Records management has become an important initiative for many organizations as government regulations, changes to the rules governing legal discovery, and freedom of information legislation in different countries have all begun to be felt. Demand for records management solutions continues to grow, as the technology is imperative if an organization is to effectively implement an enterprisewide records management program. The worldwide records management market was worth approximately $460 million in software license and maintenance revenue in 2008, an increase of 15% from 2007. Market penetration for records management is still in its early stages with approximately 35% of organizations having implemented this technology. Records management products are also evolving, as broader retention management requirements grow and there is a need to manage content throughout its entire life cycle. While software as a service (SaaS) and open-source records management have not been significant up to this point, Gartner expects that these alternative delivery options for records management will emerge during the next two years. As emerging consumer and social software tools like wikis, blogs and Twitter are adopted at an enterprise level, this additional content may also need to be managed as records. When considering records management, organizations should:

• Identify the specific business objectives for their records management initiative and select the right vendor, as a records management program requires a long-term commitment and the product needs to be compatible with the organization's content management strategy.
• Assess the records management product's capabilities to integrate and extend records retention policy into other content repositories, e-mail systems, document archives and file stores, as well as its search and legal discovery capabilities.
• Consider records management products with capabilities to support multiple content types and media — physical records, which may be in distributed record centers; electronic documents, which may reside in multiple repositories; and e-mail, which may exist in both the e-mail system and e-mail archives.
• Consider the records management product's certification under country- and regional-level standards such as Department of Defense (DoD) Directive 5015.2-STD, Model Requirements for the Management of Electronic Records (MoReq) and Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS).

Information management leaders, compliance officers, legal counsel and records managers are working on records management projects that involve managing business document retention and preservation. A good records management initiative includes people, processes and technology. Industry and government regulations have helped lead or even necessitate records management adoption, but e-discovery as well as the need for more effective control of vast information stores in the enterprise have become even more important drivers. While highly regulated industries, such as financial services, utilities and pharmaceuticals, have always had record retention requirements, changes in government regulations have impacted companies across a broader range of industries. Freedom of information legislation, which has proliferated on a global scale, has also increased the need in government organizations to implement records management initiatives, in order to properly retain appropriate documents so they can be produced as requested. Despite today's challenging economic environment, the need for transparency and accountability in government agencies continues to drive the adoption of records management.

Records management systems have evolved from little more than the creation of indexes and tracking mechanisms for the preservation of paper documents to the preservation of electronic documents. As the range of digital content types continues to grow, electronic records management systems should now include mechanisms for dealing with audio, video and Web content. The emergence of wikis, blogs and social networking platforms also requires policies and approaches for retention of user-generated content. E-mail has proved to be especially problematic when it comes to maintaining business records. While e-mail active archiving systems support role-based and event-based retention, records management is still needed for those e-mails that must be retained as records.

Many records management products are integral components of enterprise content management (ECM) suites and will require additional software licenses. The ability to integrate and declare documents from ECM applications should be a prerequisite for records management products. Integration with Microsoft Office is also important, because much of the creation of future business records occurs in this information worker environment. As e-mail and instant messaging are now staples of conducting business, records management products must also be able to integrate with these infrastructure applications. Records management vendors are also emphasizing increased integration with e-mail active archiving, compliance and e-discovery applications. As the diversity of applications and content repositories expands, policy-driven records management, allowing for the automatic classification of records, will become the preferred choice.

Standards have been established in many countries to provide local requirements for records management. These standards include how different record types should be managed, rules for metadata creation, security definitions and implementation guidelines. Many of these standards have released their second versions. Key records management standards include:

