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2.5 VERS Centre of Excellence

As a consequence of the successful implementation at the Department of Infrastructure, the Victorian Government committed $8.2 million over two years to fund a 'VERS Centre of Excellence' within PROV. The Centre commenced its work on 1 July 2002.

The Centre has two tasks. The first task is to support Victorian agencies in obtaining and implementing VERS-compliant recordkeeping systems to capture and manage electronic records. Activities undertaken as part of this task include:

• outreach efforts to raise the awareness of senior public sector employees as to the benefits and requirements of electronic recordkeeping
• consulting to government agencies on their electronic records needs and how to make their existing and proposed electronic recordkeeping systems VERS-compliant
• formal training on electronic records principles and practices
• revising the VERS Standard
• extending our understanding of preserving electronic records, particularly capturing additional contextual information available in modern electronic recordkeeping systems
• advising the Victorian Government on the legal, regulatory and policy implications of the electronic environment and providing input into whole-of-government directions in this area.

The second task is to implement a digital repository to manage and preserve electronic records at PROV as part of the permanent archive of the State of Victoria. This archive is expected to be operational in 2005.

A major activity of the Centre is the revision of the original VERS Standard to take into account the experience with implementing and using VERS. Interestingly, the technical component of the Standard has barely changed, although the opportunity has been taken to correct a small number of flaws in the original Standard, and to be more precise in some requirements.

The new version now emphasises cost-effective preservation. In the first Standard, the challenge was to demonstrate that electronic records could be preserved at all. In the revised Standard the ability to preserve of electronic records is assumed; the challenge is to carry it out in such a way that it is economically feasible for both an agency and PROV.

A second emphasis of the revision is to focus and improve the clarity of the Standard. It is hoped that this will assist both vendors and agencies in implementing VERS.

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