In 2006, AIIM and ARMA published an ANSI Technical Report, ANSI/AIIM/ARMA TR48-2006, Revised Framework for Integration of Electronic Document Management Systems and Electronic Records Management Systems. In this report, subject experts from document management and records management identified the features in a typical EDMS or ERMS application and then mapped the overlap between the two systems. In a general sense, the technical report shows that there is a good amount of overlap between EDMS and ERMS applications. The areas of greatest distinction are in capture which leans itself to EDMS, Records and Asset management which leans to ERMS, publishing, aggregation and syndication which leans more toward EDMS, and workflow management again leaning more toward EDMS features.

As the report points out, the metadata about the content provides another layer of distinction between an ERMS and an EDMS. This report takes a detailed look at where the metadata is assigned whether an EDMS or ERMS is assigning the metadata. The metadata is the one area that differentiates EDMS from ERMS.

While the technical report does not specifically identify a file plan or structure, it does provide guidance about the metadata for an EDMS and ERMS. This report may be helpful to those of you who are integrating EDMS and ERMS in your organizations.