The Archdiocese of Perth will this year commence implementation of an Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS).
Implementation of the system, initially for the corporate administration team members aims to develop a whole-of-organisation approach to storing, accessing and updating data in a more secure, accurate and efficient way.
The Laserfiche software for Document and Records Management has been chosen for this purpose.
The Safeguarding Program Team at the Archdiocese are the first team to be trained in, adopt and now, use Laserfiche, supporting their everyday work and service of raising awareness and embedding policy, practice and culture around the safety of children, adults at risk and all members of our community.
Director of Safeguarding, Barbara Blayney shared the team’s Laserfiche journey with The Record.
Introducing Laserfiche to support a safer and inclusive Church
Like many workplaces across the Archdiocese, the lockdowns caused by COVID-19 meant the Safeguarding Program team needed to be able to work safely offsite, while also accessing data to continue the important implementation of the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards.
“The Safeguarding and Archives team members moved very quickly to access data offsite when Covid-19 hit, adopting a very agile approach to transfer all of the data initially to Laserfiche and then working together to ‘fit’ the data into the right places in the system,” commented Barbara.
“This involved providing consistent naming conventions, adding meta data to all of the online documentation we transferred, storing them in the right places,” she said.
“During this whole process, our team developed a strong appreciation of the importance of document and records management.
“Very quickly, we noticed that the efficient search functionality and accessibility of Laserfiche meant that we can streamline our workflows and practices more.”
“Of course, this presents a flow-on benefits to stakeholders, clients and community we serve. We are able, as a support team, to provide them with accurate feedback and up-to-date information.”
“The time savings that Laserfiche present also means we have more time to spend in consulting, communicating and engaging with the Perth Church community.”
Future opportunities with Laserfiche
While the Safeguarding Program team are now all fully trained in Laserfiche, Barbara indicated that the learning discovery process still continues, with more possibilities waiting on the horizon.
“We can see the possibilities of improving connectivity with everyone at the Archdiocese through Laserfiche,” Barbara said.
“For example, we are already easily sharing records and documents with the Office of the Vicar General through the click of a button, whilst ensuring that we utilise the “confidentiality function” within Laserfiche to protect data and information security.”
“Once Laserfiche is rolled out to all teams, we can see the benefits for further improving whole of organisation workflows and working relationships with each other.”
Congratulations to the Safeguarding Program Team
On Monday 27 June, Barbara – on behalf of the Safeguarding Program Team – was presented with a Laserfiche Certificate of Competency by Anne Wilson, Senior Information Officer at the Archives and Information Governance Office.
“Congratulations to Barbara and the Safeguarding Program team on achieving competency status with the Laserfiche training and implementation,” said Anne.
“We also want to thank the team for being patient, flexible and agile as our first cohorts when the technology was not set up and there were some teething challenges.”
“You helped us learn and
improve our training, implementation and support services so that we can
continue to deliver a great experience for all of the Archdiocese team members
going forward.”
“We now look forward
to working with the team for that ongoing learning and discovery progress with
Laserfiche so that we can continue to support the Archdiocese’s commitment of
providing a safe and secure environment for all its members, leaders and
especially its children and adults at risk.”