Files on the Move: Storage Management Software Manages Campus Documents throughout the Information Lifecycle

By Ian Llado, Optical Image Technology

View printable PDF (opens in new window)

What's this article about? This article shows how hierarchical storage management (HSM) software helps collegiate institutions move content effectively throughout the information lifecycle. If your college or university is searching for a better way to manage and purge files while reducing staff stress and demands for physical space, HSM may be exactly what you need. From the first keystrokes of capture through the timely destruction of files, this article shows how HSM works to simplify information governance and compliance.

Integrated Digital Records + Storage Management Software = Better Data Management

No matter what industry you work in, you probably have documents that are hardly ever needed, but which you are required to keep for future reference. Although you may not look at them for years, when an auditor, court subpoena, or member of management demands the files, you need to find them in a snap. Most of us don’t have the advanced search savvy or organizational talent of professional librarians, who always seem to know where seldom-used and less-often read documents are located, or how to search for them effectively. If we did, finding materials we don’t often need — or haven’t used for years — wouldn’t be so baffling.

Librarians all seem to have a seemingly endless knowledge of where to find information; resourcefulness regarding alternative sources beyond their own domain; incredible indexing skills for classifying materials; and persistence. They quietly go about their work behind the scenes, making it easy to forget they are there. Yet within minutes of a request, a tap on the shoulder or glance from the desk indicates items have been found.

If you wish your company had a high-performance librarian to manage your records, the solution lies in a hierarchical storage management system. Strong storage management software that is integrated with your content management system facilitates information management throughout the lifecycle, fulfilling your demands for current and archived files with unquestionable accuracy. No matter how long a file has been archived or where it is housed, an integrated solution like DocFinity® helps you get what you need…right from your desktop, wherever you are.

Your personal bibliophile: HSM and its love affair with documents

Librarians take every inquiry seriously, never giving up until they satisfy each request. Think of HSM as a digital librarian — but one that can work all day and all night, never tiring, never going home, never needing to be asked twice, and always delivering what you need without fail. HSM software performs its tasks with robotic-arm efficiency, turning its attention wherever it is required, pushing and pulling documents wherever they are needed, and following the preset organizational hierarchy of digital storage repositories that you set in place. When multiple locations house duplicate copies of documents and one needs to have the most current copy for local use, HSM follows pre-established instructions regarding where the most current copy resides. It follows the organization’s information hierarchy to make sure that you access the most recent information.

The perfect couple: enabling cradle to grave management with ECM and HSM

HSM is a vital partner and the perfect complement to document and content management, which stores digital files during their active use. HSM has its shoes planted in the worlds of both the present and the future, moving active files where they are needed, archiving files for the long term, and scheduling them for destruction. If authorized staff in one place would benefit from having local copies of files that are stored in another location, HSM moves copies of the files and guarantees they are accessible. It enables migration from a local repository (such as a branch campus) to a central location or to another local repository at any point within the lifecycle continuum. HSM greatly extends the value of the files stored within the document/ content management repository and facilitates archival when they are no longer needed.

Take, for example, a centralized admissions process for students applying to a university with multiple campuses. The main campus might be the central storage repository for the files, with a secondary tier of electronic storage at each satellite campus, and documents might be scanned from multiple locations on each campus into the central repository. After the admissions process is finished, HSM could be asked to pull specific files using indexing criteria such as the campus the student will attend; those files could be moved nightly in batches to the pertinent branch storage repositories after admissions decisions are final.

Alternatively, perhaps a regional college with three branches only has one human resources office, and establishes a hierarchy of off-site digital repositories at the other campuses in the event there is a disaster such as a fire. HSM could be instructed to copy files nightly to secondary and tertiary locations as a preventive measure. If a disaster occurs, a new repository could be recreated quickly. HSM would then retrieve copies from the highest repository in the hierarchy, re-enabling the file system rather than leaving it permanently disabled.

