Digitising organisational records is a major project but can lead ultimately to cost savings, efficiencies and productivity gains, as staff or even customers can access information more swiftly and with greater ease. Creating and providing access to digital copies of material give an agency’s clients and customers the potential to pursue educational, cultural appreciation and commercial opportunities wherever they live or work.

The demand to digitise is growing. The new ‘digital natives’ are a powerful group of customers and staffs expects information to be available in a digital format immediately. Digitisation is not an activity that can be seen in isolation. It is linked to all aspects of services provided by information and records professionals. Digitisation enhances the potential for synergies within business services with other digital collections through shared descriptive information in consolidated or federated online databases.