Understanding the ERM Challenge

Pervasive and Invisible
Second, ERM needs to be pervasive, touching content authors and business managers, not just records administrators. And it must enable all users to access records—to store, retrieve, and when necessary, declare and classify them—from the same places they interact with and manage ordinary content; that is, from their enterprise content management client, such as Microsoft Outlook.

Pervasive records management implies invisibility. Records management policies need to be expressed in rules applied automatically, without requiring users to formally declare each content item a record.

Unified with Enterprise Content Management
A practical approach to enterprise records management incorporates record attributes, such as retention periods and DoD 5015-required metadata, as part of the enterprise content management system itself. Then content can be managed as records in place, without moving or copying content to a special repository that would require a redundant infrastructure for security, storage management, access control, search and the rest.

Today, enterprise content management systems can provide a unified management infrastructure for disparate content types and overlay that infrastructure with management applications and workflows specific to each type of content. Modular The business requirements for enterprise-wide records management are diverse. ERM software must be flexible, exposing its basic functions as independent modules that can be implemented according to business need. This enables a phased approach to records management, rather than an all-or-nothing deployment. 

EMC Documentum Records Management Solution

EMC Documentum Records Manager 5.3 uses a modular approach and is deeply integrated with the Documentum enterprise content platform and applications. Documentum Records Manager is a layer of functionality that sits on top of Documentum Content Server and core content management architecture: it uses the same database, user roles and groups, security model, development tools and APIs as the Documentum repository and other content management applications. It is accessible from the standard Documentum WebTop client environment, the Documentum Client for Outlook, or any custom client built on the Documentum WDK. Records Manager extends Documentum content management platform capabilities with records management features such as corporate file plans, retention policies and file- and field-level security.

The unique, modular architecture of this new release breaks ERM into discrete components that can be implemented in support of specific records management business needs, rather than forcing an all-or-nothing deployment.

A core module, Documentum Retention Policy Services, works invisibly to bind retention policies to selected folders in the Documentum repository. Documents inherit the policy automatically, with no user intervention. Retention Policy Services can stand alone, providing lightweight records management, or form part of a comprehensive solution.

Records Manager is fully DoD 5015.2-compliant, but breaks apart record containment policy (which parts of the repository are managed as records), records naming policy (required by the file plan), and records security policy (including support for holds and advanced "mark-ups" for military/diplomatic security), so they can be implemented as needed.

Documentum Retention Policy Services and Records Manager support all record types. They can manage any kind of electronic document natively, including email, as well as manage physical records through seamless integration with the industry-leading physical records management solution from OmniRIM. This integration provides a single Documentum interface for browsing, searching, viewing and declaring electronic and non-electronic records.

Managing records in place in a unified repository lowers costs and reduces complexity by eliminating redundant infrastructure, including storage. Records Manager can leverage EMC Documentum Content Storage Services to optimize the migration to cost-effective storage (a key feature of EMC's information lifecycle management initiative). It also leverages the enterprise-class features of the Documentum platform, including performance scalability and localization in six languages.

For extended security, the solution now integrates with Documentum Information Rights Management (IRM) Services. Records Manager and IRM Services extend the policies defined by Retention Policy Services, so internally created records will retain policies even after leaving the repository or going beyond the corporate firewall. Documents, individuals, and organizations are protected from both internal and external threats.

ERM must span content-type boundaries and the vast range of business requirements for informal and formal records. It must be comprehensive and pervasive, yet flexible in its implementation. For some users it must be invisible, with policies applied automatically based on business rules, while for others it must allow fine-grained control over record declaration, classification, and file plan design, including record containment, naming, and security.

EMC Documentum Records Manager 5.3 provides these capabilities. Records are managed in place, leveraging existing metadata and user familiarity with the Documentum environment, as well as the proven enterprise-class scalability and complementary content management services the platform provides.