Formerly from Stellent (acquired by Oracle in December of 2006), Oracle Universal Records Management is a centrally managed platform that provides records and retention management features for content in external repositories, including file systems, E-mail archives, content management platforms, etc. The product enables compliance administrators and personnel to define and execute retention policies for the scheduled disposition and/or destruction of content, as well as search and discover content and apply litigation and audit holds.

URM is based on and deployed on top of Oracle Content Server; it is accessed and communicates through Web browsers and Web services (I.E., HTTP, SOAP, and JavaBeans). Primary components of the platform are the Records Manager, which provides the main records classification and policy-based disposition engine of the platform; the Physical Records Manager, which enables the management of physical records and non-records content which is not stored in the Content Server in electronic form; Notification Services; and Adapter Services.

This last component, in particular, provides for the hot-plugging of adapters that can be used to integrate the platform with external repositories; enabling the product to apply retention and records management policies to the content within those repositories. Adapters are listed as available for File Servers, Symantec Enterprise Vault, Microsoft Sharepoint, and, in the new release of the product (the first release from Oracle), Oracle Universal Content Management, Oracle Imaging and Process Management, and a new generic adapter that the vendor states "...can be applied to most repositories." The adapters themselves are built on a Web services-based API, which can also be used by 3rd party customers/partners to adapt custom efforts for use with URM (an SDK is available in both Java and .NET flavors).

A key feature of the URM architecture made possible via its adapter-based technology is its ability to manage content "in-place," without requiring the original content to be moved to a central location. Adapters can automatically update the central server content catalogs, as well as implement disposition actions or execute legal/audit freezes.

URM is available now, both individually ($100,000 per CPU, plus $10,000 per agent CPU) and as a part of the vendor's Oracle Enterprise Content Management Suite ($150,000 per CPU), which bundles Oracle Universal Content Management, Oracle Imaging and Process Management, and Oracle Universal Records Management.

Visit the Oracle Web site for further information.