• DoD Directive 5015.2-STD — A U.S. standard and certification for records management developed by the Department of Defense. The DoD 5015.2-STD version 2 standard includes a Chapter 2 version and a Chapter 4 version, which detail additional security and classification requirements. The latest version, which records management vendors are now being certified for, is DoD 5015.2-STD version 3.
• MoReq2 — The European Model Requirements for the Management of Electronic Records is a European standard for records management functionality and deployment. The goal of MoReq is to subsume individual national records management standards in the European community. MoReq2, the latest version developed and released in February 2008, is more comprehensive in terms of testing, governance and functionality. Certification and testing of MoReq2 for records management products is just beginning, and as MoReq2 becomes more formalized, we believe that it will serve as a key records management standard.
• TNA2 — TNA2 is a U.K. standard and certification published by The National Archives. Its requirements reflect the legislation and standards for information management and include aspects of ISO 15489, MoReq, e-government and freedom of information. TNA-approved records management products meet compliance with the standards but no certification process is used.
• Document Management and Electronic Archiving (DOMEA) — A German strategy and standard for records management and document management in government agencies. It has seen limited compliance and adoption by records management vendors.
• VERS 2 — The Victorian Electronic Records Strategy is a framework of standards and implementation with the goal of reliably and authentically archiving electronic records created or managed by the Victorian government in Australia. This standard has become the de facto standard for records management projects in Australia.
• Information & Documentation on Records Management Guidelines (ISO 15489) — The first international standard for the implementation of records management. It defines how records should be created, captured and managed, including policies and processes. Many national records management standards include elements of ISO 15489.

These standards can be used as a foundation and guideline for the evaluation and implementation of records management products. The DoD 5015.2 standard is well-established and is the only one that has a formal certification process. It is the de facto benchmark for records management products and acts as certification for essential product functionality. Gartner recommends that enterprises use the DoD 5015.2 STD 2007, version 3 standard as a key requirement when acquiring any records management product, along with consideration of local standards (see Note 1).

The records management market includes products that apply retention policies for business content, both paper and electronic documents. Gartner estimates that the worldwide records management market was worth approximately $460 million in software license and maintenance revenue in 2008, an increase of 15% from 2007. This market is forecast to have a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12% between 2009 and 2014. While growth slowed in 2008, the market still remained relatively strong, as records management was adopted to reduce risk and support legal discovery in response to the worldwide increase in legislation and regulation targeted at various verticals. This high rate of adoption has prevailed, despite the relatively high per-seat price of records management. As these products are increasingly getting bundled with ECM systems, the costs have started to drop. Although Gartner sees strong product demand ranging from large enterprises to midsize enterprises, as well as across vertical industries, implementation remains challenging. The reasons for this are substantial costs, organizational change management and the complexity of the requirements and efforts needed to implement records management solutions.

The consolidation of the enterprise content management market has directly impacted the records management market. Two vendors have been acquired since the previous MarketScope:

• Interwoven was acquired by Autonomy in March 2009, bringing with it Interwoven WorkSite Records Manager. This provides Autonomy with a product that addresses the professional services market, which includes legal, accounting and consulting firms.
• Vignette was acquired by Open Text in July 2009, bringing with it Vignette Records Manager. This will add to Open Text's multiple records management products.

While ECM vendors are major players in the records management market, Gartner is seeing other vendors like Autonomy, CA and HP approach records management from a broader information governance perspective. We are also seeing the emergence of retention management in some of the e-mail archiving products. Records management products will increasingly be integrated into the organization's content management infrastructure as a service, rather than operating as stand-alone departmental records management systems. Many enterprises have yet to standardize on a single ECM platform, and will typically have multiple content repositories. Gartner research and surveys have consistently shown that over 60% of organizations have six or more content repositories. Thus, the ability of records management products to extend their reach through federation to other content management repositories, archives and applications — as well as supporting compliance and discovery — is essential. While open source and SaaS records management solutions have been slow to appear, we expect more options to become available, with Alfresco expected to be the first open source records management vendor to be certified for DoD 5015.2. This MarketScope analyzes the leading vendors and products that meet our criteria, and rates each one based on our vendor-ratings definition. We also provide an overall market rating using the same definitions.

To be considered for this MarketScope, each records management vendor must meet the following criteria:

• Revenue of $10 million or more from records management products and services.
• Product functionality that supports records management for electronic documents, paper documents and e-mail.
• Product certification for DoD 5015.2-STD version 3 or DoD 5015.2-STD version 2 (see http://jitc.fhu.disa.mil/recmgt/register.html).
• Minimum of three reference customers with fully deployed records management applications.

