Sergio Magliulo

A business classification scheme (BCS) is a full representation of the business of an organisation. As such, it is a useful method of organising information for purposes such as:

• Retrieval
• Storage
• More involved processes of (records) management, such as disposal scheduling.

A BCS is a virtual or logical construct rather than a physical entity. It has no role beyond the highly important and multifaceted one of aiding the various users of the system to interface with the technology whether their task is entering information into the system, managing it within it, or retrieving it from the system.

The BCS is principally important because it is:

• The principal classification used for the management of disposal; and
• An essential part of the interface for the end user.

Retrieval of electronic objects from the electronic repository can be achieved in a variety of ways:

• Advanced/assisted retrieval techniques perhaps using Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) and ‘fuzzy logic’;
• Advanced search techniques such as multiple query formulation and Boolean operators;
• Simpler search techniques on record content (text retrieval), metadata (at the record, folder or class levels of aggregation); or
• Browsing or searching the BCS using a graphical interface.

Intellectual structures

Commonly, the intellectual structures for a business classification scheme fall into four types:

Functional: Functions -> Activities -> Transactions

• The functions that an organisation carries out change less frequently than its organisational structure.
• When moving functions between organisations, it is easier to restructure corporate filing systems.
• A strict functional approach will not support case files well.
• Records managers like functional structures (management is easier); users do not understand and dislike them (because they are hard to use).

Subject / thematic

• Enables a more common approach across information systems: electronic document and records management systems, websites, Intranets, etc.
• More easily recognised and understood by users, but…
• interpretation and understanding may vary considerably between user groups.

Organisational

• Familiar structure to end users, perhaps from the paper environment, but high maintenance and subject to frequent change.
• Continuity over time is difficult.

Hybrid

• Enables compromise between a strict purist approach and operational flexibility.
• For example: Functional at a broad level (with disposal rules mostly operating at that level), with subject-based sub-classes.

Key question of approach

The key question is: ‘What kinds of structures provide a satisfactory balance for a business classification scheme between stable corporate integration and effective management, and flexible response to changing user needs and effective use’?

The main methodologies

The main purposes of a BCS may be summarised as being:

• Providing links between records that originate from the same activity or from related activities;
• Determining where a record should be placed in a larger aggregation of records;
• Assisting users in retrieving records;
• Assisting users in interpreting records;

also:

• Assigning and controlling retention periods; and
• [possibly also] assigning and controlling access rights and security markings.

Although all records managers can agree on the need for a BCS, there is no clear single line of argument from the specifications above to a particular type of scheme.
Creating a viable, accessible corporate view of the organisation’s records resource is an opportunity to structure information more imaginatively and to realise many of the business benefits identified above. The balance chosen will reflect both business needs and organisational culture (including the extent to which cultural change is achievable). A BCS may be organised in one of the following ways, or may involve a combination of approaches.

• Process driven: i.e. the immediate processes of the organization
• Service driven: i.e. the customers’ view of those processes
• Subject category driven
• Functional basis
• A combination or hybrid of the above approaches

The discussion of the balance of advantage between these is summarised in the table below:

More on classification

Classification is

the process of devising and applying schemes based on the business activities which generate records, whereby they are categorised in systematic and consistent ways to facilitate their capture, retrieval, maintenance and disposal. Classification includes the determination of document or file naming conventions, user permissions and security restrictions on records.”
[Australian Standard AS 4390, Records Management , Part 1 Definitions , Clause 4.8, 1996]

Classification is a scheme of control based on an analysis of functions and activities of an organisation. The analysis focuses on the goals and strategies of the organisation, how these are pursued through the broad functions and activities of the organisation, the activities which are the accomplishment of the function, and the transactions which constitute the activities.

Such an analysis can be reproduced into a hierarchical model of an organisation’s business functions and activities.

Hierarchical model of an organisation's business functions and activities

A preliminary investigation is required for the collection of documentary sources and information gathered through interviews for the documenting of:

• the organisation’s role and purpose
• structure
• the organisation’s environment (legal, regulatory, business and political)
• critical factors affecting recordkeeping
• critical weaknesses associated with recordkeeping.

In addition, the analysis of business activity is required for the identification of functions, activities and transactions. These then need to be placed in a hierarchy or business classification scheme. The analysis undertaken at this point may be used in many ways, it is a situation of ‘do it once but enjoy many benefits’. The business classification scheme derived from this analysis can be used for intellectual control, for example a thesaurus, appraising and sentencing records, and establishing what records need to be created and captured.

An organization’s annual report and corporate plan are helpful in identifying functions and activities which can be melded into a business classification scheme. Once functions and activities are identified, these are then arranged into a hierarchy. A challenge is in changing mindsets as many people are used to subject based classifications.