Thanks,

Henry

Your questions have given me a lot to think about. I’ll answer you directly, but I don’t want to presume that my answer is really the right one for my present circumstances.

Our documents are presently declared as records via a custom ECB option labeled “Make Record.” That ECB option, once selected, prompts the user for additional record information (e.g. record date, is vital record, record owner, etc.) and then moves the record into a document library where permissions are locked down to allow only the records manager to delete them (if necessary). The process of declaring a record is definitely not automated in any way, though expiration policies are automated once a record is declared (we have built content type hierarchies and will tie expiration policies to them later in the project). We want to move toward in-place record management for several reasons, mostly preventing user confusion when trying to find documents and records.

Thanks in advance,
Andrew

That is a very good question. Personally, I think in-place records management is one of the most exciting new records management features in SharePoint 2010. Before I can answer your question, though, I’ll need a little more information. (Doesn’t that always seem to be the case with consultants?)

How, exactly, are your documents declared records? Are you having your end users perform this manually (e.g. right-click and select ‘Send to…Records Center’)? Is the process automated and transparent to the end user (e.g. ‘Declare this document a record, based on Content Type and certain metadata values 6 months after Last Date of Modification’)? Or – my personal favorite – are you managing the documents through an Information Lifecycle and declaring the document a record when it changes from one state (e.g. ‘Work in Progress’) to another (e.g. ‘Final’)?

Don

Hi Don,

I just found your blog a few days ago and already I’m learning a lot. Thank you!

I wonder if I could ask you a question about SP2010 in-place records. A frequent request of me, already, with respect to the new 2010 declare record in-place functionality is whether or not the process of declaring a record in-place can be interrupted to prompt the user for additional information. For example, some metadata isn’t required unless/until a piece of content becomes a record. There doesn’t appear to be any way to collect this metadata (columns in the list/library) before allowing the item/document to be declared a record. Since these fields aren’t required for non-records, I can’t simply make them required across the board. In looking through what documentation I’ve been able to find so far, I can’t find anything that suggests this is possible. Do you know if it is?

Thank you in advance!
Andrew

Thank you for stopping by. I’m looking forward to using the Content Organizer, too. It should really help minimize some of the records management burden on our end users. I’m still getting my hands dirty with Content Organizer, but look for a post on it here sometime in the near future.

I’m curious, what are some of the other things that are not acceptable from a records management point of view? I know a lot of folks at Microsoft, like Adam, read this blog and I’m sure they would appreciate your input.

Thanks!
Don