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First, a senior staff person who is appropriate to serve as lead user needs be identified and their commitment to the ERM and the project needs to be gained.

Such a person should be:

• respected and influential;
• a believer in the ERM project; and
• be willing to promote it among their peers and staff.

When this person is identified, they should be fully involved and ‘nurtured’.  That is, they should have everything to do with ERM and the project explained to them, including:

• what the project is trying to achieve,
• how the organization will  look and feel once the implementation is complete, and
• what the benefits will be. 

Careful two-way consultation and communication should be maintained with this person and they should be supported in regards to the ERM system.

Secondly, this lead user should be included on the Program Board to be the overall representative of all of the users.

And thirdly, an ERM User Group should be created under the Chair of that lead user.

Creating and working well with the ERM User Group involves inviting the appropriate people to join it.  Working with the Chair of the User Group, invite others to join.  The members of the User Group should cover the total organization.

The User Group should not have too many members – 10-15 is generally an appropriate number, depending on the size of the organization.

Advice should be taken continuously from the Chair, the Records Management function and the Senior Responsible Officer regarding membership.  It should always be remembered that the ERM User Group is the Chair’s group.

Having created ERM User Group, the next step is to prepare and agree on Terms of Reference (TOR) for the User Group with the User Group, itself, and with the Program Board

The third step is then to educate the User Group.  This involves explanation, consultation, communication and support.

Then, the ERM Implementation team has to work with, and through, the User Group on:

• The specifications for the ERM system and environment;
• The approach to the Business Classification Scheme and the other records management instruments;
• The testing of the candidate ERM systems; and
• The selection of the preferred ERM system.

Tell us about your success in creating and using a user group for ERM implementation.

What did you find were the keys to their successful involvement?