A Framework for EDMS/ERMS Integration

Information Management Journal, Nov/Dec 2004 by Sprehe, J Timothy

* Each application server requires application integration.

* Records protection becomes a function of the application and organization that hosts the system wherein the records reside.

Software vendors are prepared to offer solutions for any of the three approaches outlined, depending on the situation in which a given industry finds itself. In general, the industry is moving toward the unified EDMS/ERMS approach as a single-product solution. Stand-alone ERMSs are disappearing from the marketplace. Moreover, the integrated EDMS/ERMS itself is moving toward ECM, which entails EDMS/ERMS integrated with whatever other software systems create documents and/or records. These systems span a wide spectrum: financial management, human resources management, litigation support, image management, CAD-CAM, and many others.

The message of TR48 is that any enterprise successfully achieving an integrated EDMS/ERMS will go through the processes of creating a common EDMS/ERMS reference model and developing a common set of EDMS/ERMS metadata in some shape or manner. Enterprises that founder on the path to integration will ultimately trace the causes of their difficulties to the lack of a shared map for EDMS/ERMS and the deficiencies in metadata linking the two.

For More Information

ANSI/AIIM TR 2-1998. Glossary of Document Technologies. Washington, D.C.: AIIM International, 1998.

The Black Forest Group. Requirements for Document Management Services Across the Global Business Enterprise. AIIM International, April 1999.

The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. Available at www.niso.org/standards (accessed 27 September 2004).

Hollingsworth, David. "The Workflow Reference Model." Hampshire, U.K.: The Workflow Management Coalition. January 1995. Available at www.wfmc.org/standards/docs/tc003vll.pdf (accessed 27 September 2004).

ISO 15489, Information and Documentation - Records Management, Part 1: General, Part 2: Guidelines. Available at www.iso.org/iso/en/CombinedQueryResult.Combined-QueryResult?queryString=lSO 15489 (accessed 27 September 2004).

Joint Interoperability Test Command, Records Management Application. Available at http://jitc.fhu.disa.mil/recmgt/index.htm (accessed 27 September 2004).

Model Requirements for the Management of Electronic Records (MoReq). MoReq Specification. March 2001. Available at http://europa.eu.int/JSPO/ida/export/ftles/en/635.pdf (accessed 27 September 2004)

U.K. Public Records Office, Requirements for Electronic Records Management Systems, 2002. Available at www.pro.gov.uk/recordsmanagement/erecords/2002reqs/ (accessed 27 September 2004).

Open Document Management API (ODMA). Available at www.infonuovo.com/odma/ (accessed 27 September 2004).

Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) Specifications. Available at www.webdav.org/specs/ (accessed 27 September 2004).

J. Timothy Sprehe is president of Sprehe Information Management Associates, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm offering services in electronic records management systems and enterprise content management systems. He may be contacted at jtsprehe@jtsprehe.com.