The role of technology in managing records retention and disposal by Jaume Vilar of BEP Systems (part 4)
This paper is an extract from ‘Managing Records Retention and Disposal’ by Alison North and published by Ark July 2009
Records management approach
This involves the records retention process managing the archive and disposal by becoming involved in the business process at this phase in the lifecycle or perhaps the earlier semi-active phase. This may be more or less automated. At the simplest level it is the same as the reference tool approach; at its most complex, it involves systems which store the archives, manage the workflow when disposal is reached and execute the disposal.
How IT supports the approach
The IT ‘toolkit’ gives the following capabilities:
- Provision of the underlying rules for how long documents should be kept (using the same techniques as the reference tool approach), but also provision of records of the archives and archiving of the record/document.
- Provision of archiving capabilities either of the original items (electronic) or references to the storage locations (physical) linked to document types, which result in a records retention management tool automatically allocating the disposal or review dates. These naturally lead to workflow and business automation systems capable of implementing the reviews and/or authorising the permanent retention or disposal.
- IT can help bring decision-making forward to ensure disposal dates are confirmed upfront (when the information is recent), rather than pushing a review into the future.
- Where a records retention management tool is used, if the policy or legislation relating to documents change, the link exists to the archived documents, enabling the disposal dates to be altered to meet the revised policy.
- Where a records retention management tool (or a storage system) is used, the archiving activity is the main entry point to the technology so the tools used are designed to make this activity as user-friendly as possible.
- Where a records retention management tool is used there will be centralisation of disposal-date monitoring. Instead of this being a process aligned to the location of the archive or type of material, a central database is maintained, ensuring the organisation has a clear understanding of what it holds.
- As in the reference tool approach, the toolkit includes the ability to actively ‘push out’ the policy to the organisation in a low maintenance and focused way.
Example IT system configurations
Below are two example systems configurations that can be used to help automate records retention in the records management approach. Most of these configurations are also applicable to the process and workflow approach with minor modifications.
Figure 1: Partial automation
In the case of partial automation (see Figure 1), the organisation manages documents using existing processes and storage systems. When the correct point is reached in the document lifecycle, it is entered into the retention policy management tool (records retention management tool) either manually or automatically via interfaces. From that point onwards, the review and eventual disposal are managed by the IT systems shown.
In the case of full automation, documents/records are created into a series of electronic systems, including a collaboration tool and other internal systems. These automatically update the policy management tool with details of the documents/records which are created. From this point onwards, the policy management tool acts as the hub co-ordinating policy reference data and the manual actions required via workflow, finally feeding back disposal instructions into the storage systems.
Process and workflow approach
Embedding the identification of both the document types and the archiving trigger (either explicitly or implicitly) in the business process is the most efficient way of executing these activities. These activities are therefore bespoke to each business process and, as a result, moving from a manual activity to an automated activity carries the risk of requiring bespoke IT work for each business process. Therefore this approach is most usually characterised by tools supporting the manual creation of document records and archive triggers alongside some bespoke developments to automate the archiving process where cost-risk-benefits analysis proves the advantages.
How IT supports the approach
In respect of IT, this approach is superficially similar to the records management approach. However, there are significant additional benefits to be gained when retention policy implementation is embedded in the business process. The primary benefits come from moving away from managing the document from a purely records management point of view to seeing it as an entity with many events during its life. From this standpoint, it then becomes clear that disposal is merely a final stage in the lifecycle where the document, piece of information or transaction has flowed through the business process.
The main aim of the business process approach is to perform each activity at the most efficient point. Therefore, a document can be allocated its document type at the start, middle or end of its lifecycle, whenever this is best done. Equally, the point at which the transaction ends or the document is ready for archiving may be allocated manually or may flow naturally from the evolution of the data associated with that transaction or document. Therefore, as long as the document type is known by the point of ‘archiving’ (however this is determined), then the disposal date is automatically allocated, by reference to a central reference tool (see above).
As described in the records management approach, IT systems which are geared towards particular transactions (such as billing systems) are not usually the best place in which to manage disposal of a document/ transaction. Therefore, if the business process approach is to be automated (to eliminate risk and effort in the business process), a systems integration activity will be required to draw together the data regarding the document into the records management system, which will co-ordinate the reference tool, review and sign-off activities (see the example system configurations above).
It is important to note that collaboration tools (such as Microsoft SharePoint) provide excellent repositories for documents (or the metadata for physical items). Once established, the documents in the collaboration tool can either be managed according to the records management approach or the business process approach, depending on how the organisation wishes to populate the required metadata (primarily document type and the trigger for archiving to begin). These collaboration tools can solve many problems in the organisation, since they can act as repositories for both process-driven and ad hoc documents, providing a central store and thereby reducing IT overhead.
Points to note:
- Reusing existing infrastructure (such as existing approval/review systems like SAP/Oracle, or internal e-mail) can ensure that, irrespective of the document type, once documents have moved into the archive stage they are all managed the same way (at this stage, the process is very similar to the records management approach).
- The business process approach supported by IT is only appropriate sometimes. It is likely that many business processes will be supported by general tools (such as collaboration tools), allowing the business process approach to be used, but with staff performing the retention actions up to the archiving point manually (i.e. using systems, but manual activities). Some high-volume, high-cost or low-skill activities will lend themselves to full IT integration, allowing the retention policy implementation to be invisible to the business process.
Conclusion
Records retention is intimately related to information technology, in terms of both where the information in the organisation resides and how it needs to be managed. IT also provides resilience across the many and varied timescales that records retention (be it legal or organisational) requires and that manual processes may lack. This paper has shown how IT provides the ability to mitigate the risks associated with manual processes in an incremental manner, allowing an organisation to develop and evolve the delivery of the records retention policy.