commercial transactions, bookings, etc.)
- Inventory (e.g. records detailing physical presence and value of all assets and liabilities)
- Financial statements
- Management reports (for example, legally significant additions to annual financial statements)
- Opening balances as well as operating procedures and other regulatory documents required for understanding
- Accounting documents (e.g., incoming invoices, but also invoices sent)
- Commercial and commercial communications received (i.e. correspondence for the preparation, settlement, conclusion or cancellation of a transaction)
- Other tax-related documents (e.g. human resources documents)
Objective of Digital Archiving Strategy
Your digital archiving strategy should be aimed at achieving consistency in records management, your strategy should define the actions required for active digital archiving, where you should provide:
- Official means of accepting records, including an agreed standard for file formats and record description levels
- Safe process for transferring records to storage and then managing them appropriately (including safety checks)
- A way to map operations to capture metadata in a searchable database associated with records to allow them to remain detectable
- Official digital archive to provide the content of archived records to users in the most appropriate format of the record's content
- Strict digital archiving system to monitor conservation activities that can produce usable auditing data.
Digital Archiving Strategies
If you want a successful digital archiving strategy approach, follow the following guidelines:
Save Document System
Keeping a reliable document system over time requires the company to provide the following:
- Organization and control of the responsibilities of producing, maintaining and preserving company documents
- Adopt procedures and tools that identify computer documents stored in a certain way at the time and place, ensuring easy reading and retrieval of documents and identifying information, including metadata associated with documents.
- Selection and reliance on suppliers specializing in digital archive management and preservation who ensure the highest standards of security, quality and reliability.
- Organization of a legal value digital archive, managed through an information system and supported by an organizational model, procedures, roles, functions and activities described in the Conservation Manual.
- Determine the types of documents involved in the digital archive and what needs to be done to properly archive them, so an inventory can be made at the level of each service.
Dispose of unnecessary documents
Not all documents produced or received by the company shall be stored the project team should be able to identify all documents to be deleted, which is usually detected by inventory, getting rid of inconsequential and sometimes burdensome files is necessary if you want to achieve an effective digital archive, Because digital archiving also means taking steps to quickly find a permanently stored document if necessary, while having unnecessary documents wastes time.
Select the procedure to follow for the ideal digital archive of documents after the inventory is well generated and the useless documents have been disposed of the project team can determine the procedure to be followed to store documents perfectly to be archived, Centralization or decentralization of documentary mass storage is possible and it is also possible to use individual workstations, anyway s working documents and the adoption of an accurate digital archive, It remains up to the team to select the system to be developed to manage and retain records It can be a physical file system, an electronic system or a combination of both.
With regard to the e-governance system, it is good not to lose sight of some technical considerations in its development, the project team must ensure that it has sufficient or greater workflow possibilities than work needs, which are absolutely necessary to be accessible only to persons with authorization.
Conclusion:
Any document created today constitutes tomorrow's digital archive, this fact in the archiving world is verifiable for both physical and electronic documents, digital archiving also meets strict standards in terms of fire and flood safety.
Comments
16 Jun 2023 03:46 PM
IBRAHIM
بارك الله فيكم
16 Jun 2023 03:47 PM
نوف
بارك الله فيكم
Add New Comment