Case Study: The State of Vermont achieves visibility into unstructured digital records and stronger information governance with ActiveNav

How State of Vermont Gained Visibility into Their Unstructured Digital Records and Information Governance Needs

The State of Vermont, through the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration (VSARA), struggled with disparate, siloed information sources, rapidly growing unstructured data, and a “storage is cheap” mentality that hid compliance, cost, and risk exposure. To gain visibility into retention requirements and improve records governance across agencies, VSARA piloted ActiveNav’s software to inventory and assess state digital records and information.

ActiveNav implemented a targeted pilot using customized rules and workflows to discover, index, and classify files across servers and repositories, producing out‑of‑the‑box reports within minutes. The pilot uncovered large volumes of personal work drives and older content (the majority of indexed files hadn’t been modified in five to ten years), identified ROT for defensible disposition, surfaced regulated PII/FTI risks, and enabled cost-per-GB analysis to drive savings. ActiveNav’s findings accelerated agency engagement, prepared records for migration, and delivered measurable compliance and governance improvements for The State of Vermont.

The State of Vermont

Tanya Marshall

State Archivist and Chief Records Officer