This paper is an extract from ‘Managing Records Retention and Disposal’ by Alison North and published by Ark July 2009
Much has been made of auto-classification and this is a rapidly evolving area. Because the capabilities and applicability of this technique cannot be generalised, some points are made which should be considered when deciding if the technique is relevant to a particular document type or process.
This paper focuses on individual documents and records, each of which has its own properties or metadata. However, this is not the complete picture since a document may form part of a collection of documents which logically exist together – such as a series of recordings at a single studio session. Clearly, there is also the potential for nesting of collections which adds to the complexity. This section explains why it is reasonable to focus on individual documents as a simplification.
Two types of collections of documents exist: breakable and unbreakable. An unbreakable collection will all be retained and all be destroyed together. Breakable collections can have items purged from within them. Systems (and in particular the records retention management system, EDM systems and collaboration tools) must cater for both.
This is primarily an issue for electronic documents since duplicate physical objects/ documents cannot be seen by IT systems (they only know about references to them). Duplication should be treated as wider issue, not just relating to records retention. It is a cultural, process and storage problem that must be reviewed holistically.
EDM systems and collaboration tools are specifically designed to eliminate duplication, but culture and process are key. Organisations which address duplication as an issue at source will normally see operational efficiency improvements, as well as avoiding costly IT spend to manage the issue once it has occurred.
E-mail ‘reply’ trails create a particular duplication problem – an organisation must decide its view on copies of e-mails effectively existing in later e-mails. De-duplication tools can address the existence of uncontrolled documents across the corporate space, e-mail and other storage systems, but this is a costly approach. Again, it comes back to managing the issue at source.
This paper is an extract from ‘Managing Records Retention and Disposal’ by Alison North, chapter one of which describes three approaches to records retention; the reference tool approach, the records management approach and the process and workflow approach.
The IT systems deployed to support retention policy management depend on the approach taken, the nature of the organisation and the need to mitigate risk. The IT systems discussed below in relation to the three approaches are not three discrete points, but merely points on a continuum of increasing automation (note that the approaches themselves are very distinct!). At the most basic end are systems providing information to support manual processes, ranging through manual archiving with semi/fully-automated disposal to automated archiving and disposal.
This is the most straightforward from an IT point of view. It involves a system which provides the end user and records manager with the retention policy and related collateral. Normally this will involve a database of the organisation retention periods agreed for the different document types, along with the background legislation, regulation and company policy. It may also include a ‘classification’ collecting together the document types by business process or functional areas.
How IT supports the approach
There will be limited IT support for the approach – most likely only a reference tool. The IT variations will centre upon how this tool will be seen by the users and how the data in it will be maintained.
As a minimum requirement, the reference tool will be tailored to provide users with retention policy information (timescales, trigger points and supporting documentation) to allow appropriate retention decisions to be made at the relevant point in the business process.
The reference tool will supply up-to-date information direct to the users, ensuring that if policy changes, new rules are immediately rolled out. The tool may also be able to supply a top-down breakdown from high-level policy into process and finally into document type, allowing the user to see all the levels comprising the policy, including the ‘hows and whys’. This ensures that the policy is a ‘living document’. This approach also enables swift rollout of changes and, with appropriate configuration, ensures only the people who need to be updated are updated (preventing information overload).
There is a requirement for an internal or external agent to co-ordinate both the policy detail and research into regulatory/ legislative changes (see Chapter 1). Ensuring an appropriate IT deployment to make this process as efficient as possible will keep costs down.
Points to note are: