The case for federated records management (RM) is strong—leave records in their native repositories, but manage them centrally. That way, the records do not need to be physically moved into a single location, yet a single set of retention rules can be applied. Records are "virtualized" so that they all appear to be within the federated records management application, from which they can be searched, placed on hold, or acted on in other ways.

Although few companies have integrated the records management function across all their repositories, many are taking the first steps as part of an overall concern about RM and compliance.

"Records management, archiving and e-mail are all topics of great interest to organizations right now," says Kenneth Chin, research VP at Gartner. "Most companies have their information scattered throughout numerous locations, though, and getting them physically in one place is just not feasible. So there is a very strong pull toward federated records management systems."

Specialty materials manufacturer Rohm and Haas is a global enterprise spanning nearly 30 countries and employing more than 16,000 professionals. Its areas of business range from construction and transportation to household goods and electronics. The geographic and manufacturing diversity brings along a large set of compliance requirements. As a way of streamlining its discovery and audit capabilities, Rohm and Haas sought an electronic records management solution. The company focused initially on e-mail because of the large volume and critical nature of the content, which was not actively managed.

The company opted for a records management system based on IBM software. But much of the important work took place before any of the software was installed.

"We spent a long time creating a standards-based approach that met the requirements of users, records management and IT infrastructure," says Sandra Hostetter, program manager for electronic content management and retention at Rohm and Haas. During that time, Hostetter worked with a variety of stakeholders. "We wanted to make sure we did not break our employees’ current work processes when we implemented this approach," she explains.

The company obtained help from several outside sources in developing its RM system. The Huron Consulting Group, which has expertise in regulatory compliance, assisted Rohm and Haas in identifying regulations that apply to its business operations and in developing a process for implementing its policies in various company systems.

Rohm and Haas also worked with Integro, a consultancy that specializes in enterprise content management (ECM) for IBM platforms, to customize the Lotus Notes template so it could be used for records management purposes. Rohm and Haas subsequently selected a joint IBM/Integro solution from a group of competitive bidders, an option chosen because it met the requirements for the company’s standards-based approach. That technology now manages the e-mail for Rohm and Haas’ 6,000 North American employees.

E-mails are classified by users into one of three groups: transitory, work space and records. The transitory e-mails are deleted after 60 days; the work space e-mails have an indefinite lifetime, but users have a finite space in which to store them; and records are maintained according to their retention schedule. An informational copy of the record remains in the work space for up to 90 days, and afterward it automatically truncates to a link to the official record stored in IBM Content Manager. Integro E-Mail Manager, which is integrated with IBM Records Manager, moves the record through several steps until it comes under the governance of the RM system.

Eventually, Rohm and Haas plans to augment the user-designated approach for records with some degree of auto-classification.

"We would like to move in the direction of building in some information behind the scenes so our employees don’t need to make all the decisions," says Hostetter, "but the business rules can be very complicated for an automated system." In some cases, for example, metadata associated with a document might be insufficient for an automated system to determine if it’s a record.

The next step will be to establish a records management strategy for other repositories, using the federating capability of IBM Records Manager. Rohm and Haas has a vast range of information storage options that are used by its employees, and hopes to bring all of those into a unified RM system eventually.

"For example, we could establish a Lotus Quickr collaboration environment for a project," Hostetter explains, "and then all documents using the project’s template would automatically be assigned the proper record category and corresponding retention period. Just by using the appropriate document template, users would be making a record category decision without having to actually make a conscious choice."

Rohm and Haas has made a major commitment to managing its records proactively, but reaching the final destination will take time. "We are still learning and refining our process," Hostetter says. "This is a long-range strategy."

The major driver for centralized management is compliance, according to Craig Rhinehart, director of compliance and discovery for products and markets at IBM ECM. However, cost reduction is a desirable byproduct that results from not having to manage multiple repositories individually. In addition, the business value of records should not be overlooked.

"Records management by definition has the most important information within a company," Rhinehart points out. "Being able to mine this information across the enterprise can produce enormous value."

