Information Governance: Records Management (Finally) Grows Up

Lifecycle management: The lifecycle management module is deployed locally throughout the enterprise and allows the organization to manage records within an unlimited number of file plans across business units. The file plans are not independent silos. They are rather an integral part of the IG program and its management. This is achieved through the seamless integration of these file plans with the record class definitions of the master classification and the jurisdiction-specific policies deployed within them.

Integration connectors: Integration connectors enforce the governance lifecycle actions on content located within the applications and repositories where the content resides. This makes governance in-place possible.

IG dashboards: IG dashboards provide an up-to-date view of governance-related key performance and risk indicators.

Governance in-place—a critical breakthrough: Governing information in-place is to apply controls on content without forcing migration of that content to another repository. For practical reasons, information in large enterprises should only be governed in-place. Considering the vast amount of information that large organizations have, it is neither conceivable nor justifiable to migrate all corporate information into one repository; and migrating all content to a single repository may not be permitted due to limitations on information transfer across borders and jurisdictions.

Not every application containing information can act as a "system of record." For a record to be governed it has to become immutable, and applications that cannot apply such controls cannot act as governed repositories. They can still be used as sources of records for the IG platform. Governing information in-place is performed using governance-enabling connectors that integrate the governance platform with the repositories. These connectors provide the following functionality:

• Catalog: Declare items in the application as records, create entries in a file plan that corresponds to these "items" and lock these items in the repository;
• Govern: Apply governance controls to items in-place (retention, disposition, holds, security, etc.);
• Store: For applications acting as sources, migrate items to the IG platform archive;
• Search: Perform searches on governed items from the file plans; and
• Access: Access governed items from the file plans.

The diagram on Page S5 Downloadable PDF, illustrates this capability.

Federated RM applies the limited lifecycle management functionality of RM applications to unstructured content in multiple ECM repositories. Governing information in-place takes that concept to the next level. It ensures that all governance controls are applied to structured and unstructured content located in all records repositories—including all facets of information lifecycle management and the needs of multiple jurisdictions.

IG platforms are a "commercially available" reality today with real world implementations at major corporations. These enterprise platforms are easier to implement than RM solutions originally intended for departmental deployments, and are at the same time more effective and more economical in the long run. These commercially available platforms are also more economical and more sustainable than home-grown custom-built governance solutions.