Many records have a routinely short ACT period and the current year + X 
may work fine for those.  For records that have an ACT period that is 
highly variable there is always some event that triggers or defines the 
time that it becomes inactive, thus starting the static retention 
requirement period.   There is also, generally some procedure that 
requires that that time be recorded.  The problem, as I see it, is to do 
the records managment task of documenting that event and the procedure 
where it is recorded, then creating a procedure that brings that 
information into your records system.

The problem is the same as many other issues with attaining a first class 
records system.  That is, that managment may not fully understand or 
acknowledge the importance of extending the recording of the "event" to 
the records system.   When they do, it is not necessarily a complicated 
process to add the additional procedures.   For those of us who dwell on 
these issues it seems obvious, however, for many, the issues are not on 
their radar.

In our case, the majority of these events are exported, periodically, from 
the systems where the event is recorded, and imported into our records 
system.   For some records, the link has not been established, usually 
resulting in records being retained far beyond their useful and reasonable 
retention.   The excessive retention may be an acknowledged problem, but 
the solution is bypassed as cost  prohibitive as long as storage is 
considered the main or only cost of a more consistent and timely 
disposition process.

Like so many other issues, the problems are the same whether the records 
are paper or electronic.

Brent D. Smith
Corporate Records System Administrator
Office Services
Guardian Life Insurance Co.
777 E. Magnesium Rd. 
Spokane WA 99208
509-468-6225



We have a centralized records repository to manage and retain electronic 
records. These records are ingested from a variety of sources and 
categorized into the appropriate file plan structure. Some of these 
records have a retention period that is "ACT+" (e.g. ACT+6).  In order for 
us to start the retention clock, we need to tell the records repository 
that the record has completed its active life and hence start the clock. 
 
The issue is that the business processes are not connected to the records 
repository and so the user has to manually check a "flag" in order to tell 
the records repository that a record is no longer active and so start the 
clock.  Given that we have hundreds of thousands of records, it will 
become somewhat cumbersome for the user to manually check a flag on a 
periodic basis. 
 
My question to the group is how are other companies handling these 
situations ?
 
 
Thanks
Ganesh Vednere
Consulting Manager (Records Management),
Capgemini, New York
 
 





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