Increasing efficiency

In the litigation-intensive tobacco industry, records management has been a major concern for a considerably longer time than in many other industries. "We have been under broad litigation retention holds for many years," says John Reilly, associate general counsel, litigation, at Lorillard Tobacco, the third largest tobacco company in the United States. "As a result, we’ve had procedures in place for a long time to ensure that we retain potentially relevant records and that we comply with our discovery obligations."

To make its discovery process and other RM functions more efficient, Lorillard sought an electronic records management system, and selected CA Records Manager (formerly known as MDY’s FileSurf) from CA. The solution is now used to manage Lorillard’s e-mail. "We found that CA Records Manager is one of the few products that works well with Lotus Notes," Reilly says, "which is a necessary feature for us. It is also simpler to implement and use than competitive products.

Lorillard has been evaluating electronic record management technologies for several years, waiting for the technology to mature. "Getting into a technology too soon can be a problem," Reilly says, "but we are happy with the timing of our implementation."

CA Records Manager is being used at Lorillard to centralize the management of e-mails on multiple servers. Business e-mails that are declared into the system cannot be deleted or altered, and are maintained in a central repository that can be easily accessed and searched by users.

"Only our administrators can change the status of a record," Reilly adds, "but departmental users with the appropriate permissions can access a record easily, even after it has been deleted from the user’s inbox."

Lorillard is looking into using CA Records Manager to manage its paper records, which are now handled in a separate database. "We also have a growing number of complex databases and systems," Reilly says, "and we have been applying RM policies and rules to those databases and systems in a systematic fashion. Expanding our use of CA Records Manager would further that goal."

The underlying premise of CA Records Manager is to provide an infrastructure-agnostic approach to governing all unstructured content across the enterprise, according to Reed Irvin, VP for product management at CA. "Some interesting things are happening in the workplace, as far as validating this approach," he says. Customers do not want to add a new repository dedicated to records management; they want a better way to manage the ones they already have.

"A lot of content exists outside managed environments," he continues, "some of which might appropriately be classified as records." In addition, if it becomes more readily accessible, that content could also have business value. "This federated approach to records management—centralizing policy and management for all categories of information—can both dramatically improve efficiency and reveal untapped business opportunities," Irvin says.

Enabling federation

Records management solutions enable federation in a variety of ways. In each case, though, data needs to be accessed and presented, and metadata needs to be extracted and normalized.

PathBuilder, a content integration and migration solution from Vital Path, evolved from custom software developed for electronic records management by pharmaceutical companies. It performs data migration, synchronization and virtualization. Because of its virtualization feature, PathBuilder can be used to support federated records management. Vital Path has now partnered with leading ECM companies such as EMC, Oracle and Open Text  to provide certified APIs that link content from those repositories to records management systems.

"Generally, content management systems have been developed and deployed based on line-of-business needs throughout an enterprise," says Jay Rothe, VP of business development at Vital Path. "They were not geared for enterprise functions such as records management."

PathBuilder connects records management solutions to the underlying content management systems. Because it is fully integrated via APIs, PathBuilder can invoke the functionality of the content management systems. For example, when a federated search is done, PathBuilder passes along the request to each content management system, which then carries out the search.

Rules can also be invoked to enact workflow or trigger an event. If a hold is placed on a record, PathBuilder can change the permissions within an ECM so the document cannot be modified or deleted. Because the interactivity is bi-directional, a record that is changed in the ECM is immediately seen by PathBuilder.

"Some of our customers are using PathBuilder for discovery on 40 different repositories," Rothe says. "Compared with having to search each one, the efficiencies of this approach are substantial."
The nature of information management has changed in the past few years, according to Chin. "You really need to build a cross-functional team," he says. "Legal, financial, IT and users all need to come together."
And for the information itself, it’s not enough for IT to build the infrastructure, Chin adds, "CIOs need to look at the actual content and help decide what to do with it, in cooperation with
the team."