Hi All,

This has been an interesting discussion.  I am currently  working with a Client in the Victorian Government in Australia, and we have been implementing an ECMS in SharePoint 2010, and will be moving to SharePoint 2013 shortly.  The ECMS is the corporate recordkeeping system, so I designed the architecture to comply with the Public Record Office of Victoria standards.   We use a tool called AvePoint to manage their records management obligations of capture, control, security and disposal.  AvePoint recently obtained VERS compliance, and is available worldwide.

The architecture is designed around managing information at the lowest level – the document and is proactive rather than reactive.  Content types have been mapped, and will continue to be mapped when new content types are created, to metadata, security, templates and disposal.  We do not use a BCS but instead use libraries based on functional activities and securities .   AvePoint manages the disposal based on a last accessed, (viewed) or last modified, (viewed and edited) set of rules, these rules are the approved disposal authorities.  This means that if a retention period is 7 years after last accessed, then AvePoint deletes the item 7 years after its last access.   AvePoint has an E-discovery module which allows disposal to be halted in instances of litigation, FOI, or government inquiry.  We have also set up rules to cover records not covered by an approved disposal authority.

Our Client is happy with the design as it does not try to force an unnatural classification onto the user, and instead allows for a more organic collection of information, where context is created both by the User and in the metadata.  Metadata is compliant with both the AGLS, and VERS metadata standards as they apply to the Client.

Happy to discuss this approach off-line with anyone who is interested

Regards

R Kaczynski

Rosemary Kaczynski MRIM MIIM

PRINCIPAL

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT CONSULTANCY