Benefits of Objective

All information is stored by in Objective by function rather than Resource. This means all like-for-like topics will be kept together in the same area. For example Health and Safety audits for the whole council are stored in the same directory. This will make things easier to find and will make it easier to manage information if Resources or Services change, for example after a Service review.

The first two levels of the fileplan are set as standard and cannot be changed. If you need additional folders and files below level 2 you can ask your Resource Lead or Systems Administrator to create them. This will be closely monitored to make sure no duplicate folders created.

Version control of documents will be more organised. There will be no need to keep multiple versions of documents. Previous versions are automatically kept and stored within the document should they ever be needed.

Documents will be easier to maintain with only one copy saved which can be shared. Anyone who needs access to that document will be able to see it via a link that they can save in their ‘Handy’. The Handy is an area where you store your favourites. An example of this would be a Personnel circular.

Documents will also be easier and quicker to find using the search.

Workflows can be created to assist with mail and documents. The system is also able to produce a wide variety of reports to record and control mail, correspondence and documents.      

Information governance

The system will help with information governance as folders will have access and retention schedules applied. This means that access to folders will be restricted and that folders will automatically come up for review for destruction.

There is an audit facility which records access to each file – while access is restricted to certain groups, staff should be mindful that they should not access any information within the fileplan that they are not entitled to read.