SharePoint 2010: The best RM product in the world?

Submitted by Russ Edelman on April 19, 2010 - 11:32 AM

Microsoft's first foray into Records Management with SharePoint 2007 was an interesting adventure that left many people gawking and others applauding. The gawkers were those who looked at the lightweight nature of SharePoint 2007 and understandably gave it the literal and proverbial thumbs down. In comparison, the applauders acknowledged SharePoint 2007’s RM weaknesses, yet they recognized a critical piece to the puzzle which was uniquely provided by SharePoint. That piece…adoption! Fast forward to SharePoint 2010 and substantial steps have been taken to quell the naysayers and despite those product improvements, the gawking naysayers will still say it simply doesn’t pass muster for the “records management enlightened”. I’m here to politely say…”wake-up!”. The reason why SharePoint 2010 is arguably the best RM product in the world is not necessarily because of its rich and in-depth RM capabilities. No, it once again can and will ring the bell in that people in companies are actually using it to store mounds of content. Unlike the dedicated (or integrated with SharePoint) RM solutions, that usage will drive adoption and with adoption, you are then able to finally make some substantive progress towards RM compliance. Before diving into some feature details that demonstrate how Microsoft has put some more RM meat on the bones, let me still toy with this metaphorical level of abstraction (big words – yes, but I’m almost done with this part!). First, imagine for a moment that the world of Records Management is separated into two segments; the Front End and the Back End. Generally speaking, most RM elitists judge the power and strength of RM by sizing up the Back End. Capabilities such as hierarchical retention plans, support for physical and electronic records, space management, DOD (and more) compliance and on and on and on are all part of that Back end. In comparison, the Front End is typically the user interface that impacts the users. The Front End being the mechanism by which people (or processes) can declare records, review documents ready for disposition and easily comply with Legal Holds. There are other needs here as well; however, you get it. Second, I would argue that most electronic (and possibly physical) records management initiatives fail or at best reach a mediocre level of penetration. Why, because the Front End is entirely too burdensome for people to incorporate into the regular work patterns. Yes, the legacy Back End ERM products are all-powerful; however, that is not where the majority of failure occurs. In fact, in speaking with a number of highly regarded RM experts, most agreed that there are few truly successful ERM projects. So, now let’s return to SharePoint. Specifically, SharePoint’s unfair competitive advantage is that people are genuinely using it. As a result, grounded retention plans, declaration processes and legal holds are naturally embedded into the product and users are able to effortlessly comply with a rich Records Management program without even knowing that they are doing so. In fact, I would argue that a successful RM program can only be attained when you drive it through a comprehensive ECM initiative. In this case, RM success comes as a by-product of ECM success. As for SharePoint 2010’s new RM capabilities, they are potent and note-worthy. First, Microsoft now allows you to employ “in-place” records management. With SP 2007, the Out-Of-The-Box (OOTB) capabilities mandated the use of the “Records Center” which is a special SharePoint site specifically designated for RM. With SP 2010, you now have choices which include use of the Records Center or alternatively you can declare records in the “Collaborate” team sites. Additionally, you can move the document to the Records Center and maintain a link in the current Collaborate site location. Second, Legal Holds can now be applied on collaboration sites as compared to only the Records Center. There is also a greatly improved declaration process that can now be employed for Records as well as “Non-Records”. And we are just scratching the surface. SharePoint 2010 doesn’t really handle paper any better nor does it perform space planning. However, it does set the stage for a very strong Front End based Records Management tool.