The Town of Smiths Falls is moving ahead with plans to modernize the town’s records management system through a new SharePoint-based platform aimed at improving information organization, compliance and public accessibility.
Council reviewed a recommendation June 1 to authorize a single-source contract with The Information Professionals for implementation services at a cost not exceeding $50,000.
The project would support development of an electronic records management system within the town’s Microsoft 365 environment, including records classification, metadata structures, migration of existing network drives and staff training.
Director of Corporate Services/Treasurer Paul Dowber said the initiative is intended to help staff organize and manage municipal data more efficiently while laying groundwork for future workflow automation.
“This is setting up SharePoint, which is a very robust data management system,” Dowber told council.
Dowber clarified the $50,000 budget would not complete a full data migration, but would instead establish the framework and train staff to continue much of the work internally.
“It’s not going to cover the whole thing, but it’s going to be staff doing it, and they’re going to be doing it with staff to show us how to do it,” he said.
Coun. Peter McKenna described the initiative as one of the most important foundational decisions council will make this year and said the town should approach records management with public accessibility in mind wherever possible.
“All the information that the town has should be public facing,” McKenna said, adding there would still be exceptions for areas such as human resources and protected records.
McKenna said the new system could improve public access to council minutes, reports and municipal information currently difficult to locate online.
Coun. Chris McGuire also raised questions about where municipal data would be stored and whether additional software or storage costs could arise in the future.
Dowber confirmed the town’s data would remain stored within Canadian Microsoft data centres and said no significant new software licensing expenses are anticipated because SharePoint is already included within the town’s Microsoft 365 platform.
Dowber acknowledged the municipality may eventually require additional consulting support as the system evolves, but said the current funding is intended to launch the project and establish core systems and workflows.
According to the report, the project aligns with the town’s IT Strategy and long-term goals around information governance, records retention compliance and improved digital organization.
The report recommends a single-source contract with InfoPros, citing the company’s existing work with the town’s retention schedules and records policies, along with its experience working with more than 350 municipal organizations.
Council supported the recommendation.
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