This week we met with a client who has been evaluating Documentum RPS (Retention Policy Services) for about 18 months. The complexity of the product and its impact on database size and the audit trail are primary implementation concerns. Our client has multiple repositories and content storage of well over 700TB. The impact of applying RPS policies to objects, executing dispositions, running dm_clean and storing the resulting reports and audit trail entries are forcing a detailed examination of how RPS will function under pressure.

TSG has implemented several alternative records management solutions for clients (see related posts here, here, and here) and minimized the amount of data written to the audit log, repository, and database. As an alternative to RPS’ one size fits all approach we advocate streamlining records management by using the Documentum tools already available: jobs, relations, security, and object properties.

Summary Recommendations

When de-risking Documentum records management we recommend acting on records with known dispositions and legal holds first. There is no need to try and boil the ocean to process everything at once. Gradually build knowledge and skills in RM at a measured pace and work through the issues with business groups and legal as the disposition process proceeds. With a de-risked approach IT teams and records managers can make progress in days and weeks instead of months and years.

Have you tried an “unconventional” approach to RPS?  We’d love to hear more in the comments.