Records management automation
In FY2024, agencies took in 1,501,432 FOIA requests and closed the year with 267,056 still in the queue—a 33% jump in backlog (Source: 2024 FOIA Report Summary). Meanwhile, federal leaders are explicitly signaling higher efficiency expectations alongside leaner headcount.
The good news: Backlogs aren’t a staffing problem. They’re a handoff problem.
Backlogs are not fate; they are the byproduct of manual intake, misclassification, and slow reviews. Stack enough manual handoffs together, and your mission starves for timely information, deadlines slip, and trust erodes.
The fix is end-to-end records automation: capture, classify, route, redact, fulfill. Agencies that make the shift cut cycle times from weeks to hours and deliver cleaner, defensible evidence on demand.
Why government and federal records automation now
Backlog pressure is rising, not easing. Simple FOIA requests took an average of 44 days in FY2024, up from 39.4 days in FY2023. That is the “manual tax” showing up in your operating budgets. (Source: Department of Justice)
Paper habits are policy liabilities. Paper-centric steps create exceptions, slow cycle times, and bury audit evidence. In a world of transparency mandates and time-based SLAs, that is unsustainable.
Mandates are explicit, not optional:
- OMB M-23-07 with NARA: After June 30, 2024, NARA stopped accepting new analog transfers. Permanent and temporary records must be electronic with required metadata.
- Executive Order 14058 on customer experience: Agencies must modernize how the public interacts with them and reduce time taxes, which includes digitizing services and records-heavy processes.
- FedRAMP Authorization Act with updated OMB guidance: FedRAMP is now codified, with OMB guidance to standardize and accelerate secure cloud use. That lowers friction to move records and FOIA workflows to compliant cloud services and to reach ATO faster.
- NARA security-classification metadata: Permanent classified e-records must include specific classification and declassification metadata at transfer. Agencies need this metadata in place from day one, not at the end.
Bottom line: demand is up, and policy now expects digital-by-default. Automation turns intake, classification, routing, redaction, and fulfillment into a flow. That is how teams move from weeks to hours while producing cleaner, defensible evidence on demand.
Before/After: From weeks to hours with automation + AI
Federal agencies process more than 100 billion pieces of paperwork annually and every manual handoff is a risk. The standard path piles up handoffs and backlogs.
Remove steps that are just data entry or pass-through. Keep the ones that need judgment. Prove the improvement with cycle time and exception rates.
| Stage | Standard (typical) | Fully automated |
|---|---|---|
| Ingestion | 2–3 days | Instant |
| Classification | 2–3 days | 1–2 hours |
| Data extraction | 3–5 days | 1–2 hours |
| Verification | 5–7 days | 1–2 hours |
| Review | 2–3 days | 1–2 hours |
| Filing | 1 day | Instant |
The FOIA use case: Backlog reduction that moves the needle
Front-load classification with proven models and rules for your high-volume document types. Automate verification against authoritative data to catch mismatches early. Standardize review with checklists and guided decisions, so humans spend time on judgment, not keying. File instantly with the right retention, access, and legal hold metadata every time.
Day 30: Stop the growth of the backlog
- Digitize the front door. Automate ingestion and classification at intake.
- Lock in standard metadata and evidence capture for every request.
- Stand up visible metrics for intake volume, triage speed, and first-decision time.
Day 60: Shrink exceptions
- Expand extraction and verification so only outliers hit a human.
- Add zero-touch workflows for repeatable patterns and common request types.
- Tune routing rules based on exception trends and reviewer throughput.
Day 90: Audit-ready by default
- Standardize review paths and decision checklists across teams.
- Enable instant filing to your repository with a complete audit trail.
- Publish executive dashboards for cycle time, exception rates, and backlog burn-down.
The solution: One platform, fewer tools
Backed by our FedRAMP® High “In-Process” designation for Tungsten TotalAgility®, you get a single, vetted platform instead of a patchwork of point solutions. TotalAgility unifies intelligent document processing (IDP), workflow orchestration, knowledge discovery, and AI assistance so your team can design, run, and monitor the entire records flow; without juggling vendors or brittle integrations.
Government records automation benefits:
- Fewer manual handoffs and exceptions → smaller backlogs
- Consistent classification and metadata → stronger search and retrieval
- Embedded controls and logs → exportable audit evidence
- Low-/no-code changes → policy updates without long projects
Why Tungsten for government records management workflows
- 40-year legacy serving government agencies, including decades under Kofax brand
- Designated FedRAMP® In Process as of October 2025
- Serving 14/15 U.S. Federal Departments plus 25,000 customers worldwide
- A Leader in 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Intelligent Document Processing Solutions
- Unified, end-to-end solution powered by generative AI & Agentic AI
Ready to go from backlog to audit-ready?
Tungsten Automation nommé Leader des solutions de traitement intelligent des documents (IDP) par Gartner® dans son premier Magic Quadrant™.
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