The evaluation of electronic records management systems at universities in terms of interoperability

Universities have begun to conduct inter-organizational correspondence through electronic records management systems (ERMS) to improve records management processes for the purpose of ensuring a successful management. Some universities still cannot use ERMS effectively in inter-organizational communication. It is possible to conduct inter-organizational correspondence of universities in the electronic environment through interoperability of ERMS. To ensure the interoperability of ERMS in the World and in Turkey various studies such as guidelines, standards, legal and administrative arrangements have been made. In this thesis, within the frame of national and international studies, current status of ERMS used in the universities in Ankara was investigated in terms of interoperability. The research included 104 personnel from the departments of all universities (9) accepting to contribute to the research and having ERMS in their organization. In the scope of the research, data were collected through survey and face-to-face interviews and the findings were presented in comparative tables via data such as number, percentage, average, standard deviation and chi-square values. As a result of the research, the hypotheses as following were confirmed: universities do not conduct inter-organizational correspondence through ERMS directly, have trouble with Registered Electronic Mail (REM), the private universities have lack of technical infrastructure related to the interoperability. It was found that the level of awareness about interoperability in the private universities are lower than the state universities, universities have no lack of legal infrastructure and troubles with suitability of guidelines and standards. The following proposals were submitted to the university administrators: establishing a unit which is responsible for ERMS; employing graduates from the department of information management for this unit; keeping supporting documents related to the ERMS and providing all of the personnel with them; training the personnel about ERMS and raising awareness of the personnel about interoperability. It has been suggested that software companies should work on integration of ERMS with other systems and provide full integration between different ERMS software. In addition, it is emphasized that the contributions of The Council of Higher Education are important for raising awareness of all university personnel about increasing the national and international communication through the interoperability of ERMS in the universities.