Several of the vendors assessed in last year's MarketScope for Records Management have been excluded from this year's evaluation due to the lapse in their DoD 5015.2-STD certification, which is one of the key inclusion criteria. Gartner believes that DoD 5015.2 certification is a key selection criterion because it ensures that the records management product provides at least the basic functionality required. The excluded vendors/products are as follows:

• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 can be deployed using Records Center to provide basic records management. For Microsoft-centric and midsize organizations, Records Center offers a records management solution that is tightly integrated with the Microsoft Office Suite and Microsoft Exchange, enabling easy retention management of collaborative content, documents and e-mail. Its physical records management features are limited and would require a third-party solution like OmniRIM to provide those capabilities. We expect that the upcoming release of SharePoint 2010 will be certified in the future for DoD 5015.2-STD and will provide more comprehensive records management functionality.
• Objective Records Management is an integrated module of Objective 7 and is a mature records management product with good functionality. It has no integration with other content repositories and e-mail archives, but allows users to build their own integration through its open Web Services architecture. Objective's installed base is predominately in Asia/Pacific and the U.K. Objective Records Management is for organizations that have, or are planning to deploy, Objective 7 as their ECM solution. Objective is scheduled for DoD 5015.2-STD certification in December 2009.
• Vignette Records Manager is part of the Vignette Document and Records Management suite. It is not widely deployed, but has good records management functionality, including unique security features such as non-repudiation and "document fingerprinting" to assess if a document has been tampered with or changed, and it supports the capture of Web pages using Vignette WebCapture. The limited federation capabilities are a significant weakness for this product. Vignette Records Manager is best suited for organizations that have Vignette as their ECM platform. Vignette Records Manager is scheduled for the DoD 5015.2-STD certification in November 2009. The acquisition of Vignette by Open Text raises the uncertainty of the future direction for Vignette Records Manager.
• ZyLAB's Records Management and Archiving (RMA) module can be deployed as a stand-alone solution or as part of the ZyIMAGE Information Access Platform (IAP). Its RMA product is unique in that it stores the content in either XML or native file formats. Its integration with the search and discovery modules provides additional functionality that is not typically included in records management products. This product offers good features for electronic records but lacks integration with other ECM platforms. ZyLAB RMA is ideally suited for organizations looking for an electronic records management solution that is easy to use and has low professional services requirements. ZyLAB has opted not to re-certify its RMA module for DoD 5015.2-STD.

Two vendors with new records management products that have recently been DoD 5015.2-STD certified are Hyland Software's OnBase ECM suite and Systemware's Content Suite. These vendors have been excluded from the MarketScope due to their lack of referencable customers at this time.

Two new vendors with DoD 5015.2-STD certification, Iron Mountain and Laserfiche, have been added to this MarketScope.

Overall Market Rating: Promising

Our outlook for organizations investing in records management is Promising. These products continue to expand their functionality, with many vendors including records management as a key component of their ECM suite. However, the challenges in implementing these records management applications remain. The overall market demand for records management is good, and as the market continues to consolidate, the bigger and more established vendors such as Autonomy and HP, which are new to this year's MarketScope, provide stronger market viability.

Autonomy Records Management consists of Meridio and Autonomy's Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL), an information access platform that provides search, classification and analytics capabilities. The core records management functionality for this product is provided by Meridio, which Autonomy acquired in October 2007. IDOL includes a set of connectors that enable Autonomy Records Management to perform retention management of content that resides in other repositories or archives and provides rules/policy-based declaration of records. Autonomy is rated as Positive due to the strength of Autonomy Records Management's capabilities provided by IDOL, its integration with the Microsoft environment and support for Microsoft SharePoint, and Autonomy's broader information governance solution set, which includes archiving and e-discovery. With the acquisition of Interwoven, Autonomy also has iManage RecordsManager which is part of its WorkSite ECM platform. iManage RecordsManager has good physical records management capabilities for on-site and off-site storage, and is designed to work with WorkSite for electronic records and e-mail management. It has been primarily deployed to Autonomy's law firm, corporate legal and professional services customers who have a need for management of their case and engagement files. iManage RecordsManager lacks out-of-the-box federated connectors and works best with WorkSite. Autonomy Records Management is best suited for supporting Microsoft SharePoint or as a stand-alone records management solution, while iManage RecordsManager is suited for organizations that have a requirement for physical records management and/or an investment in iManage WorkSite.

