Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Abstract

Rand Water was one of the earliest institutions to introduce electronic records management in 1991. Over the period of three decades, there have been numerous changes at the institution, and within the South African legal framework, there is a need to transfer the digital records into archival custody. However, there is no infrastructure to ingest digital records into archival custody. This poses challenges to institutions such as Rand Water as they are forced to create an interim solution for electronic records preservation. The challenge is compounded by the fact that since implementing electronic systems, Rand Water has migrated to several products. There is a danger that some records might have been lost during migration. This chapter narrates on the electronic record-keeping within Rand Water from yesteryear to today in order to map the way for the future. It has established that Rand Water has implemented several ECMs and migrated to different products over the years. A further study on data loss and recoverability during migration to the different ECMs is recommended.