Disposition of records in Microsoft 365

Records are defined in the international standard for records management, ISO 15489-1:2016 as: 'evidence of business activity and information assets'. The standard adds that: 'Any set of information, regardless of its structure or form, can be managed as a record. This includes information in the form of a document, a collection of data or other …

Why records managers need access to Microsoft Purview

Every day, people create, capture and store a range of digital content using Microsoft 365 applications. On the face of it, there appear to be four primary locations where records might be found - Outlook (Exchange Online), Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive (the last two appear as the 'Files' tab in Teams). The reality is a …

Using predictive coding in Microsoft 365 to find records

In November 2012, I published a post titled 'Can predictive coding be used to classify records'. My post referred to an October 2011 article by (now retired) Judge Andrew Peck, at the time a judge for the Southern District of New York. Peck's article was titled ‘Search, Forward: Will manual document review and keyword searches …

Ten tips for records managers to monitor records in Microsoft 365

With the large-scale adoption of Microsoft 365 (M365), many records managers have had to find ways to manage the records that have been (and continue to be) captured and stored across the ecosystem, including via Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business and Exchange Online. The M365 ecosystem is more complicated than a single server-based Electronic …

Changing patterns of office work

A recent (September 2021) Verge post titled 'File Not Found' by Monica Chin (@mcsquared96) noted how pre-defined storage locations for digital content have become mostly redundant for the younger generation that grew up using Google to find content - 'the concept of file folders and directories, essential to previous generations’ understanding of computers, is gibberish …

Are auto-generated topic cards the future for aggregations of records?

Humans have natural instinct for grouping, classification and categorisation of things. It helps us find what we are looking for and gives us a sense of satisfaction, whether it be household items, computer storage, or much broader social and population groupings. Humans have created and kept records ever since we developed a way to record …

Different approaches for managing records with Microsoft 365

The COVID pandemic from early 2020 led to the requirement for many employees to work from home (WFH). IT Departments scrambled to enable this capability, many making use of Microsoft (MS) Teams that was already bundled with their Microsoft 365 licences. The rapid enabling and uptake (rather than an actual 'implementation') of MS Teams was …

Ten things to consider when managing records in Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 has become one of the world's most accessed products for office collaboration. Jeff Teper, the 'father of SharePoint' at Microsoft, tweeted on 27 April 2021 that Teams had 145 million daily active users. (As reported in by the team at Office365ITPros.com.) According to the website 'Microsoft Office Statistics and Facts (2021) | By …

Can Microsoft technology classify records better than a human?

In late 2012, IDM magazine published an article I co-authored with Umi Asma Mokhtar in Malaysia titled 'Can technology classify records better than a human?' The article drew on research into recent advances in technology to assist in legal discovery, known as 'computer-assisted coding', or 'predictive coding', including the following two articles: A 2011 article …

A brief history of electronic document and records management systems and related standards

Last updated 13 February 2024 This post provides a brief history of electronic document and records management systems, and standards that had an impact on the latter. It notes the following: Early electronic records management systems (ERMS) were mostly mainframe-based databases. Electronic document management systems (EDMS) were developed from the 1980s to manage unstructured electronic …