ISSUES OF PRESERVATION OF CONTENT IN A MULTI-CHANNEL ENVIRONMENT

PRISCILLA EMERYPRESIDENTECM SCOPE

Preserve or Prevail

ECM Scope

© ECM Scope 2007

• A record is any recorded information relating to the work of your business, regardless of who created it or how the information was recorded.• Records are recorded information, regardless of physical form, that are:

– generated or received and used while conducting business, and – preserved because of their informational value or as evidence of

your organizational, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, mission, programs, projects, and activities.

• Ownership of Records: all records received or created in the course of company business are company property and do not belong to departments or individuals. • A record should correctly reflect what was communicated or decided or what action was taken. It should be able to support the needs of the business to which it relates and be used for accountability purposes  

What is a Record??

© ECM Scope 2007

It’s Always Been About Documents

Paper was initial form of evidence.Shift to introducing Electronic Images as

EvidenceNow all forms of documents are considered

discoverable evidence

© ECM Scope 2007

Documents & Records Not Just Paper and Images

Text, Graphics, Spreadsheets Electronic and Paper Forms and Documents Electronic Reports and Data Records Video, sound and voice clips Web Pages and E-mails (and dare we say Instant

Messages, Wikis, Blogs) TIFF and JPEG images Cell phone text messages

© ECM Scope 2007

Multi-channel is Here to Stay

Multichannel environments allow for the flexible distribution of content to a variety of audiences.

But which version or format of the information will need to be preserved – which is the most authentic?

© ECM Scope 2007

Telephone Billing Data

© ECM Scope 2007

Content and presentation are now separate entities, unlike traditional document production. Presentation influences action. Records management often views the document as a static entity, but users demand documents as fluid entities. Documents are now event-driven and the most important documents may not be those we consider records.”

Source: Tony Poynton

The record is whatever the client is able to get a court of law to agree to. And in a court of law, anything can be a record.

Source: Michael Steemson, The Caldeson Consultancy 

© ECM Scope 2007

Establishing Retention Practices

Maintain Consistency: Design and implementation of record retention and destruction policies across all media, geography and business units

Discuss retention and destruction alternatives with RM staff.

Make retention periods based on content and context of information – not the media type.

© ECM Scope 2007

Issues to Consider

Maintaining Fidelity and Consistent rendering from one delivery mechanism to another is extremely important.

Maintain the “ultimate” record in a locked unreviseable format and store in records repository.

Make sure the metadata carries across different delivery mechanisms

© ECM Scope 2007

Classification is Key

Classification is important for both retention and retrieval

Typical categories include: Legal and organizational Administrative Financial Operational Human Resources

Not by Media Type or Format

© ECM Scope 2007

Destruction is Also Important

Certificate of DestructionAudit Trail or Chain of CustodyIs it REALLY Destroyed?Examples:

Audiotapes or Videotape (tape over or pulverize) Computer Data (need to permanently destroy not just delete).

Overwriting data with series of characters reformatting the drive or tape or magnetic degaussing.

Laser disks or CDs (pulverizing) Microfilm (pulverizing or shredding) Paper (Shredding – crosscut, pulping, or pulverizing.

Never just throw in the trash. Once it is outside it is in the public domain.

© ECM Scope 2007

Ongoing Issues

PDF/A as an archival “Standard”Retaining documents that are hard to

replicate later.Records Management software is barely

keeping up with media changes.Bottom Line

Lawyers and regulators are becoming more media agnostic so all information must be

retained and destroyed consistently.

© ECM Scope 2007

Additional Resources

National Archives of the Netherlands Report - http://www.interpares.org/book/interpares_book_g_part4nether.pdf

MoReq Specifications http://www.cornwell.co.uk/edrm/moreq.asp

AIIM – www.aiim.orgARMA – www.arma.orgISO 15489 - http://www.whitefoot-forward.com/iso_15489-1.pdf

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