Document Management Implementation: Page 2 of 9

DM systems, which we focused on in our RFI, integrate with word processors to provide an infrastructure that classifies, stores, controls access to, searches and retrieves documents. What's a document? Anything drawn up to answer or respond to business needs, like a contract or a letter to a client. DM works with various storage media, including nonrewritable disks. DM even integrates with systems that manage records.

Conventionally, a record is evidence of a business transaction. Laws and regulations require enterprises to identify records, classify them and retain them for defined periods. For example, employee records are kept in perpetuity, while tax and business records are retained for at least seven years. RM systems give enterprises a facility to declare content or documents as records. Once declared, they can be classified according to a file plan or schema. However, the long-standing definition of a record is changing because of technology advances, new legislation and complex litigation. It can be data, in any format, as defined by legislation or a court of law.

In the past, questions about whether a document qualified as a record were debated in operational circles and laid to rest by a records manager. Now that's a discussion for the boardroom, thanks to new laws that apply an expanding definition to the format and scope of records. UETA (the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act) and the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act of 2000 stretch a record's format to any information "created, generated, sent, communicated, received or stored by electronic means." HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and the FDA further expand the scope of a record. Under HIPAA, health-care providers must retain documents relating to disclosures of patient health information for six years. And the FDA requires pharmaceutical companies to maintain electronic records and signatures to ensure authenticity and confidentiality.

SOX, in particular, has generated attention because it provides for stiff criminal and civil penalties for noncompliance. In a nutshell, SOX requires public companies to treat all transactions and correspondence that relate to financial reporting and audits as records and retain them for seven years. Although this may not appear difficult, think of the various methods of communication your employees use, including e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms and voicemail. Maintaining these records over their life cycles is no small task. Without a good method, it would be madness.

Many enterprises think they're immune to the changing definition of a record, but they aren't exempt from civil litigation. Under the rules of civil procedure, courts can define records relevant to litigation and compel their discovery. Enterprises must supply copies or a description of all documents opponents may use to support their position. Failure to disclose such information can lead to sanctions. Further, litigants are entitled to inspect documents, maps, photographs, correspondence and other materials relevant to a claim.