Rating: Positive

CA Records Manager, complemented by CA Message Manager for e-mail management and archiving and CA GRC Manager for governance, risk and compliance applications, is part of an overall information governance suite of products. As a stand-alone records management product, it provides good integration and federation across fileshares and multiple content management platforms including EMC (Documentum), Autonomy (Interwoven), Open Text (eDOCS), Oracle (UCM) and Microsoft (SharePoint), and archiving platforms including CA Message Manager, Symantec and Autonomy. CA Records Manager has good adoption in the legal market and is diversifying into other verticals, including the government vertical. Discovery capabilities have been added to CA Records Manager in the latest version, and with CA's acquisition of Orchestria, future versions will likely provide improved policy management and the ability to auto declare through comprehensive content analysis. CA is rated a Strong Positive for its federated records management capabilities, understanding of the market's requirements and professional services capabilities in this area. CA brings strong records management expertise to the market and is a good fit for those organizations that are considering records management but would like to be independent of an ECM platform.

Rating: Strong Positive

EMC's Documentum Records Manager provides "formal" records management that adheres to DoD 5015.2-STD guidelines, while Documentum Retention Policy Services (RPS), a server-based component, provides for the "informal" or "simple" management of records using a policy engine to enforce predetermined retention guidelines. EMC Documentum customers, which are typically large commercial and government organizations, often include records management as an extension of their content management platform. Physical records management is supported by Physical Records Services (PRS), an optional module that enables the management of physical objects or, by using OmniRIM, a third-party product that can be integrated with Documentum Records Manager. Documentum provides flexible records management solutions with good retention hold, reporting and administrative capabilities. It also provides native integration to EMC SourceOne for active archiving of e-mail, while RPS supports integration with Symantec's and Autonomy's e-mail archiving solutions. Federated records management features in Documentum and third-party connectors provide for the management of content in other repositories. Documentum Records Manager offers integrated records declaration and classification of e-mail and SharePoint documents from within Microsoft Outlook and MOSS 2007. EMC is rated as a Strong Positive. This is a reflection of Documentum Records Manager's scalability for a large user base and the fact that it works well as part of the EMC Documentum product set, which enables its ECM functionality to be leveraged. EMC Documentum Records Manager should be considered when Documentum is the platform for ECM.

Rating: Strong Positive

HP TRIM provides records management features as part of its Information Governance product suite. This product has a predominately government-installed base in Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. HP TRIM provides good physical records management capabilities and has a good set of tools to support the configuration of functional and subject-based file plans, as well as tools to extend retention management by providing features to define and apply time- and event-based retention schedules. It is also natively integrated into HP Integrated Archive Platform, which allows TRIM to store records in that archive repository, though it has limited integration into other content repositories. In last year's MarketScope, Tower Software was in the process of being acquired by HP and was rated as a Caution. The acquisition provides more stability and support for TRIM, and HP has refocused TRIM on information governance rather than making it compete head-on against the more established ECM vendors. This places more emphasis on TRIM's records management capabilities as well as building out its capability to support the retention of "applications data." HP TRIM is rated as a Positive, with the new emphasis on information management and governance, and HP's strength, helping it to more effectively increase its market penetration. HP TRIM is for organizations that are looking to deploy records management as part of a stand-alone or physical records management solution.

Rating: Positive

IBM FileNet Records Manager is the lead records management product in IBM's suite of compliance product offerings, which includes IBM Content Collector, IBM Classification Module, IBM eDiscovery Manager, IBM eDiscovery Analyzer and IBM FileNet Content Federation Services, providing services for both IBM FileNet and IBM Content Manager product suites. IBM FileNet Records Manager manages records in IBM FileNet P8, IBM FileNet Image Services, IBM Content Manager (CM8), Content Manager OnDemand (CMOD) and non-IBM repositories (Documentum and Open Text) via a productized federation layer leveraging native IBM technologies. It has a "dynamic hold" feature that not only enables hold enforcement but also automates the process by running periodic sweeps to identify and place on hold those records that meet pre-specified criteria. In addition, IBM FileNet Records Manager has workflow capabilities to manage the records throughout their entire life cycle. It also supports multiple file plans for central or geographically dispersed organizations. IBM supports physical records management, but partners with OmniRIM, Iron Mountain's Accutrac, and Infolinx to provide more advanced capabilities such as radio frequency identification (RFID) and space management. IBM is rated a Strong Positive with its breadth of capabilities, abilities to federate across a wide range of content repositories and archives, its focus on compliance initiatives, and its implementation partners. IBM Records Manager is the other records management product for the IBM Content Manager product suite and provides an engine for policy-based records management. Organizations should consider which IBM records management product to deploy based on their IBM content management platform, but IBM FileNet Records Manager should be included in any evaluation.

