Transforming Legacy Records into Compliant, Actionable Public Sector Data

A Victorian public sector organisation was responsible for managing decades of paper-based and scanned records that constituted official public records under multiple legislative instruments. These records were critical to operational assurance, historical analysis and legal evidence, yet much of the data existed as unstructured images with limited metadata.

The organisation faced several constraints:

• Strict legislative obligations under the Public Records Act, Privacy and Data Protection Act, Evidence Act 2008 and related legislation
• Retention and Disposal Authorities (RDAs) that required records to be managed correctly from the moment of creation or digitisation
• Privacy and security risks associated with handling sensitive information at scale
• Significant manual effort required to catalogue, classify and govern records
• Limited ability to analyse historical data or integrate it with modern systems

Off-the-shelf SaaS products were unable to meet these requirements without extensive compromise. The organisation required a solution that could embed Victorian public sector records standards, privacy controls and lifecycle management directly into the digitisation process.

Kiandra designed and delivered a custom Azure-based data pipeline using Azure Document Intelligence, integrated into the organisation’s existing Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 Purview environment.

The solution was designed to treat digitised records as governed public records from the point of ingestion, not after the fact. Key elements included:

• Automated OCR and data extraction using Azure Document Intelligence
• Application of Victorian-specific metadata standards and RDAs during ingestion
• Privacy by Design controls, enabling early identification of sensitive data
• Immediate application of Sensitivity Labels and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies through Microsoft Purview
• Secure handling of records to preserve chain of custody and evidentiary integrity
• Agile delivery using Azure DevOps to jointly manage record ingestion and processing workflows

Rather than simply storing digitised images, the pipeline transformed previously inaccessible “dark data” into structured, governed and reusable public sector data assets.

The solution delivered measurable operational, compliance and strategic benefits:

• Reduced manual effort
  Automated classification and metadata capture significantly reduced the time and cost associated with manual cataloguing, saving thousands of hours of administrative effort.
• Improved legislative compliance
  Records are now managed in line with public records, privacy and evidence requirements from the moment of digitisation, reducing compliance risk and audit effort.
• Stronger privacy and security controls
  Sensitive information is identified early, with protections applied immediately to prevent unauthorised access or movement.
• Actionable data and insights
  Historical records are now findable, accessible and analysable, enabling integration with modern infrastructure and supporting service planning and community safety outcomes.
• Future-ready data sharing
  Data is now in a form capable of being communicated, analysed and processed in line with the Victorian Data Sharing Act 2017, supporting future collaboration with other emergency services agencies.

From an operational perspective, the organisation has moved from passively storing records to actively owning high-quality public sector data that supports evidence-based decision-making.

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The Partnership

Kiandra worked closely with internal stakeholders to navigate complex legislative, operational and technical requirements. Deep understanding of Microsoft Azure, Microsoft365 Purview and public sector governance was critical to ensuring the solution aligned with both technical and legal obligations.

The delivery approach balanced strong governance with practical agility, enabling secure digitisation at pace while maintaining a full and accurate evidentiary record of administrative activities.

The organisation now has a scalable, compliant foundation for records and data management that reduces risk, lowers cost and unlocks long-term value from historical information.