Friday, February 24, 2012

Autonomy Records Management Suite including ControlPoint Review

Autonomy's software powers the full spectrum of mission-critical enterprise applications including pan-enterprise search, customer interaction solutions, information governance, end-to-end eDiscovery, records management, archiving, business process management, Web content management, Web optimization, rich media management, and video and audio analysis.

At the heart of Autonomy's Records Management solutions is the Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL). IDOL forms a conceptual and contextual understanding of all electronic information - structured and unstructured - and enables computers to process information like humans do by reading, watching, and listening to it.

IDOL’s advanced analytics automate the processing of this content regardless of its format, location, or language. IDOL sits above an organization’s data to perform keyword and conceptual search, speech analytics, audio and video search, and automated, intelligent categorization. IDOL’s ability to extract meaning from information through an understanding of both the content and context of data allows Autonomy to enrich extracted data based on the knowledge already held within the organization. IDOL is the common platform for all Autonomy eDiscovery, archive, information management, and information governance solutions.

Autonomy Records Management automates information governance and the retention and disposition of records by understanding the meaning of all information across an enterprise regardless of data type, language, or repository through the power of Autonomy IDOL. Autonomy Records Management can automatically create taxonomies, records categories, or file plans based on the corpus of data, import an existing taxonomy, or allow users to train the records categories or file plan so that IDOL can automatically identify content across all repositories in an organization that should be managed as records. This functionality not only solves the task of identifying records in legacy repositories, but also automatically categorizes of new content, eliminating the need to train the user in manual management processes.

Once the records are identified, the Autonomy Records Management solution can be used to apply the most appropriate retention policy based on business value, regulatory requirement or relevance to a legal matter, or a combination of these. Policies can be defined, monitored, and enforced on a global basis to comply with country/jurisdictional-specific variants in retention policy, privacy laws, and legal citations and to support global certifications such as DoD 5015.2, TNA 2002 and VERS and adherence to the requirements of standards such as ISO15489.

Autonomy has been awarded the US Federal Government’s SmartBUY contract for Electronic Document and Records Management software, enabling e-government and helping to meet the goals of the President's Management Agenda - a strategy designed to improve the management of the federal agencies.

This product is covered in much more detail in the AIIM Product Study on ERM Systems, a 200-page comparative guide to records management products from 21 vendors.

Autonomy Records Management Suite including ControlPoint Review:

'via Blog this'

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Dreaming of the Documentum Community and Conferences

Dreaming of the Documentum Community and Conferences:

I had a dream that I was at the upcoming  Documentum Developer Conference and TechSet next month here in the DC area. (Seriously, I did. Was a little strange, even for me.) I was wandering around, saying hi to people I knew, sharing a quick drink. Soon enough, the next set of sessions started and everyone went to go learn while I went off to….no idea actually as I then woke up.


I decided to take the dream as a sign that I needed to write about the event. Why? Because this reflects a return to something that was a regular occurrence back before EMC took over the conferences. It deserves recognition.


Oh, and I plan on swinging by to say hello and want to see you there.



The Resurgence of the Documentum Developer


One of my early complaints about the merging of the Documentum Developer Conference and Momentum into EMC World was the overlap. I had to choose between the business/product sessions and the Developer sessions. There was also an issue of sending everyone to the same conference. People couldn’t very well send the entire team to the same conference as someone had to keep the lights on back home.


The biggest issue was the overall reduction in content. As I observed after the 2009 EMC World, the total number of sessions were down almost 50%. Even now, if you went to EMC World last year, there was a shortage of technical sessions (though it was better than 2010).


EMC seems to have finally heard and they are having a one day Developer conference followed by a three day TechSet allowing a deep-dive into the more in-demand technology areas. Those areas:



  • xCP Advanced: xCP is all about configuration, but there are a lot of tips and tricks to be learned to really take full advantage of the platform. If you are thinking of getting certified, or just live with this tech, you should settle in and attend.

  • D2 Configuration: D2is new and offers great potential. WDK interfaces look old and people are noticing. I wish I could attend this one so I could learn what is going on behind all of the hype.

  • Captiva Dispatcher: Captiva sells well and I was seeing a shortage of experts out there last fall. Research shows that the paper-free world is important but there is work to be done.

  • Document Sciences: Nobody out there knows this well enough and clients are asking for it. EMC still has some work on the marketing and pricing model, but this capability is important for the back-end of business processes.


Would be nice to have an architecture track, but given that it might all change with NGIS and the easier scaling that comes with the 64-bit versions, I understand why that may have been left out. It is also possible they couldn’t pry the right people from Pleasanton to run it.


The Biggest Benefit of Conferences


Networking. That is the biggest benefit of conferences. As a developer, you trade war stories and learn from others what has, and has not, worked for them. As a business user, you can learn how peers are attacking business problems that will help you come up with innovative solutions for your own problems.


That is why I always went to EMC World and always tried to encourage the business side to attend. Each year, more attend and each year they get greater value. Last year, I said that EMC World was finally truly safe for business users to attend and gain real value. I meant it.


