Automated records management with enforcement of a mandatory minimum retention record

Abstract

A records management system and method includes a file plan that has one or more segments associated with compliance data. Data stored in these segments of the file plan have a mandatory minimum retention period during which they cannot be modified or deleted. Additionally, the information about the mandatory minimum retention period may not be altered or removed.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present Application claims priority to and is a Continuation-in-Part of application Ser. No. 10 / 834,100 (Attorney Docket No. 69341-011) entitled ENTERPRISE CONTENT MANAGEMENT NETWORK-ATTACHED SYSTEM, the contents of which are incorporated herein, by reference, in their entirety.BACKGROUND [0002] 1. Field [0003] The present disclosure relates generally to records management and, more particularly, to automated records management in compliance with external rules. [0004] 2. Related Art [0005] Records management has become increasingly essential to the success and future of a business. Technological advances have given rise to greater reliance on electronic information in dispersed data systems. The amount of information to be gathered has also increased. For example, the Internet and its e-mail and web-based content gathering capabilities have aided the proliferation of data such as never before seen. The increasing amount of hard copy information has a...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0017] Another aspect of the present invention relates to a computer-based method for records management. In accordance with this method, an event-based minimum retention period for a stored data item is assigned to that item and an indication is made whether the event-based minimum retention period is unalterable. If unalterable then this method prevents alteration of the stored data item during the event-based minimum retention period by a user irrespective of data access privileges granted the user.

[0018] Yet another aspect of the present invention relates to a records management system that includes a content repository configured to access a stored data item having assigned thereto a mandatory minimum retention period. This content repository is further configured to prevent alteration of the stored data item during the mandatory minimum retention period.

Problems solved by technology

Emphasis on issues such as corporate governance have led to large-scale corporate liability and corporate failures.

Corporate non-compliance is a major source of corporate liability, resulting in increased complexity for records management systems.

However, current records management programs may not address the needs of today's businesses in that they have not been updated in accordance with technological advances.

For example, many of today's records management programs do not support or manage electronic records.

Current records management programs may also lack protections that promote the consistent application and enforcement of records management policies.

For example, some information technology systems may not be structured to support desired records management policies such as retention periods or retention events.

Moreover, records may be incorrectly classified due to differences of opinion among users that manually perform classification operations.

Records management programs may also lack timely retention and disposition policies.

Accordingly, where records are inaccessible or destroyed too soon, a business may be unable to produce such records in court to defend a claim, and such records may be costly to recreate if even possible.

Where records are kept longer than required, avoidable and costly storage costs may result.

Thus, even though a document or container may have been defined as having a certain minimum retention period, there was no secure enforcement of that period for all users of the system.

Such a system does not properly ensure compliance with retention policies or rules.

While the hardware-based storage solution described above enforces more data security than the records management software solution, it has its own deficiencies as well.

The differences can be summarized by recognizing that a storage solution is not as robust and varied as a records management software application.

Even these simple event-based retention policies cannot be defined within current storage management solutions.

Other, more complex, retention policies cannot be handled either by current hardware-based storage system solutions.

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