The Benefits of Lifecycle Information Management
Current government regulations and recent court cases have brought the issue of records management to the immediate attention of public and private organizations. Defined and controlled record policies help to ensure that intellectual content is protected against risks such as litigation or disaster, and that your records practices meet complex regulatory requirements.
At the same time, corporations and all levels of government are looking to add value to their businesses. And content assets are the foundation upon which corporations build new business opportunities and competitive advantage—and upon which governments build accountability practices and ways to better serve their constituents. Leveraging the business value of content while simultaneously protecting that content with an applied records management strategy is not a new concept; however, the conventional means of addressing these tandem needs are changing. Content evolves through three stages in its lifecycle:
- Capture / Creation, Review, and Finalization—Information is generated in an organization in two ways: captured as a record or created by internal authors. Captured documents can be in both electronic and physical form, and may include faxes, letters and correspondence, forms, evidence, e-mail, and the like. But not all content arrives finalized; indeed, much of it originates within the organization itself from myriad document creation applications. Workflow tools are often employed to progress content through a review and approval cycle that culminates in a final version, ready for publication and an applied retention schedule.
- Publication—While some workers create and contribute content, many more have compelling needs to access the knowledge inside documents and records. Traditional printing and distribution processes are giving way to automated access methods, including publishing to intranets, portals, and public Web sites.;
- Retention and Disposition—Governance of content lifespan is abundantly mandated, with companies and governments scrambling to adhere to federal and industry regulations, legislative acts, standards and compliance measures. Traditionally, file-plan classification and retention periods are applied to records when they are declared as final, be they captured or created internally.;
In the past, many organizations chose to manage each stage of the information lifecycle independently, with disparate processes, systems, repositories and technologies. Today, with directives to increase efficiencies while simultaneously improve accountability, an integrated system for lifecycle management is crucial to meet these goals.
Increase Efficiencies
To eliminate redundancy of knowledge-based work and reduce time involved with finding information, organizations and governments are implementing a consolidated, integrated system for document and record capture/creation, access and retention. Moving beyond classifying records only when they are declared final, information is being coded for retention as soon as the first sentence is typed, enabling the developing document to be searchable, navigable and retrievable from its inception. As a result, in-process and evolving documents are housed alongside final records, eliminating the time-consuming and unintuitive tasks associated with searching two repositories. Knowledge workers don't discern between in-process documents and final records, they are simply seeking the information needed to get their jobs done. With an integrated document and records management framework, organizations can accelerate speed to knowledge and quickly deliver the information their workers need, when they need it. This streamlined knowledge access can be used to maximize competitive advantage and improve customer or constituent service.
Improve Accountability
To keep or not to keep—that is the question. Whether the mandate is retention for determined periods, destruction of outdated or irrelevant information, reporting of file activity and access or even all of these requirements at once, the records manager is challenged to find answers. In the past, they dealt with predominantly paper-based files easily classified with associated schedules for retention or destruction. But recent court cases have raised the visibility of information accounting practices, and the scope has expanded to include electronic records. Litigation and discovery procedures are resulting in judicial orders for an accounting of procedures and transactions surrounding an organization's content stores. E-mail, in particular, is becoming an increasingly contentious knowledge source in terms of its retention.
What content exists, and how it is managed, accessed, and retained are all questions that must be diligently and swiftly answered to the court's satisfaction. Failing to do so can result in fines, penalties and even business failures, as daunting work stoppage challenges can occur when trying to satisfy legal information requests.
Whether or not an item is formally declared a record becomes irrelevant, as all information can be subject to the legal discovery process. This speaks clearly to the strategy of an integrated lifecycle platform that classifies both in-process documents as well as declared records against a file plan. With clear, demonstrable file coding and retention schedules for both physical and electronic information—at any time in its lifecycle—organizations can rapidly and appropriately respond to the discovery components of litigation while demonstrating they have a reliable and trustworthy method for the filing, coding and retention of their intellectual content. Relevant information to the discovery process can be quickly produced, while unrelated organizational assets are protected and appropriately omitted.