I will not be attending EMC World unless EMC decides they need someone from AIIM to talk about the convergence of Social, Mobile, Cloud, and Big Data in the industry. (*hint-hint*) It is a shame really because the Momentum section of the conference was really coming into its own last year.


I will be dropping in on the Developer Conference next month. Unlike EMC World, it is in my back yard and I can swing by the unofficial end-of-the-day events. I know speakers and attendees and it will be nice to see everyone there.


When I took the job of CIO at AIIM, it wasn’t because I was running from Documentum. I was a part of the Documentum Community for 12 years. I will always feel connected and will maintain my ties as I can.


That is the joy of a real community, it is always part of you. Come to the Developer Conference. Attend EMC World (early bird rate through February). Don’t just be a developer, user, or manager of Documentum.


Become part of the Documentum Community.





Changes to Teams That Serve Our Customers

Changes to Teams That Serve Our Customers:

The following memo to our agency contacts was sent out this morning.


NARA’s Office of the Chief Records Officer (OCRO) and Federal Records Centers Program (FRCP) are making some changes to the teams that work most closely with agency staff on records management issues-the Appraisal Archivists and the FRCP Account Managers. We are making these changes to be more responsive to customer needs and help the Appraisal Archivists and the Account Managers better work together in serving our customers.


The Appraisal Archivists in the OCRO’s office work directly with Federal agencies to appraise and process records schedules (SF-115, Requests for Disposition Authority) and handle questions related to records management. FRCP Account Managers (www.archives.gov/frc/acct-reps.html) ensure that agency customers are satisfied with the services they are receiving from the FRCs and make customers aware of new and existing services the FRCs can provide on a fee-for-service basis.


Attached are two documents related to these teams:




  • The spreadsheet Agency Assignments (link opens a MS Excel spreadsheet) provides a detailed list of all Federal agencies assigned to OCRO Appraisal Archivists and FRCP Account Managers.


Your agency’s Appraisal Archivist and/or Account Manager may have changed. Where possible, we designed team structures and individual assignments to preserve existing relationships in order to capitalize upon institutional knowledge. In some cases, however, overall streamlining and aligning of Appraisal Teams and Account Manager assignments necessitated changes.  We are confident that the new structure will result in better customer service.


We would like to provide an opportunity for you to meet your Appraisal Archivist and Account Manager and speak directly with them about your records management needs. We have scheduled three open houses over the next several weeks where we will provide more information about what we do and how we can best serve you. The meeting schedule is:



  1. Tue.,  February 7th, 9:00 am        Appraisal Team One agencies

  2. Wed., February 15th, 1:00 pm     Appraisal Team Three agencies

  3. Thu.,  March 8th, 9:00 am             Appraisal Teams Two and Four agencies


The open house meetings will be held in the Washington Room at the National Archives and Records Administration downtown building, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (Metrorail’s Yellow or Green lines to the Archives/Navy Memorial station). Please enter on the Constitution Avenue side of the building.


To reserve a place for the open house, please send your name, telephone number, and agency to RM Communications@nara.gov, no later than February 3rd. You may reserve places for up to three staff in the same email, but for security purposes, we must have each individual’s name and telephone number. Please email Shannon Olsen at shannon.olsen@nara.gov, or call 301-837-3486, if you need assistance.


In addition to these meetings, we will hold a webinar for agencies that are located in the field and for those headquarters agencies that are unable to attend the scheduled open houses. More information regarding the webinar will be sent out soon.


It is our hope that this OCRO and FRCP unified approach will better serve all of your records management needs in the future. We look forward to meeting with you at the upcoming open house events.


PAUL M. WESTER, JR.

Chief Records Officer for the

U.S. Government


DAVID WEINBERG

Director, Federal Records Centers Program




February BRIDG Meeting

February BRIDG Meeting:

Please mark your calendars for the next BRIDG meeting scheduled for Wednesday, February 15, 2012, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The Pre-BRIDG Networking Hour will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. The meeting will be held at the National Archives and Records Administration downtown building, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (Metrorail’s Yellow or Green lines to the Archives/Navy Memorial station) in the McGowan Theater. Please enter on the Constitution Avenue side of the building.


Meeting agenda items include the following:



  • Presidential Memorandum Update Paul M. Wester, Jr., Chief Records Officer, will give a brief update on the activities NARA and other Federal agencies are conducting in response to the Presidential Memorandum—Managing Government Records.

  • Using Scanning to Jump Start a Business Process Markus Most, Federal Records Centers Program’s (FRCP) Director of Business Development, will give a report on how the FRCP is providing scanning services to help its agency customers streamline and modernize business processes. The presentation will include an overview of a large-scale scanning project the FRCP is undertaking to assist the Veterans Administration in digitizing its claims process as well as information on other smaller-scale projects at other Federal agencies.

  • Appraisal Team Reorganization Margaret Hawkins, Director of Records Management Services, will give an update on the reorganization of the Appraisal Teams and agency assignments, as announced in Memorandum to Federal Agency Contacts AC 07.2012.  Her presentation will cover the open houses that the Office of the Chief Records Officer and the FRCP are jointly hosting for agencies to meet their appraisal archivist and account manager.

