Records Management systems are becoming ever more important in their role of protecting against risks that might result from litigation or disaster. RM systems are often a key component of a Compliance strategy, such as those mandated by regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, FDA-CRP 21, and others. In the United States and increasingly in other countries, public and private organizations are using Records Management systems that are based on the 5015.2 standard.
At the heart of 5015.2 is the File Plan concept. This is a taxonomy or a method for classifying documents. File Plans are pre-defined classification schemes that are adopted by an entire organization. Normal users of the RM system are not able to change the structure of the File Plan. This kind of rigid classification is similar to the classification hierarchies for content used by Web Search Engines like Yahoo! or Google.
Within RM, when a document is classified as a record, document classification and retention periods for the record are assigned based on the File Plan. File plans are also often sometimes referred to as Business Classification Schemes (BCS).
The main purpose for having a file plan is to ensure that document/records are filed in a consistent manner. As a corollary to this, consistent filing should improve the success of being able to retrieve documents managed this way. As part of the File Plan, documents are also assigned document life-cycle retention information.
Typically File Plan information within the electronic RM system is maintained as additional metadata associated with the document. Conceptually the File Plan is laid out hierarchical folders, similar to the directory structure for files stored on a PC. An example File Plan can be seen here as used by the EPA.
Folders within a File Plan represent more than just organizational structure. Documents when declared as records and stored in folders of the RM File Plan will inherit properties of the folder that include user access permissions, business metadata and retention policies.
Declaring records then is the process of classifying the document within the File Plan. Once classified, documents could then be located by navigating the File Plan directory-like structure or by a full text index search that can be made across all documents in the File Plan.
