Information for suppliers

Until recently, this page contained information advising suppliers on how to apply to have a system evaluated against the 2002 requirements. Because the evaluation programme is drawing to a close, this information has been removed. Suppliers are advised to read our announcement on the future of the Electronic Records Management Systems Evaluation Programme.

Until 31 March 2005, we were accepting expressions of interest from software suppliers who wished their products to be evaluated against the 2002 revised functional requirements.

To be eligible for evaluation, a product had to be released and supported in the United Kingdom market and capable of supporting the mandatory requirements as an 'off the shelf' product without significant customisation.

The Expression of Interest was valid for a period of three months, during which period suppliers were asked to complete a detailed submission questionnaire, explaining how their product met each of the functional requirements.

Once satisfied that the product was capable of demonstrating compliance on test, The National Archives would invite suppliers to enter the test process by the scheduling of a test date, confirmation of which was dependent on payment of a test fee. This fee was originally set at £8,000 plus VAT and later raised to £12,000 plus VAT. At this point, a standard contract for the testing process was agreed between The National Archives and the supplier. This fee only covered cost of testing and did not guarantee a successful outcome from the evaluation; approval was entirely dependent on the performance of the system under test. 

A rigorous formal evaluation of the product, using formal Test Scripts would be conducted at the supplier's premises by The National Archives' test consultants at the scheduled time. This would take approximately 4-5 working days.

Successful tested products were subsequently approved by The National Archives by formal letter, according to the formal conditions of approval and listed on this website as having demonstrated, in the opinion The National Archives, the capability of meeting the functional requirements in a formal test situation. Approval applies to a specific product version and product set and is limited to a period of two years.

The tests did not extend to integration with other software, nor to scalability, nor performance under volume testing. 'Approval' in no way implies a 'recommendation' or any more specific endorsement of the product or the supplier.

The following document summarises the full procedure for evaluation of an electronic records management system in the form of a flowchart:

The programme is not a procurement scheme and The National Archives' approval is not compulsory for electronic records management products to be used in government. Normal government procurement processes will apply. The National Archives have never mandated that the list of approval products should be used exclusively. Rather, we encourage those seeking an ERMS solution to consider all the options that would appear to meet the specific needs of their organisation. We do, however, encourage suppliers to seek placement of successful products in appropriate software commodity catalogues, such as G-CAT2.

The information provided about the electronic records management software evaluation scheme on this website is for information only and does not form part of any contract between The National Archives and any other party.

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