  • General Records Schedule (GRS) Team Margaret Hawkins will also give a presentation about the newly formed GRS Team. This team’s role is to update and revise the General Records Schedules, create new General Records Schedules, and serve as subject matter experts.  The presentation will provide an overview of the three projects the team will be focusing on this FY: 1) a study to consider how best to restructure and update the GRS to better meet agency needs; 2) guidance on incorporating GRS authorities into agency big bucket or functional schedules; and 3) drafting a new GRS to cover web and social media records.


As we mentioned in the September 9, 2011 ”BRIDG Improvements” memo, NARA has been exploring how to offer a live webcast of BRIDG meetings. During this BRIDG, we will be piloting delivery of the meeting to a small group of testers, and we want in-person attendees at the meeting aware that it will be filmed and webcast live to this small group of testers. We hope to offer webcasting of BRIDG meetings to all agencies in the very near future.


Pre-BRIDG Networking Hour


Join your colleagues in records management from other agencies and NARA Agency Services staff from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. in the Jefferson Room (Mezzanine Level of the National Archives Building) to chat over doughnuts and coffee. Feel free to bring materials to share from your agency (announcements of upcoming RM-related events, job openings, etc.).


To reserve a place for the Agency Services-BRIDG meeting and/or the pre-BRIDG networking hour, please provide your name, telephone number, and agency via email to rm.communications@nara.gov, no later than Monday, February 13, 2012. You may reserve places for several staff in the same email, but for security purposes we must have each individual’s name and telephone number. To attend the pre-BRIDG networking hour, you must RSVP in your email response. We need to determine an accurate headcount for catering.Please email Shannon Olsen at shannon.olsen@nara.gov, or call 301-837-3486 if you need assistance.


NARA encourages agencies to participate at BRIDG by presenting best practices or lessons learned that would be helpful to other attending agencies. If you wish to lead a discussion, please leave a comment here.


We reserve the right to postpone or cancel a meeting at any time. We will make every effort to contact registrants by e-mail and telephone if that occurs, so complete information at the time of registration is very important. Meetings WILL BE CANCELLED if the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announces a “closed,” “unscheduled leave,” “liberal leave,” or “delayed arrival” policy for Federal employees for that day or if there has been an elevation to threat level RED in the Homeland Security status. Official Government closing and leave information is located on the OPM web site.




Presidential Memorandum Briefing Slides

Presidential Memorandum Briefing Slides
by Arian Ravanbakhsh
The Office of the Chief Records Officer has been making the rounds talking about the Presidential Memorandum and all the work that is underway to draft the response. We’ve spoken to audiences inside the National Archives and to regional ARMA Chapters (the Metro Maryland as well as the Greater Baltimore Chapters) with additional events lined up over the next few weeks and months.

We wanted to share the current briefing slides that we have been using for these presentations. They can be downloaded here as a .pdf file. We will update this presentation as we continue to work on the Presidential MemorandumPresidential Memorandum Briefing Slides:

The Office of the Chief Records Officer has been making the rounds talking about the Presidential Memorandum and all the work that is underway to draft the response. We’ve spoken to audiences inside the National Archives and to regional ARMA Chapters (the Metro Maryland as well as the Greater Baltimore Chapters) with additional  events lined up over the next few weeks and months.


We wanted to share the current briefing slides that we have been using for these presentations. They can be downloaded here as a .pdf file. We will update this presentation as we continue to work on the Presidential Memorandum.




NARA Launching IdeaScale for Presidential Memorandum

Launching IdeaScale for Presidential Memorandum
by Arian Ravanbakhsh
We are happy to announce the start of our public information gathering related to the Presidential Memorandum on Managing Government Records. We will be using the IdeaScale tool for this. Records and information management professionals, vendors, and the general public are all invited to participate in this community.

We have set up the Managing Government Records IdeaScale at http://govrecordmanagement.ideascale.com/. This community will be open for comments until March 27, 2012.

Here is how it works. You can also download this handy .pdf of quick tips.

Create a free IdeaScale account.
Submit your ideas for improving the management of Federal records under the six categories specified by the President in the Memorandum. These are: Creating a government-wide framework; Promoting practices that enable agencies to Fulfill Missions; Maintaining accountability through documentation; Increasing Open Government and Access; Supporting Agency Compliance; and Transitioning from paper to electronic when feasible.
Provide comments on ideas already submitted.
Vote “up” or “down” on posted ideas. This will indicate to others what you think of the idea.
Encourage others to participate! Send a link to your colleagues or professional network
Check back to the site to see what is going on. Did others like your idea? Do you have something else to propose?
In addition to Ideascale, feel free to contribute a comment here. Let us know of the ideas big and small that should inform the directive to be issued this summer in response to the Presidential Memorandum.

Thank you for your participation!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

2012 Electronic Records Management Event Worth Considering

2012 Austin e-Forum
This message is from our colleagues at The National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators (NAGARA)
Registration is now open for the 2012 E-Records Forum, a unique conference focusing on current issues in Electronic Records Management. This program is sponsored by NAGARA, and co-sponsored by the NARA Southwest Region, Texas State Library and Archives Commission, University of Texas at Austin School of Information, and the Society of Southwest Archivists.