Managing in Place Isn't Managing
Many organizations would rather avoid the trouble of implementing a records management system. Some have turned to manage-in-place technologies, which promise to perform records management tasks with automated tools. Don’t let the hype fool you; there is no substitute for a real records management system.
“Manage in place” means leaving information where it is found on your network, while applying retention policies centrally. Most implementations use a software agent that crawls your network, looking for files that meet certain records criteria. When the required files are found, the agent updates a central catalog used to manage the information.
Since most organizations have multiple repositories of data, it’s an appealing idea. There’s no need to move files around, or store additional copies. Since files and data remain where information workers last put them, there’s no need for user training or for making changes to existing business processes. You get all of the benefits of records management with few of the headaches. It sounds too good to be true—and it is.
There are technical and compliance reasons why managing in place doesn’t live up to its promise. Let’s address the technical issues first:
Configuring a software agent to crawl your network is harder than it might sound. Which files do you capture? You have to set up the rules and criteria for discovering information in all the diverse places it might reside on your network. While crawling engines have become quite sophisticated, they simply can’t match the accuracy of a human being that’s been working with the information. A crawler can’t capture the business context of the information. When it’s time to make decisions about the disposition of the data, will you have everything you need to support your case?
Avoiding Duplication and Error
At first glance, it appears that managing in place would prevent data duplication. You’re making one less copy to a centralized store, right? But you already have duplicate copies scattered throughout your network: on servers, workstations and mobile devices. It’s also duplicated in email, shared drives and intranets.
This duplication occurs because users re-file the information on their own computers so that they can always find it again. The other reason is that popular communications tools (mainly email) duplicate information as it’s transmitted from person to person. All this leads to high storage requirements and additional problems of:
- How do you find the most current version of a document?
- How can you ensure that all copies are managed and secured in the same way?
Having a central, authoritative information store helps reduce this clutter of copies and provides a single coherent history of versions and revisions. If employees want to know where to get the latest official document, they are less tempted to hoard their own files. Managing and securing one authoritative file in a central repository is much easier than managing a handful of files in various locations on a network. It also simplifies backup, continuity of operations and disaster recovery operations.
Another technical problem with managing in place has to do with today’s computing environment. While managing in place may work for fixed network assets, what about mobile assets like laptops and PDAs? What does “managing in place” mean when the “place” roams away from your network? The file can be edited, tampered with or destroyed without the knowledge of your central registry. The use of mobile devices is likely to increase in the future, and with it the amount of content that will walk out the front door, unless a central place is provided to store, secure, manage and access it.
This highlights some compliance issues that manage in place schemes raise. Who owns the record in place? Who can see it? Who has viewed or modified the record? Manage-in-place systems might tell you where the file is and when to get rid of it, but they don’t address these other issues. A system that can’t guarantee the authenticity and integrity of the information, establish a chain of custody and provide an auditable history has missed the point completely. You don’t want that point driven home in a court of law. These are precisely the needs addressed by sound enterprise content management solutions which are based on records management rules and standards.
Some manage-in-place vendors have made attempts to address these problems by monitoring and resetting access controls on files or by sending backup copies to centralized data stores. These may address some of the technical problems, but none provides the authoritative control and management of information needed to ensure your organization and staff can defend their position in a lawsuit. For your own peace of mind, accept no substitutes.
TOWER Software (
www.towersoft.com) a leading enterprise content management (ECM) provider to government and regulated industries, delivers award-winning information management solutions. Our product, TRIM Context 6, enables organizations to have compliant, secure and accurate information available to make confident business decisions. TRIM Context 6 won AIIM E-DOC Magazine 2006 Best of Show award for ECM suites.
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