Digital Preservation Policy

1. Aims of the Policy

The purpose of this policy is to create a framework required for the effective management of records at Woolworths Limited. This policy offers guidance to the managers of Woolworths on how to preserve digital data. It further aims at ensuring that the preserved data are accessible, reliable, and authentic. The policy will also highlight the importance of digital preservation in serving the needs of the organization. Finally, the digital preservation policy will provide the staff with the rules and principles that will guide them in the course of the policy’s implementation.

Woolworths has a considerable volume of records because of a large number of sales it conducts in Australia. The company is the largest retailer in the country, and it directly and indirectly employs more than five thousand people. To efficiently manage its sales and employees, the company needs a digital record system (Rogers, 2012). This system will identify the volume of sales it makes per year, the number of employees it has, its annual turnover, and the compensation it pays to its employees.

A good record keeping system will enable the company to develop strategies that will make it even more competitive. For example, by analyzing the records related to the sales, the company’s management will be able to determine the best approach the company should take if the sales within a particular financial year drop (Cunningham, 2011). The records of the annual staff turnover will enable the company to identify the causes of the employees’ departure and to implement policies aimed at retaining the best workers.

2. Risk Assessment

Woolworths Limited does not have an effective backup system that can store its data and prevent them from theft or mismanagement. The anti-virus system that Woolworths uses is free antivirus software, and it does not provide an elaborate protection. Consequently, hackers can break into the Woolworth’s database and steal information or erase the data that are important to the organization. Furthermore, the company stores certain data on CDs. This makes this data vulnerable because CDs can be vandalized and suffer from scratches (Kosinski, Stillwell, & Graepel, 2013).

3. Needs Statement

The digital resources of Woolworths Limited are important because they contain information about the organization’s sales and the quality of its workforce. Therefore, the company requires a digital data preservation and collection policy to store valuable information.

4. Purpose Statement

To create an effective digital preservation system that will protect all data that belong to the company.

5. Goals and Objectives

To ensure that the data that belong to the company are well-protected and preserved and that the management can use it for a long period (20 years and more).

6. Projects to Undertake

While implementing this project, Woolworths Limited should form two departments: the department of digital archives and the department of archives implementation.
The responsibility of the department of digital archives will be to develop software that is capable of protecting the digital records of the company. This department will identify the weaknesses of the company’s archive system and design solutions. For example, one of the weaknesses of the company’s information storage system is its reliance on CDs. The department of digital archives should find better alternatives to CDs and recommend them to the management team.

The department of archives implementation will be responsible for the implementation of the decisions made by the department of digital archives. The head of this department will report to the managing director because of the kind of information the official accesses. The data the director accesses are sensitive, and they should be well protected.

7. Organizational Commitments

Organizational change normally arouses some resistance, hence the direct support of the managing director is essential to successfully accomplish the implementation of the policy.

8. Financial Commitments

The financial resources required for the project will be the money for establishing new offices and paying the staff who will work there. Other expenditures include money for the research and implementation of the decisions made by the department of archives implementation.

9. Personnel

The main actors in this process of the implementation of the digital preservation policy are the managing director, the head of archives, the human resource manager, and the department of research and marketing.

10. Preservation and Quality Control

The policy will seek to implement the measures that will help in preserving email messages, social media content regarding the company, videos, flash disks, and PDF files.

11. Preservation Metadata

This policy will adhere to the provisions of the 1999 Electronic Transactions Act. This is a law that encourages business organizations to use digital systems in the preservation of their data.

12. Roles and Responsibilities

One of the actors in the process of the policy implementation is the managing director. The managing director will the responsible for the identification of the position of the company towards the project.

The head of archives will be responsible for the collection and storage of information, while the human resource manager will recruit the best talents for the departments of archives implementation and department of digital archives.

13. Training and Education

Woolworths Limited will train its archive employees to use the newly adopted policies . These employees will acquire the necessary skills needed to implement the decisions of the digital archives department.

14. Evaluation and Updating

The preservation and effectiveness of the policy and the solution emanating from it will be reviewed monthly. The company will provide the copies of the results to all its stakeholders.

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