A new model for electronic recordkeeping in the Finnish Defence Forces

The Defence Forces have been in the vanguard of introducing electronic record‐keeping systems in Finland’s public administration when it comes to implementing new technology. Recordkeeping practices, on the other hand, have been left untouched. A three‐year records management development project, headed by the Military Archives, was started in the autumn of 1999. The aim of the project is to guide the Defence Forces’ recordkeeping towards the latest innovations defined as best practices by the international and national records professionals community. The development of recordkeeping practices is based on a functional, not on an organizational approach to the operations of the Defence Forces. The organization, that now consists of over 100 independent records creators, is viewed in corpore, as a single records creator. Provenance of records will be tied to functions and transactions that create them, not to organizational boundaries in carrying out those functions. A recordkeeping schedule or strategy, a new version of the electronic registry system and a metadata standard will be utilized as tools for incorporating recordkeeping practices and business processes and ensuring the evidential requirements of both paper and electronic records.