Classification and Taxonomy

IMERGE Creates Tools that Make Information Governance Benefit YOU

Classification Development
IMERGE follows ISO15489 guidance for the development of functional information governance classification schemes, file plans and regulatory compliance retention schedules. Functional classifications are a tool for grouping like objects together according to their business function and activity. Activities create records and are linked to the retention schedule. From that point forward, the records created by an activity can be managed for storage, retrieval, compliance, and information lifecycle management. With an ECM or records management system in place, that management can be highly automated.

Why use a functional approach for records classification?

• Business unit and division alignments change over time but the classification does not since functions are stable.
• Functional classifications are mandatory for effective electronic records management – subject‑based structures are too fragile and specific to one function rather than being stable and cross-functional.
• Systems capture appropriate retention periods, along with defensible deletion and disposition actions for records
• Functions linkto the overall enterprise metadata structure tying together these key information governance components.

IMERGE consultants analyze your information sources – paper and digital – to establish the functional classifications and then validate with subject matter experts across your organization to ensure it's accurate and useable. Once created, the functional classification will be linked to your retention schedule with records management and file plans generated for each business area.

Retention Schedules
The IMERGE information governance methodology includes original research of retention and reporting regulations from federal, state and local citations, along with international regulatory compliance information that impacts your organization. IMERGE provides a regulatory research report for your protection in justifying retention values assigned to specific records management categories. We also develop functional retention schedules, identifying all information assets that are linked to taxonomies. The retention schedule data elements can be applied to most enterprise content management (ECM) applications and other electronic records management storage systems, ensuring standards are met in the normal course of business.

Ontologies
The language of many organizations, especially in the case of international or those who have experienced mergers, is complex and prone to misunderstanding and interpretation. Ontologies, built primarily for use with records and information management technologies, define your terminology and relationship between terms. Ontologies provide consistency by referring non-preferred terms to preferred terms. Consistent term use when classifying content and assigning metadata means searches will have more accurate and complete results, for a more robust ECM and information delivery environment.

Metadata Model
The right metadata is crucial for enterprise wide use of content.

Metadata is essentially searchable, descriptive data about your documents. Another term for metadata is index data – just like labels on folders and files. But with records management systems, the right metadata assignment is crucial to a successful search and retrieval as well as information lifecycle management. IMERGE works with your cross functional subject matter experts to be sure ECM or other digital management systems have the right metadata assignments to the stored content for use enterprise-wide. And we make sure metadata assignment is as automated as possible, leveraging all trustworthy data sources for comprehensive, functional and sustainable information governance.