System Management/Functional Requirements

System Management/Functional Requirements. The comprehensive management of a document imaging system is key to its functional success as well as the quality, integrity, and authenticity of the imaged records. System planning, design, budgeting, procurement, procedure formulation, training, and testing all require thoughtful deliberation and patience. The following is an overview of required practices in several categories of system management and operation. A. Documentation: Comprehensive procedural and system documentation must be maintained to ensure that the operation continues to function effectively over time. The documentation shall include: 1. Hardware and software specifications, brand names, versions, and dates of installation, upgrade, replacement, and conversion. 2. An overview of system purposes and uses. 3. Policies and procedures for all aspects of system operation and maintenance, including procurement, file and document preparation for scanning, data entry, quality control, indexing, corrections, expungement, redaction, back-ups, security, migration, application of safeguards to prevent tampering and unauthorized access, and printing. 4. Data structure and content, including file layout and data dictionaries. 5. Enhancement algorithms are techniques for processing the image so that the result is visually clearer than the original image. Imaging systems should not be capable of altering a record as scanned, except for standard computer-enhancement routines used to improve legibility. 6. Documentation is also necessary for providing audit trails, for establishing legal admissibility of images, and for use by future system operators as staffs change. It is the responsibility of the system’s administrators, not the vendor. B. Quality Control: 1. To ensure the integrity and legibility of scanned images, there must be in place established procedures for quality control. Visual quality inspection of each image is necessary and should be performed initially by the staff member scanning and then by a second staff member. 2. The accuracy of the index must also be verified through visual inspection by a second staff member of each index entry following either entry of terms or creation through optical or intelligent character recognition. 3. The system should also include the ability to rescan and to correct indexing errors before the image and/or index is written to optical media. 4. Quality control issues must be raised with vendors during the selection process and be considered when planning for time and staff budgeting. Since original records are more often than not destroyed once reformatted, the importance of image and index quality control must not be underestimated. 5. Information regarding the establishment and use of procedures for the ongoing control of quality within an electronic imaging system may be found in ANSI/AIIM MS44-1988 (R1993), Recommended Practice for Quality Control of Image Scanners. 6. Information regarding appropriate use of test charts and patterns in document imaging applications may be found in AIIM TR38-1996, Compilation of Test Targets for Document Imaging Systems. C. Indexing: 1. Complete, appropriate and accurate indexing capability is essential. Indexing and information retrieval needs must be assessed during system planning and design. Migration and long-term usability planning must also include consideration of continuing information retrieval requirements. As noted in F.7, information on establishing index fields in an electronic imaging system may be found in ANSI/AIIM TR40-1995, Suggested Index Fields for Documents in Electronic Image Environments. 2. The importance of indexing requires that vendor claims be validated through demonstration and testing. D. Migration: 1. A comprehensive plan for refreshing data and for migrating images, indexes and related data through successive versions of hardware and software is essential for ensuring long-term access to imaged records. Not only should plans be established for the migration of images and related data, but structural data relationships should be preserved under migration. The strategy should facilitate the movement of records from one generation of technology to another and should take into consideration vendor stability and dependability, system obsolescence, and media longevity. 2. The reality of obsolescence requires that agencies and governmental entities keep pace with constant developments and improvements. Technology trends must be monitored. The technology choices made when systems are developed or upgraded may determine the ease of migration. 3. Systems should consist of hardware and software that conform to non-proprietary standards and should be constructed in an open system architecture. 4. Budgeting and planning should include consideration of the costs of technology upgrades and data migration. E. Back-up, Disaster Recovery, and Security Copies: 1. Back-up procedures and disaster recovery plans should be in place with specified provisions for the imaging system. Detailed information on back-ups and disaster recovery should be obtained from vendors. Back-up expense and complexity can vary depending on the type of media and the amount of data to be stored and must be considered during the planning and selection process. 2. A regular schedule of back-ups should be instituted for all data on the system, including indexes. 3. Security copies should be labeled with information to include date, system, and software used, and any existing restrictions on access, keeping in mind that it is impossible to determine content merely by looking at a disk or tape. It is preferable that security copies be stored off site, in an area with stable environmental conditions and with adherence to the manufacturer’s specifications for the storage of the media, whether magnetic or optical. Information regarding optical media storage may be found in ANSI/PIMA IT9.25-1998, Imaging Materials-Optical Disc Media-Storage. F. Expungement/Redaction/Encryption Capabilities: 1. Agencies and governmental entities should have in place a strategy to guarantee that material exempted from disclosure is not made available to the public. Imaging systems should have the capability to expunge images and index entries and to redact confidential portions of images or indexes when required by law. System administrators may also wish to further insure privacy of their data through the use of an encryption technique by which data is scrambled before transmission and then unscrambled (decrypted) by the receiver. 2. The potential need for expungement, redaction and encryption capabilities must be assessed on the front end and discussed with vendors when planning for long- term usability of an imaging system. Explanation of procedures for expunging information on WORM optical systems may be found in ANSI/AIIM TR28-1991, The Expungement of Information Recorded On Optical Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) Systems. G. Legality: 1. The legal admissibility of reproductions of state and county records is addressed by Mississippi Code Annotated (MCA) Sections 25-59-29 and 19-15-3, respectively. 2. Requirements for the legal acceptance of records are outlined in ANSI/AIIM’s TR-31 (1992-1994), a four-part legal admissibility series, and the Mississippi Rules of Evidence. H. System Selection: 1. Agencies/governmental entities should conduct a thorough survey of document and paper types, sizes, colors, and contrasts within their records and collect examples of potential problems or obstacles, such as browned and fragile papers, pencil and pen handwriting, bound volumes, photographs, and oversized items. Before selection, a scanner should demonstrate the ability to handle the job. The potential need for flatbed scanning capability rather than automatic feed alone must also be assessed, both for immediate and future needs. 2. The selection of a vendor is perhaps the most important single decision impacting an imaging system’s success. A vendor’s stability, accessibility, and long-term viability must be assessed when procuring a system heavily dependent on vendor support.