The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has appointed Alphawest Services Pty Ltd to design and execute a business-wide Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) for its corporate records and documents.

The appointment follows a rigorous tendering selection process.

The EDMS will provide APRA with:

• a secure and common infrastructure for business applications that creates, revises and/or accesses corporate records/documents;
  
• and a tool to manage workflow and processes, including correspondence and action tracking.
  

APRA Deputy Chairman, Mr Ross Jones, said that the information within documents from regulated entities and the system that receives, stores and retrieves them is fundamental to APRA’s effectiveness as a prudential regulator.

“The system will enhance the quality and timeliness of APRA’s supervisory approach and processes,” he said.

APRA’s EDMS will conform to the statutory record management obligations of the National Archives of Australia (NAA).

APRA is currently at pilot system analysis and design phase and plans to launch its EDMS in early 2006.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is the prudential regulator of the financial services industry. It oversees banks, credit unions, building societies, general insurance and reinsurance companies, life insurance, friendly societies, and most members of the superannuation industry.APRA is funded largely by the industries that it supervises. It was established on 1 July 1998.APRA currently supervises institutions holding approximately $2.0 trillion in assets for 20 million Australian depositors, policyholders and superannuation fund members.