> 
> I am currently performing research concerning records that have record
> keeping requirements due to state, federal, local regulations as well as
> statutory requirements. 

 I'd have to assume that you've taken the first step- an inventory of the 
population of records managed in each of the locales.
 The logical second step would be to develop a complete list of what records 
are produced in one location that may be impacted by regulations in another. 

 The third step would be to determine who regulates what portion of the 
records identified in the first two steps... an industry, an agency, a 
government body (Fed, State, Local). 
 And naturally, the final step would be to determine what business 
needs/requirements you have for the records that might exceed ANY 
requirements to retain them for specific periods... once weighed against any 
potential risks to the organization of retaining them longer than required.
 Well, almost final, because there is always the desire to determine if 
there are other enduring, historic or intrinsic values to these materials 
that may determine they should be retained for an even longer period. 
 
> Since my company does business nationwide I was
> considering using either Zasio's software or Skupsky's Information
> requirements clearinghouse software to help me in my task. I thought it
> may be easier to use a package for my initial research and the research
> would go quicker. I realize that neither one of these tools is an end all
> solution since they are not complete. 

 As you clearly noted, they aren't end all solutions. The consideration 
needs to be made of the cost to implement the use of these tools against 
doing the research, if you've already completed an inventory, 
classified/assigned record series to the items, then most of the work is 
done. Once you determine who regulates what, it a matter of reviewing the 
regulations, building a schedule that provides the citations and 
periodically reviewing them to see what's changed. 
 I'm not sure that either product (or Braincore) will be able to cut down on 
the amount of effort you'll need to do to design a schedule specific to your 
needs... if you have the staff and time to do the research yourself, you'll 
definitely end up with a better product that's tailored to your specific 
needs.

When I reviewed the internet site
> for these packages, Zasio indicated they had 20,000 regulations and IRCH
> indicated only 13,000. Not sure if the websites need updating or if this
> is true.

 I know that Zazio's package is updated more frequently, and from our 
analysis, it's more complete. Their updates are downloaded automatically 
when you sign on, which is also a great feature.

I would like to know if anyone is currently using either one of these
> software packages and what the recommendation would be.

 We do not use either, but have reviewed both in the past. We DO use Zazio's 
Versatile for managing our physical asset inventory, and the Retention 
product was bundled with it for a period of time. I found it pretty 
functional and it's citation research was accurate. We developed our own 
schedule in-house and manage it as well, and find that to be the most 
successful means of handling retention issues. 
 Larry

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