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Microsoft Document and Records Management

I received an email from a chipper PR type pitching me on “information governance.” After a bit of “who are you” and “why are you calling me”, I realized that “information governance is marketing talk for document management. I am fighting a losing battle as I age. I know that there are different approaches to document management. If I want to keep track of documents, I use a document management system. If I have to keep track of documents for a nuclear power plant, I use a records management system. There’s a lot of talk about “information governance,” but I don’t have a clear sense of what is under that umbrella term

To confuse me even more, I happened across a document called “Application Lifecycle Management.” The idea is that SharePoint applications have a sunrise, noon, and sunset. I will not talk about squalls, earthquakes, and landslides in this environmental metaphor for SharePoint applications. You can find this information on the MSDN.

I wanted to know how Microsoft Fast search fit into this lifecycle management. I didn’t find much information, but I did locate two documents. One was titled “Introducing Document Management in SharePoint 2010” and the other was “Introducing Records Management in SharePoint 2010”. Both flowed from the keyboards of the Microsoft Enterprise Content Management Team Blog.

Okay, now I was going to learn how Microsoft perceived Document and Records Management.

Document Management

What about document management? Since the fine management performance at Enron and Tyco, among other companies, document management has become more important. The rules are not yet at the nuclear power plant repair level of stringency, but companies have to keep track of documents. The write up affirms that SharePoint used to be a bit recalcitrant when managing documents. Here’s the passage I noted:

As we looked at how our customers were starting to use the 2007 system’s DM features, we noticed an interesting trend: These features were not just part of managed document repository deployments. Indeed, the traditional DM features were getting heavy usage in average collaborative team sites as well. Customers were using them to apply policy and structure as well as gather insights from what otherwise would have been fairly unmanaged places. SharePoint was being using to pull more and more typically unstructured silos into the ECM world.

Those pesky customers! The Document Management write up runs down features in the new product. These include more metadata functions, including metadata a a “primary navigation tool.” Here’s a screen shot. Notice that there is no search box.

So much for finding information when the metadata may not be what the user anticipated. Obviously a document management system stores documents, transformations of documents like the old iPhrase, or pointers to documents or components of documents that reside “out there” on the network. The write up shifts gears to the notion of “an enterprise wiki and a traditional enterprise document repository.”

Records Management

The Records Management write up did not tackle the nuclear power plant type of records management. The write up presented some dot points about records management; for example, retention and reports. Ah, reports. Quite useful when a cooling pipe springs a leak. One needs to know who did what when, with what materials, what did the problem look like before the repair, what did it look like after the repair, which manufacturer provided the specific material, etc.

The point of the write up struck me as “the power of metadata” or indexing. Now the hitch in the git along is that multiple information objects have to be tagged in a consistent manner. After all, when the pipe springs a leak, the lucky repair crew, dosimeters on their coveralls, need to read and see the information objects related to the problem. Yep, that means engineering drawings, photos, and sometimes lab tests, purchase orders, and handwritten notes inserted in the file.

My conclusion is that Microsoft content management, regardless of “flavor”, may be similar to Coca-Cola’s New Coke. I am not sure it will do what the company and the user expect.

Stepping Back

I know that thousands, possible millions of customers will use SharePoint for document and records management. I want to point out that using SharePoint to manage a Web site can be a tough job. My view is that until I see one of these systems up and running in client organization, I am skeptical that SharePoint has the moxie to deliver either of these functions in a stable, affordable, scalable solution.

Even more interesting will be my testing search and retrieval in both of these systems. With zero reference to search and a great dependence on the semi magic word taxonomy, I think some users won’t have a clue where a particular document is and will have to hunt, which is time consuming and frustrating for some. In my experience, lawyers billing clients really thrive on hunting. Everyday business professionals may not be into this sport.

From a practical point of view, two posts, each built on a single platform with feature differences confused me. Is not a single write up with one table with three columns another way to explain these two versions of SharePoint.

In short, more confusion exists within the mind of the addled goose. The content management “experts” have created some pretty spectacular situations in organizations with SharePoint. Now it is off to the Sarbanes Oxley and Department of Energy school of “information governance.” Will SharePoint get an A or an F? Will SharePoint shaped to the rigors of document management and records management face a high noon or a Norwegian winter’s sunset?

Stephen E Arnold, February 18, 2010

No one paid me to write this. Since I mentioned nuclear energy, I will report my doing work for nothing to the DOE. I prefer the building next to White Flint Mall, which is now a white elephant in some ways.

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