Before getting into the details of how Alfresco implements Records Management, this first chapter presented an overview of general Records Management concepts and the benefits that can be achieved by using Records Management.
In this chapter, we covered:
The meaning of a record and the lifecycle of a record
The high penalties that could be imposed due to inadequate Records Management
The difference between Document and Records Management
The benefits of Records Management
We've seen that records are documents that have been used when making a business decision, a transaction, or a communication of a policy. A Records Management System manages the complete lifecycle of a record, from its creation and declaration, through its retention period, and ultimately to its final disposition, which typically is either permanent archival or destruction.
Software Applications that are designed to handle Records Management are called Electronic Records Management (ERM) systems. ERM systems can greatly speed and automate Records Management. They are especially well suited for managing large volumes of electronic data, like e-mail, which organizations now are forced to deal with.
Records Management helps organizations achieve compliance with financial regulations, audit requirements, and e-discovery requests. It enables accountability and transparency and ensures the authenticity and trustworthiness of the records being managed.
Despite ever-changing software and hardware technologies, a Records Management system preserves your records, which are important business assets, for either a short-term or potentially a very long-term, based on assigned retention schedules.
Records Management facilitates organizational efficiencies. Information can be found and shared more easily. Records Management removes unneeded or obsolete records, freeing up storage space.
Records Management supports risk management, keeping your organization prepared, for anything from an e-discovery request to disaster continuity.
Furthermore, Records Management security provides fine-grained access control rights for your data so that people have access to only the information that they are privileged to see.
The benefits of Records Management are many, but one of the most compelling reasons for implementing Records Management is that it's simply good business.
In the next chapter, we will start looking at Alfresco in detail. In that chapter, we will see how to install both Alfresco and the Records Management module.