Records Management - Cross systems design

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An existing legacy Records Management Knowledge Site (RMKS) was developed by the incumbent contract staff, which focused on the registration and maintenance of Command Directed Records Managers (CDRM) appointment letters. After a couple years of utilizing the site to collect demographic information on CDRMs, we recognized that the emphasis should shift to commands/units, rather than individual CDRMs. HCG and various stakeholders, including the government staff, came to an understanding that, in order to facilitate a successful Records Management (RM) program for the Marine Corps, a new system would have to be developed, complete with a new data architecture in which the programmatic elements existing within the command structure were the primary elements. 

CHALLENGE:  The USMC employs nearly 600 commands and 200k+ Marines, civilians, and contractors that all (potentially) produce records. We therefore faced the serious challenge of collecting and maintaining large quantities of command file plans, electronic appointment letters, and rotating Staff Section RM personnel assignments—all within an unstructured environment and with limited-to-no policy/governance. Furthermore, the existing data structure did not support CDRM/RM staff turnover since personnel assignment/information is often dynamic in nature. In addition, RMKS did not provide any technical delineation between RM roles (i.e., Primary/Alternate CDRM, Staff Section RM etc.), allowing the same functions to be conducted by both command and subsection staff personnel.

SOLUTION:  Hartwood revamped the RMKS site initially into, what eventually became CROSS 1.0. The solution was ultimately moved over to its own site collection, at which point, we discovered just how much of the legacy RMKS solution was housing unnecessary and obsolete personnel data. After sanitizing the unnecessary data, HCG employed an Agile Scrum development methodology to develop and deploy CROSS to the new site collection, focusing on a command structure, rather than the individual RMs, as the key element. In addition, we focused on specific tenets of training and policy development to ensure the enterprise-wide adoption of CROSS. This in turn, made turnovers seamless, file plan updates readily available, and resolved ambiguity surrounding IG checklist compliance. 

RESULT: CROSS was met with overwhelmingly positive results and has now become an official RM application for the USMC. Due to its rising usage by commands, development of 2.0 is under design. CROSS 1.0 was focused mainly on data collection and functionality definition, whereas 2.0 will focus on pro-active utilization and inspection support capabilities.