What are line of business systems?
‘Line of business system’ is a term used in the public sector in the United Kingdom, particularly in local government. The term can have several meanings and has no consistent definition that we could find, but it is most frequently used to refer to applications which are:
- Critical to the running of an organisation, often a particular function, and/or
- Unique and specific to a particular function within an organisation (to distinguish them from more general software such as Word processing or email)
They are also referred to as ‘line of business application’, ‘LOB system’, ‘LOB application’, ‘systems of records’ or simply ‘business system’. They can be custom-made/bespoke, commercial off-the-shelf, or a mixture of both. They are used for a wide range of functions including financial management, procurement, human resources, case management, facilities management, content management, customer relationship management, and student information/membership. In local government in the United Kingdom, a wide range are used for important functions such as children’s services & education, adult social care, planning/building control and democratic services. For example, the Welsh Vital Digital Information Project, undertaken by Kevin Bolton and Sarah Wickham in 2021, found over 600 systems being used across just four Councils.
Most line of business systems will include (or be integrated with) a database management system – they are defined in Butterfield, Ekembe Ngondi and Kerr’s ‘A Dictionary of Computer Science’ (Seventh Edition, 1986) as “a software system that provides comprehensive facilities for the organization and management of a body of information required for some particular application or group of related applications”. ‘In-Form Consult Ltd and The Digital Archiving Consultancy Limited, in their report, suggest that line of business systems may also “combine structured databases linked to unstructured documentation (letters, forms etc.)”. Additionally, Kevin Bolton and Sarah Wickham’s research report on the Welsh Vital Digital Information Project asserts that “Other information may be stored in an Electronic and Document Records Management Systems (EDRMS). Line of business systems will sometimes link to information on a networked drive or EDRMS”.
For consistency, this guidance uses the term ‘records’ which ISO 15489-1:2016 defines as “information created, received and maintained as evidence and as an asset by an organization or person, in pursuit of legal obligations or in the transaction of business.” However, it is important to recognise that those who work in other sectors may use terms such as data, information, and documents without defining these as records.
The challenge
Line of business systems will often contain records that have archival/permanent value or long-term retention requirements. However, the preservation of records from line of business systems is a challenge for archive practitioners and records managers since most do not have preservation or recordkeeping functionality:
“A lot of the records we want to collect for the corporate archive are held in line-of- business applications owned by our environment, education, social care and democratic services colleagues. This information is not always held in a format suitable for long-term preservation.” Heather Forbes – Gloucestershire Archives case study
“Most business systems developed over the last 20 years do not have in-built recordkeeping functionality. Archivists and records managers face the task of identifying, extracting and preserving archival records from these systems.” Neil Fitzgerald, ‘Using data archiving tools to preserve archival records in business systems – a case study‘ (2013)
“The research found that even with the limited information available, the numbers of systems and data retention requirements mean that different Council functions have differing levels of complexity for data continuity.” Kevin Bolton and Sarah Wickham, ‘Welsh Vital Digital Information Project Research Report‘
Purpose of the guidance
This workflow guidance focuses on what people need to think about and can do to prepare for preservation. The primary audience is archive practitioners in the United Kingdom who wish to preserve records from such systems, particularly those working in local government and other parts of the public sector. However, it may also be of value to records managers, IT administrators, and system owners.
The guidance does not cover the preservation of records from non-line of business systems such as ERDMS or document-sharing systems, for example Sharepoint, Office365, and Google Drive (although, as outlined above, line of business systems may be integrated with or linked to an EDRMS). This is covered by the Digital Preservation Coalition’s EDRMS Preservation Toolkit. However, many of the principles and approaches are the same and where applicable we signpost to the toolkit.
The authors would like to thank and acknowledge those archive practitioners and records managers who reviewed this guidance and provided feedback.
The guidance is arranged in five sections: