Driving compliance & efficiency with a central repository for permanent city records
How a US city enhanced IG compliance for permanent records with Preserve365®
To enhance records management and compliance, a US city government sought to modernize its approach by deploying Microsoft 365 while phasing out outdated file storage systems. Faced with the need to maintain over 300 categories of permanent records across multiple departments and agencies, the city required a scalable, efficient, and secure repository. Preserve365® provided a seamless solution, ensuring automated record transfers, long-term accessibility, and improved operational efficiency.
Efficient FOIA Responses
Scalable Solution for Growth
Improved Policy Compliance
Secure & Reliable Storage
Challenge
A US city government faced the challenge of deploying Microsoft 365 across various departments while simultaneously decommissioning legacy file shares that housed permanent records. The city is mandated to maintain over 300 categories of permanent records, spanning multiple departments and agencies. With records generated by more than 50 boards, departments, and divisions, the city required a structured repository for inactive and archived Microsoft 365 records. This is so SharePoint could be dedicated to storing frequently accessed files, improving overall system storage, user efficiency and IG compliance rather than cluttering it with inactive and archived files.
From a compliance perspective it needed to ensure legal mandates for retaining & ensuring accessibility of long-term & permanent archived records would be met now and in years to come. It had to protect digital records from unauthorized access, destruction and loss due to corruption or file format obsolescence.
It also wanted to significantly improve discoverability for archived files. Traditionally these were stored in different department specific systems, file shares and local storage. Getting access and searching for records for FOIA requests or day-to-day operational needs was a very manual and time consuming task, often dependent on staff with institutional knowledge to help locate where files were kept and to access them.
Preserve365® in 90 seconds
Find out what Preserve365® is & why it matters in less than 2 minutes
Solution
To address this challenge, the city implemented Preserve365®, an automated solution for managing and preserving permanent records. The key features of the solution included:
- Automated Record Transfers: Permanent records were seamlessly moved from agency and department SharePoint sites to a centralized preservation archive, ensuring proper categorization and retention
- Ensured Readability & Integrity: The system automatically protected record readability, integrity, and accessibility throughout the entire retention period
- Scalable Archiving: SharePoint files and folders were archived at scale, while individual records could be transferred as needed
- Context Preservation: Records consisting of multiple files, along with their SharePoint and custom metadata, were stored together to maintain context
- Efficient Search & Retrieval: Microsoft users with the correct ACL permissions could quickly search for fully indexed files using SharePoint, enhancing record discoverability
- Keeping information alive: Users could access and utilize archived records directly within SharePoint, even if file formats changed or became obsolete over time
“Decommissioning our shared drives & replacing them with SharePoint & Preserve365, helps us better serve city departments & respond to FOIA requests more quickly.”
City Clerk
US Local Government
Outcomes
The implementation of Preserve365® delivered significant benefits for the city's record management processes:
- Streamlined Disposition Reviews: Staff no longer need to search through multiple storage locations to collate and verify records, saving time and effort
- Enhanced FOIA Response Efficiency: A centralized archive allowed for significantly faster retrieval of individual files for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests
- Scalable Solution for Growth: The system supports ongoing disposition and archiving as Microsoft 365 adoption expanded and content volumes increase
- Improved Policy Compliance: With the archive embedded in SharePoint it is easier to enforce compliance policies across various agencies and departments
- Secure Preservation Archive: Records are safeguarded against unauthorized deletion, modifications, or corruption, and ensuring their long-term accessibility in the latest readable file formats is automated
By implementing Preserve365®, the city successfully modernized its records management strategy, ensuring compliance while improving operational efficiency across its many departments and agencies.
“We know the authenticity of our records can be assured, files will always be readable for the life of the record, & because they are centrally stored & fully indexed, records can be found quickly & easily when we need them.”
City Clerk
US Local Government
Learn more
Discover Preserve365®
Do more
Try Preserve365®