The State Committee on Archives of Ukraine has shown a deep interest in switching to an electronic document storage system, an electronic archive. This was the outcome of a conference held on 24 November at the Main Department of Civil Service (MDCSU) for employees of state archives and other government bodies.
Participants were interested in issues such as the security of the software product, the transfer of ownership rights to the customer, the re-equipment of employees' workstations and changes in the work itself: in people's attitude to new technologies and in the psychological perception of the "electronic document" and the "electronic signature".
"All civilised countries and leading companies of Ukraine already use the methods that we use in our daily work," says Volodymyr Tkach, First Deputy Head of the Main Department of Civil Service of Ukraine, speaking about electronic document flow. "This year, with Softline's support, we began active work on a phased transition to paperless document flow. It was extremely problematic, and there were certain difficulties with acceptance. You know how computers were introduced, how we moved to a new system of work, especially a certain generation... And today none of us can imagine our work without a computer."
As is known, the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the MDCSU are the flagships in implementing electronic document circulation. As previously reported, the MDCSU plans to switch to 100% internal paperless document flow from 1 January 2010.
"The implementation of electronic document flow is a task of today in terms of the functioning of the central executive authorities and the public administration system. Our role, the role of archivists, is to accept electronic documents for storage later on, when the time comes to preserve them, in the way our law and our regulatory framework require," says Olha Muzychuk, Deputy Head of the State Committee on Archives of Ukraine.
During the round table, the issue of the authentication of electronic documents and their authenticity was raised, since the signature and seal initially remain on the paper original, while the question of an electronic signature and seal for an electronic document archive has not yet been fully resolved by law.
Ukrainian legislation provides for a transition to 100% electronic document flow within government bodies, which means that new computer technologies must be implemented now.
"Such a plan has appeared and so far is being implemented only at the Main Department of Civil Service," noted Oleksandr Smyrnov, Vice President of Softline JSC, addressing the round-table participants. "The MDCSU is at the very forefront of computerising electronic document flow. When we switch completely to paperless technology, it will be the greatest achievement not only for Ukraine, but also for the CIS countries. Our task as professionals with experience of implementing such systems in more than 10 government bodies is to be your assistant in solving precisely the tasks your organisations face. After all, it is impossible to create a universal system: your tasks (those of the State Committee on Archives, editor's note) are unique, and only together, in close communication, can we find the solutions that will significantly improve the quality of your work."
Softline JSC has been operating in the IT market since 1995 and specialises in developing high-complexity software products. It is a partner of global brands: IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, Teradata, Hewlett-Packard, SAP and Oracle. Softline specialists have developed and implemented 40 modern software products and specialised solutions and have completed more than 500 successful projects in finance, telecommunications and communications, energy, utilities, public administration, industry and transport.