Records Management or Retention Management

Content on servers has gotten out of control. Users at all levels of the enterprise create, send and store all types of different corporate content throughout a variety of systems within the organization —all of which is subject to legal discovery and regulatory requirements. The USA is a litigious country, and federal, state and local governments are not shy about cranking out new rules and regulations for the storing and availability of many kinds of information. Recently a series of new federal rules on discovery and retention were passed and will take effect this December.

One would think that conventional records management systems would be doing the heavy lifting to address the problem. But the adoption of records management is going too slowly — particularly since records management plays such a vital role in Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and other compliance initiatives. Many factors have slowed adoption, such as lack of budget; the time required to enlist and mobilize the stakeholders in legal, compliance, business units and IT; and low awareness of what records management entails.

The alternative, known as retention management, gives organizations many tangible benefits beyond traditional records management, including:

• Prevention of accidental or intentional deletion of information required for litigation or audits
• Automation of retention management based on business rules
• Protection of content from exposure to unauthorized recipients
• An efficient, single-source discovery and lockdown, which reduces major costs
• Protection against harmful and risky information leaks