Beyond litigation challenges, many industries face regulations and standards surrounding records management. Proof of policies, methods and documentation procedures are strategic elements, but audit trails and access reports are key in this arena as well. Provisions related to FDA, SEC, Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA compliance expand the context of what types of information need to be tracked, and at what point in time. From the day that a letter is received, to the minute that an e-mail is sent, to the moment a procedure is edited, to the second a patient record is updated, an integrated system that manages all information related to the associated search, audit, publication, retention and disposal tasks of document-based information will help an organization maximize its accountability and minimize its risk.
Lifecycle Information Management is evolving as quickly as the role of the records manager. As new forms of content, context and communication emerge in today's e-business marketplace, records administrators must stay abreast of nascent standards and technologies surrounding documents and records. A consolidated platform for the lifecycle management of information assets—physical or electronic, in-process or final—is the technology bedrock upon which organizations build solid records management practices.
Government Lays Down the Law on Document Management
Throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, government, like its private-sector counterpart, developed PC- and server-based information architectures. Though these systems successfully served particular functions, there was also a need to communicate with other departments within or between ministries.
The Government of Canada recognized the need for a document management system that could liberate information that was stored and duplicated in multiple ministries and agencies. In the late 1990s, it tasked an interdepartmental committee to investigate such a system.
Cross-Ministry Access Document Access
CGI Group Inc. was chosen to design, build and implement a Records, Documents, Information Management System (RDIMS). Based on Hummingbird DM™ document management solution, RDIMS allows federal records employees to capture, manage and access valuable document-based information, regardless of origin.
"RDIMS allows users to classify their own records, search for records and submit retrieval requests from their desktops," said Richard Spratt, senior consultant at CGI. "Putting records into the hands of users extends benefits to people who formerly had no experience with record management."
Through RDIMS, word-processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, photos, forms, images and e-mail messages can all be created, archived and searched. An open architecture incorporates virtually any computing environment to manage and control network-based information.
To make the system available on as many desktops as possible and to support on-line government service evolution, RDIMS uses a Web client as its interface.
Policy and Regulatory Requirements
RDIMS manages the entire lifecycle of documents—from collection and creation to organization, use, storage and protection, to disposition through archive and disposition. The solution is adaptable to particular department workflow systems and allows documents to be routed in sequential, parallel or broadcast modes. By bringing information management into a single system, RDIMS enables the widest use of information, stops unnecessary collection of information, cross-references between hard-copy and soft-copy information and improves support for decision-makers. It also helps departments respond to policy and regulatory requirements, including access to information and privacy requests.
RDIMS also ensures that access is constrained by particular rules that correspond to public policy objectives and legal constraints such as the Canada Evidence Act, National Archives of Canada Act, Privacy Act and Access to Information Act. "Many legal rules assume the existence of signed, paper, original records. The law of evidence traditionally relies on paper records," said Spratt. "As more activities are carried out electronically, it's increasingly important that evidence of these activities is available to demonstrate the legal rights that flow from them."
Adaptability Within Day-to-Day Operations
As users or the legislative regime governing information use change, the system can adapt without interrupting day-to-day operations. Access privileges can be granted or constrained without the need to visit each desktop.
To compensate for the reliance on paper-based documentation and record keeping, CGI incorporated Hummingbird Imaging. Users can index and retrieve documents from a content-based search using optical character recognition (OCR) technology. The system can also integrate with legacy systems that do not have built-in record or document management capabilities.
While the system is built to integrate with existing and historical document management systems, its open architecture allows for rapid evolution as new processes, agencies and ministries are added.
One long-term goal set by the Government of Canada is the movement toward the complete electronic delivery of services (EDS). RDIMS is a core technology that will allow this to happen, as most public business processes involve the construction and evaluation of document-based information. RDIMS' open architecture allows new functionality necessary for EDS, such as Public Key Encryption, to be added gradually as it becomes more cost effective.
Based in Atlanta, Michele is a Product Marketing Manager for Hummingbird Ltd. Contact her at Michele.Kersey@Hummingbird.com or by phone at 770.698.8944.
Hummingbird Ltd. is a global enterprise software company employing 1,300 people in nearly 40 offices around the world. Hummingbird Enterprise creates a 360° view of content with products that are both modular and interoperable, including Document and Records Management, Portal and Knowledge Management, Business Intelligence and Data Integration. Please visit: Hummingbird