WHAT IS RECORDS MANAGEMENT?

Records Management refers to the process of identifying, classifying, archiving, preserving, and destroying written information. Records Management is a primarily organizational task for ensuring compliance with policies that describe proper methods of retaining and destroying all types of business-related information (records).

This includes both paper-based objects as well as electronic information. Electronic formats include unstructured documents stored on a hard drive, e-mails, rows of data in a database table, and many other formats.

The most important property of a record is its immutability during preservation, storage, and use. This extends from the time it is created or captured until it is destroyed or transferred to another system like a national archive.

EACH COMPANY HAS ITS OWN POLICIES

Policies that stipulate which documents and information must be retained, how long they must be retained, or when they must be destroyed are determined for each company upon the basis of internal and external rules set forth in contracts, legal requirements, and regulations.

Policies differ among countries but also among industries.

In addition to these rules, there are others that regulate access to data to ensure that only authorized employees of a company may view sensitive data.
Examples of material that must be retained (without revisions) for a specific length of time are paper-based documents or e-mails that have business or tax relevance, including quotations/proposals, orders, contracts, invoices, or delivery certificates. Objects that must be destroyed are subject to data protection stipulations. These contain primarily personal information like job application forms, employee reviews, or insurance documents.

RECORDS MANAGEMENT AND COMPLIANCE

This places records management within the context of compliance. It is growing in importance, particularly as an increasing number of serious violations of business rules and data protection stipulations are made public.

Records management is an ongoing and continuous activity for firms. Regulations regarding these matters continue to evolve as new applications are introduced and old technologies are replaced. Accordingly, internal corporate processes must be adapted as the document management environment changes.

Technical Details

The standard version of SAPERION offers a variety of document management functions, including non-revisable filing, security features to ensure that information is displayed only to authorized persons, and secure deletion, including a recycle bin function.

The Records Management option augments these features with the functions described below.

• The ability of Records Managers to manage policies
• SAP archiving through ArchiveLink
• Categorization of document lifecycles into fixed and event-based retention
• Subsequent deadline adjustments and changes
• e-discovery and prevention of deletion during a legal dispute
• Restoration or secure, manual deletion with the recycle bin function
• Automated deletion and destruction
• Entries into protocol tables provide an audit trail
• Administration of even paper-based documents
• Administration of records in external systems
• Support for a variety of platforms