• Standards Australia has adopted a revised international standard and Technical Specification with the objective to assist organisations in the integration of functionality for reliable digital recordkeeping.
• The publications aim to provide guidance to Australia’s record keeping and IT systems professionals with meeting international best practice to contribute to protecting the economic and legal interest of organisations.
• The guidances will assist in the implementation of transparent recordkeeping for future generations to access to provide recorded evidence of life in Australia in the 2020s.

The digital transformation of business now means software applications, ranging from email programs through to complex building information modelling systems, are being used to create, store and manage information.

Standards Australia has recently adopted the revised international standard, AS/NZS ISO 16175.1:2021 and Technical Specification, SA/SNZ ISO TS 16175.2:2021, which aim to assist decision makers responsible for purchasing, designing and configuring information systems. With the potential need for digital records to be retrieved after long periods of time, integrating best practice record management principles when choosing business applications are more important than ever.

“With the rapid growth of technological change, the standards will provide IT and systems professionals with information, tools and knowledge to better select and manage software applications to meet international best practice benchmarks in records management,” said Roland Terry-Lloyd, Head of Standards Development at Standards Australia.

“In the current fastmoving technology space millions of digital records are created every day. It is important for business applications to create digital records and manage them in ways that accurately store and preserve information, so they may be retrieved for as long as they are needed, possibly long after the original application is obsolete. The standards will assist in achieving this,” said Barbara Reed, Chair of the committee responsible for the standard.

The Technical Specification and standard aim to assist local professionals and organisations in integrating the necessary functionality for accurate and reliable digital recordkeeping across a range of business applications.

“Accurate digital recordkeeping is essential to protect the economic and legal interests of organisations, ensure transparency and accountability of governments, regulatory authorities and private organisations. It is essential in protecting the rights and entitlements of citizens and ensuring future generations have access to the recorded evidence of business and life in Australia in the 2020s,” concluded Ms Reed.

The recently published standard and Technical Specification are:

AS/NZS ISO 16175.1:2021, Information and documentation — Processes and functional requirements for software for managing records — Part 1: Functional requirements and associated guidance for any applications that manage digital records.

SA/SNZ TS ISO 16175.2:2021, Information and documentation – Processes and functional requirements for software for managing records. Part 2: Guidance for selecting, designing, implementing and maintain software for managing records.

The publications have been designed by the archives and records/document management sector and are expected to be used by IT professionals, solution architects/designers, IT procurement decision-makers, business analysts, business owners, software developers and testers seeking to understand records management requirements.

‍