Articles
SharePoint 2013 Preview – Insight into Records Management functionality
The much anticipated SharePoint 2013 preview was released in the last few weeks. I’ve had a look at what new functionality has been introduced and have outlined my findings in a series of articles. Today’s article focuses on records management.
What’s new
A lot of the big gaps in records management were addressed with the release of SharePoint 2010, so it is not surprising there have been fewer major changes to the records management functionality in SharePoint 2013. The big inclusion is site based retention. This means retention policies can be assigned to a site and all objects created within that site are bound by its retention policy. If organisations utilise this feature when sites are created, it will ensure the sites are managed and improve the overall governance of their SharePoint environment.
The new feature allows the compliance officer to set the following at a site level:
- Retention policy for the whole site and the team mailbox, if there is one associated with the site.
- What causes a site to be closed?
- When a site should expire?
ISO 15489 Standard gaps
I was disappointed to find that SharePoint 2013 is no closer to being ‘compliant’ with the ISO 15489 standard - at least using the out-of-the-box (OOB) functionality. It will still require significant customisation and configuration to ensure that an organisation manages its content in accordance with the standard.
Specifically, the following functionality is still lacking in SharePoint 2013:
- Records Management Reporting: There is no report that outlines the records currently ready for destruction.
- Deletion: SharePoint 2013 continues to delete both the metadata and electronic object rather than retaining the metadata stub. The metadata stub is useful to prove that the organisation had the document and destroyed in accordance with their records management policy.
- Physical Records Management- This is still unsupported using OOB functionality.
In summary, in my opinion, if you are a government agency in Australia or are an organisation that needs to comply with ISO 15489 standard, SharePoint 2013 won’t do the job easily without significant customisations, which could be costly! However, for organisations that do not have to adhere to strict records management legislation, SharePoint 2013 could present a viable option, although the same could be said about SharePoint 2010.
What’s new in SharePoint2013? Will it be really social?
Join my colleague Fiona Shaw for this free webinar on 20 September 2012.