Signed, sealed and delivered: copying files to local storage for easy access

Long gone are the days when documents were sealed with wax to guarantee the content remained unchanged. Today, electronic storage management that is part of an integrated content management system ensures that the same high-performance security measures are provided when users send or request documents. Files are moved, migrated, and retrieved in their original condition except in unusual cases where they are drawn back into the active lifecycle. Clear audit trails perform the same function as the wax seal, but with 100% reliability, leaving detailed documentation that shows every interaction with each file, at what time it took place, and who made the request.

Silence is golden: moving inactive files to long-term storage

After records are no longer part of a collegiate business cycle, as in the death of alumni or the transfer of students or professors to other institutions, they typically no longer need to be accessed regularly. Removing them from storage within your active files maximizes your storage system’s performance and speed, as it would in a manual system. It also ensures that searches for documents don’t return lists that include irrelevant files.

Let’s assume you are searching for all published research documents by current faculty members of your college. A digital repository including work of past or deceased professors means sorting through unnecessary information to get what you need. Similarly, an auditor might demand access to all expense reports for current administrators; you try to deliver the information expediently so you can return to your daily job-related tasks. In both cases, by migrating inactive files regularly for archival, you eliminate the inclusion of irrelevant information. This results in more fruitful searches and better use of your time.

Smart as a whip: finding what you need is easy with HSM

When HSM is part of an integrated ECM system that shares the same database, retrieval of documents— even in large batches — is easy and smooth. Sharing the same database also puts an end to writing reports that you may have previously written to query the system for files, saving considerable time. Furthermore, unlike basic scanning systems that only allow a few basic fields for indexing files, HSM avails itself of all of the indexing capabilities of your content management system. This makes files easy for diverse university staff and other constituents to find.

Users of an HSM solution that is part of an integrated content management system also benefit from the same robust security features provided by the database in the content management system. Some staff might be granted the right to retrieve files for a manager, but may be unable to open and view the file contents. Others may open and view files, but certain pages with sensitive information may be blocked from their view. Still others may be allowed to annotate specific file types, even though the content can not be altered as a document of record. Transaction by transaction, HSM logs every interaction, removing the need for human intervention in the file management process. Your staff no longer has to be smart as a whip in order to locate, retrieve, and manage files: HSM does the searching and moving for them, so they can concentrate on their work.

Enough is enough: ditching files when their day is done

Nothing is meant to last forever, and when files are no longer needed, they should be properly disposed of in accordance with the law. Whether you have documents and objects (such as digital photos, videos, and audio files) that just need to be migrated from one document management repository or files that need to be moved concurrently from secondary satellite locations, HSM does the heavy lifting for you, behind the scenes, in accordance with its instructions. For example, student documents might be automatically moved from on-line to near-line storage after one year from the date of graduation, then to permanent off-line storage after 7 years, and then purged after 15, or whatever your file plans or records manager dictate. Whether HSM is moving files to a Storage Area Network (SAN) or to Network Attached Storage (NAS), or offline to permanent tapes or another storage system, all movements are audited and tracked.

Summary

Just like your top-notch local librarian, HSM performs its tasks faithfully. It does so with a diligence that never tires, using its ability to stretch millions of virtual arms in different directions to accomplish multiple needs at once, and with unparalleled speed. Working behind the scenes to deliver what you need, and persistent until the end, you have the luxury of your own digital librarian, delivering unmatched efficiency to your organizational operations both day and night. HSM gives you feather-like shoes of your own so you can manage your college’s digital information with amazing speed that vastly exceeds even the best of library services. You’ll never have to hear “I’ve located the document, but you will have to wait until it’s returned,” ever again.

Optical Image Technology offers an integrated suite of imaging, document management, and workflow software, including document archiving, lifecycle management, electronic forms, and email management products. To learn more about our products and services, visit our website at www.docfinity.com, or call us at 800-678-3241.

To receive links to additional reference and educational articles such as this, please complete our subscribe form.

Quick Links ...