Rating: Strong Positive

Iron Mountain's Accutrac is part of its Document Management Solutions, which include file room management, document scanning and indexing, and hosted repositories. Iron Mountain provides a broad range of hosted retention management services including e-mail management and document archiving, as well as its traditional off-site records storage. Accutrac provides a records management solution for customers that are looking for an on-premises solution. While Accutrac has electronic records management capabilities, it is predominately used for physical records management with seamless integration with Iron Mountain's off-site records storage services. Accutrac has very limited integration with other content management repositories and e-mail archives. It also has weak capabilities for e-mail management. Due to these product limitations, we rate Iron Mountain's Accutrac product as a Caution. It does have an integration into IBM FileNet P8, as IBM also uses Accutrac as an alternative physical records management solution for its IBM FileNet P8 Records Manager. Accutrac is ideally suited to organizations looking for a stand-alone physical records management solution with some basic electronic records management capabilities.

Rating: Caution

Laserfiche Records Management Edition (RME) is part of the Laserfiche 8 suite of products and can be deployed as an integrated ECM suite or as a stand-alone solution. Laserfiche RME is typically deployed in local and federal government agencies and higher education organizations. Laserfiche RME is rated a Caution due to its limited functionality in some areas, including the lack of integration with other content management repositories or e-mail archives, and its inability to generate box labels or bar codes for physical records management. The pricing for end users is toward the high end of the scale, but Laserfiche RME is easy to deploy and offers savings through decreased requirements for professional services. RME is a good fit for organizations that have, or are planning to deploy, Laserfiche as their ECM solution.

Rating: Caution

Open Text Records Management is a fully integrated component of the Open Text ECM Suite and can be used to support enterprise applications such as SAP and Microsoft SharePoint. Open Text enables in-place records management for external content repositories using a variety of different options including Web services, Open Text Doorways and third-party solutions. Open Text's records management products have a substantial installed base of users, good functionality (including strong physical records management capabilities), and extensive file plan and records retention schedule development features. Its product also has good workflow capabilities to manage the records management process. Open Text has a records management product for its ECM suite in addition to specialized records management products for specific verticals: DOMEA Records Management is an Open Text implementation for the German government agencies using the DOMEA records management standard; R/KYV and Open Text Records Management is for U.K. government agencies; and eDOCS RM is for managing eDOCS record content. Open Text has provided the eDOCS customer base with the ability to leverage the ECM Suite, certifying eDOCS DM and Open Text Records Management against DoD 5015.2-STD. Open Text is rated a Strong Positive for the records management capabilities provided by Open Text Records Management and its federated records management capabilities, especially its support for SAP and Microsoft platforms. As with other ECM platforms, Open Text records management products being considered should be based on the specific Open Text ECM product in use, but strong consideration should also be given to its lead records management product, Open Text Records Management, or at least an understanding should be gained of what migration plans exist.

Rating: Strong Positive

Oracle Universal Records Management (URM) can be deployed as a stand-alone solution or as a part of the Oracle Enterprise Content Management Suite to provide a broad range of records management capabilities to both electronic and physical content. Oracle provides adapters to enable records and retention management of content in other repositories and archives. Adapters currently available include Oracle Universal Content Management (UCM), Oracle Imaging and Process Management (IPM), Oracle Email Archiving Service (EAS), Microsoft SharePoint 2003 and 2007, EMC Documentum, IBM FileNet, and Symantec Enterprise Vault. In addition, Oracle has "generic" adapters that can be customized for integration with other repositories. Oracle URM has a full workflow engine which enables the retention of records through a business process. Oracle URM has strong physical records management, provides good review and reporting capabilities, along with Web-based administration, and includes tools for file plan creation and maintenance. As Oracle provides more of its content management functionality in its business applications, the retention management features will enable better management of content in those applications. This is a strong differentiator for Oracle and a key part of its product road map. Oracle is rated Positive for its solid set of records management capabilities and is not rated higher only because of its current level of adoption in the marketplace. Oracle URM should be considered for organizations that have an Oracle-based infrastructure or are considering a stand-alone records management solution.

Rating: Positive