The advances of computer technology offer many new opportunities but also new challenges. Records stored in popular file formats today may be unreadable in the near future because of constant changes in hardware, software and media technology. One of the most important challenges is tackling the problem of digital preservation, ensuring that the digital information we create and store today will continue to be accessible for as long as we may need it.

Dr Robert Sharpe, Tessella’s head of Digital Archiving Solutions, commented: “Tessella has been working on advanced digital archiving solutions for many years, alongside some of the world’s most farsighted archiving organizations. In partnership with the UK National Archives, Tessella developed the Safety Deposit Box (SDB) to help confront the problem of digital preservation. The core SDB software has been in use at the UK National Archives for four years, and has recently been significantly enhanced as part of their Seamless Flow programme. Other users of SDB include Arkib Negara (Malaysia), the British Library, and the Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv (Swiss Federal Archives).

Bill Cheng at VersaPAC said: “Delivering a complete solution requires the archiving technology to be built into the day-to-day system within an organization. For Arkib Negara we used the Trim Context system from Tower to provide the records management component and built bespoke workflows to transfer data from Trim into the new Archive, thereby delivering a complete and seamless solution. The system was successfully rolled out in two phases during 2007.”

Mr Geoff Moore at Tower Software added: “The integration of world-leading archive technology with Tower’s records management capability is a very exciting development and one we hope many other national archives and blue-chip organizations will benefit from.”

Pn Hajah Mahfuzah binti Yusof, Managing Director of the Electronic Records And Information Technology Management, Arkib Negara concluded: “This is a crucial and exciting time for archives around the world. We need to share and build on each other’s experience in order to solve the new preservation challenges.”

Tessella, VersaPAC and Tower Software are exhibiting at the International Congress of Archiving 2008 from the July 22nd until July 26th. Yahya Abdullah of VersaPAC will be presenting the Arkib Nagara solution on July 23rd.  Dr Robert Sharpe of Tessella and Mr Mark Evans of Tessella Inc will be speaking on ‘The Problems of Digital Preservation of Archives’ on July 24th.

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Notes to editors:

For press enquiries or to arrange an interview with Tessella please contact Christina Tealdi, Marketing Communications and PR Executive on +44 (0) 1235 555511 or christina.tealdi@tessella.com

• Tessella has over 20 years of proven expertise in the area of reliable and authentic long-term preservation of electronic records, both for government and scientific organizations. In recent years a number of mainly academic and government organizations have been at the cutting-edge of facing up to the digital preservation challenge, and Tessella has played a key role in a number of the most practical of these initiatives. For more information please visit: www.digital-preservation.com/resources/digital-archiving-challenges-webinar/

For press enquiries or to arrange an interview with VersaPAC please contact Encik Ahmad Nazarudin on +6012 2515 633 or ahmad@versapack.com.my

• VersaPAC Versapac is a leading software company in enterprise content management. It has many years experience in providing solutions for records, document, archiving and workflow management. It is a partner for Tessella UK and Tower Software Australia, which is now part of HP through a recent acquisition. For more information, please visit: www.versapac.com.my

For press enquiries or to arrange an interview with Tower please contact Michelle Phillips, Marketing Manager APJ on +61 2 624552100

• Tower Software is a global leader in the successful delivery and implementation of industrial strength Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions, delivering proven productivity  enhancements and compliance policy management to our clients while helping them be prepared for e-discovery. Working closely with a range of clients across the globe to address their enterprise information management needs, TOWER Software has incorporated 22 years of real business experience into TRIM Context, our award-winning product. Extensive business rules have been assimilated into TRIM Context to create a configurable, “out-of-the-box” solution which enables organizations to achieve best-practice information management across the enterprise, while reducing implementation risk.

Relates to: Archiving & Digital Preservation, digital-archiving-preservation, safety deposit box, solutions, solutions-technologies

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