The French standard NF Z42-013 on electronic archiving has been adopted as an international standard by ISO

Shortly after the publication of the NF Z42-013 standard in 2009, AFNOR submitted the document to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) with a view to its possible adoption as an international standard.

Following this proposal and the efforts of the members of the French delegation to promote this standard, the ISO TC171/SC3 technical committee on “Document management applications—General” organized a vote among its 14 member countries. A majority of the members voted in favor of adopting the French standard as an international standard.

Digital documents are used on a daily basis by businesses and organizations. They can be opened with a single click, received and shared via email… But it is often necessary to store them within an IT system.

The ISO 14641-1 standard provides organizations with specifications regarding the technical and organizational measures to be implemented for the recording, archiving, retrieval, and dissemination of digital documents in order to ensure their preservation and integrity. These specifications aim to ensure that digital documents are captured, archived, retrieved, and communicated in such a way that the archived document retains the same value as the original document throughout its retention period.

The standard is primarily intended for organizations and companies that wish to implement IT systems in which they can archive digital documents. It is also aimed at IT service providers and software vendors seeking to design systems that ensure the authenticity and integrity of digital documents, as well as companies that provide third-party digital document archiving services on behalf of their clients.

The AFNOR CN 171 committee developed the NF Z42-013 standard, now known as ISO 14641-1.