Page 112 - Reference framework for integrated management of an SSC - A U4SSC deliverable on city platforms

commissions, municipal plenary sessions, making files available, and administrative documents as
well as economic reports associated with files.

In the implementation of electronic file management, two main strategies appear. The first is to
use vertical file management applications that have a more mature resolution of the documentary,
electronic and procedural problems. However, this requires a, not always achievable, effort to
offer homogeneous services of initiation, access, authentication, and archiving of the files. The
second is to develop basic corporate enabling elements in the management of files: electronic site,
digitization, signature, archiving, conversion on a generic implementation of the actions in the files,
and a very integrable implementation with specific management applications or file management,
with very specific requirements such as the tax area or contracting.

The second strategy is the only one that we believe can be successful in the long term in the
comprehensive electronic management of files for a medium or large local administration. For
small local administrations, they should demand a solution based on the second strategy from
supra municipal entities because of the lack of resources to address integral solutions.

We call “the file" the ordered set of documents and actions that serve as background and basis for
the administrative resolution, as well as the proceedings aimed at executing it.

A file can be described as the list or lists of documents that make it up, along with the documents
themselves. If this relationship or list is electronic, we can say that we have the electronic file,
regardless of whether the documents that make it up are in electronic format or in the paper
support.

The electronic file, which has to be unique, must maintain its documentary and processing integrity;
moreover, the documents of an electronic file must not be deleted and entered at the will of the
user (as if it were a folder with files from Windows Explorer) because in this way, the integrity of
the file could not be controlled and would not be reliable.

The processing will have to be electronic through a computer application (let us call it the processor
or file manager). The processing of the files must be broken down into a series of tasks, phases or
steps through which the processing of this can be completed.

These tasks may be sequential or parallel depending on the time of the processing in question.
For example, the request for reports may be made in parallel in most cases, but the resolution of
the file must be carried out sequentially.

The documents of an electronic file are born from the processing of the same, and what is processed
in it is justified by the documents that accredit it.

In relation to the electronic management of records of a city, we define the business services and
information services that might be necessary for any city.

98 Reference framework for integrated management of an SSC | June 2023