Julie,  You and others are on the right track.   SAP and other enterprise 
systems don't integrate well with RIM products.  You might need to work 
with a set of tools that archive  information/records within these systems 
and then find a ERM that integrates with these archive solutions.  This 
will depend on the strategies described below

 First you need to decide on a strategy  for electronic RIM:
  1.    Use a comprehensive single source suite of products  and work a 
comprehensive implementation plan with IT
   2.    Develop a framework of systems and integrate them with ERM being 
a piece of the puzzle. This will take more integration but could end up 
with a better 
          individual fit of the pieces( collaboration, search, RIM,etc) 
But I think you must have a strategy - some kind of strategy-  If you 
really want to be successful. 


Then you should work on identifying the following:
Conduct a survey of all electronic systems in play in the company
Analyze and prioritize the systems (This is the hard part)
               - Are they really record systems or a flowthrough
               - Are they business critical  or vital records systems
               - Who are the records owners
               - What is the operating system
               - Do they currently purge or archive
               - How much data is in the system
               - What are the risk impacts of system is information not 
added/integrated

         This analysis will help you decide the particular type of 
architecture needed.  SOA will probably be a better choice in strategy # 2 
as it will probably be 
          integrating the records/information stored in various/multiple 
storage repositories vs a common one
  3.    Use this data to develop the technical requirements of your 
RFI/RFP.  What types of operating systems,formats,repositories,etc are 
needing integration.
  4.    Purchase a tool(s) depending on the strategy and decisions.

As a side note:Using the analysis from the Survey above will also help 
your legal department deal and ready for the changes that are coming in 
December to the Civil Rules of Procedure involving electronic records 
discovery.  You will probably need to ask more questions for this exercise 
but the above will get you started or maybe it can be a joint project with 
shared costs. 

Hope this helps- We are going through this exercise now . 

Steve Petersen CRM
Sr. Records Administrator
Rockwell Collins Inc
319.295.5244

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