The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has announced it recently procured software from local records management company RecordPoint, supporting the Government’s wider Digital Records Transformation Initiative.

RecordPoint’s records management platform, Records365, overlays existing data and content management systems within an organisation, supporting the management of regulatory, legal, and information governance requirements.

The turnkey solution will enable the DTA  to implement automated, in‑place data management across its critical systems, RecordPoint said.

Among the systems supported by Records365 include Microsoft SharePoint Online, SharePoint On-Premises, OneDrive for Business, Teams, Exchange Online, Dropbox, Box, and file shares.

Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business, Stuart Robert said RecordPoint’s solution “can apply records control to content no matter where it is stored – in network drives, email and bespoke systems.”

“This offers tremendous benefits to the way DTA keeps records, not only in terms of productivity but also to assist with greater transparency.”

The platform, he added, adopts machine learning, full-text extraction and natural language processing to automate the process of records management, from creation to disposal.

Minister for Finance Simon Birmingham said the solution is designed specifically for records managers, creators, and information users within the public sector.

“By modernising the way in which government services data is managed and recorded, more efficient and timely services can be provided for Australians,” Birmingham said.

The rollout of Records365 is part of the Federal Government’s wider, three-year Digital Records Transformation Initiative (DRTI).

Led by the Department of Finance, the Initiative is an attempt to modernise public sector functions through the adoption of “innovative” digital records management solutions.

Among the core goals of the DRTI include the embrace of automation to improve productivity, better utilisation of information assets across Federal agencies, and improved regulatory compliance when managing public records.

RecordPoint’s chief operating officer Anthony Woodward said the partnership would give its Melbourne-based AI engineering team the chance to “innovate alongside DTA”.

The finance department unveiled its Digital Records Transformation Initiative Sourcing Strategy Framework in July 2019 following an initial public consultation.

The APS-wide transformation initiative is tasked with developing a modernised digital records and information capability across all Commonwealth non-corporate entities.

A core priority of the Framework is to “modernise the common function of recordkeeping by taking advantage of new technologies, particularly those that automate the capture and classification of records”.

Prior to the release of the Framework, the Government established a proof of concept to automate records capture and categorisation via machine learning and semantic data technologies.

Following this proof of concept phase, the Government acknowledged that while it is best placed to describe the functions it needs, industry advancements in automation technologies would put it in better stead to provide the digital records management systems compatible with the government-developed Australian Government Records Interoperability Framework.