OpenText Content Management Records Administration Training Course

Course overview

Records administrators must make defensible decisions about what becomes a record, how long it is retained, who can access it, and when it can be disposed of. In OpenText Content Management environments, weak configuration can leave business content unmanaged, apply the wrong retention schedule, prevent valid disposition, or expose sensitive records during audit and legal review. This course addresses the operational work of administering records controls in OpenText Content Server and connected business workspaces.

Participants learn to configure and maintain records classifications, retention schedules, security controls, holds, dispositions, and physical objects within OpenText Records Management. The course examines the relationship between content metadata, classifications, record status, retention events, and disposition workflows. Participants practise creating file plans, assigning retention policies, declaring and managing records, applying holds, running records reports, and investigating common administration issues using the relevant OpenText administration tools.

Instruction combines guided configuration demonstrations with hands-on exercises in a realistic records repository. Participants work through a case involving employee, contract, and project records, building controls that meet stated retention, access, and disposal requirements. They leave with a completed records administration configuration pack: a draft file plan, retention schedule mappings, hold and disposition procedures, access-control decisions, reporting checklist, and a practical implementation plan for their own OpenText environment.

The course is designed for records and information management professionals who already work with OpenText Content Management and need to administer records controls rather than simply use the repository. It also suits platform administrators and compliance staff responsible for translating policy requirements into repeatable system configuration and evidence.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Configure a records classification scheme and file plan in OpenText Records Management
• Create retention schedules using retention events, fixed periods, and disposition actions
• Apply record declarations, classifications, and metadata rules to OpenText Content Server content
• Set security permissions for records folders, categories, holds, and disposition functions
• Administer legal holds and document their effect on retention and disposition processing
• Run records management searches, reports, and audit reviews to evidence control operation
• Troubleshoot common record lifecycle issues involving classification, retention, and permissions
• Produce a records administration configuration pack for an organisational business scenario

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Records Managers — who must translate retention policy and disposal authority into system controls
• Information Governance Managers — who need evidence that records obligations are consistently applied
• OpenText Content Server Administrators — who configure repository structures, permissions, and business rules
• Compliance Officers — who oversee retention, legal hold, audit, and regulated information requirements
• Information Management Specialists — who design file plans, metadata models, and lifecycle procedures
• System Owners — who are accountable for operational controls in an OpenText content repository

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience navigating OpenText Content Server or OpenText Extended ECM, including browsing workspaces, viewing metadata, creating folders, and managing basic permissions. Familiarity with their organisation’s records policy, retention schedule, or file plan is strongly recommended, as participants will translate these controls into configuration decisions. The course assumes an intermediate understanding of records concepts such as retention, disposition, classification, and legal hold. Prior OpenText Records Management administration experience is not required. No programming, database administration, scripting, or formal archival qualification is needed.

Training methodology

The instructor uses short technical briefings to establish records-management decisions, followed by guided configuration in an OpenText training environment. Participants create classifications, retention schedules, holds, permissions, and disposition actions against a continuing business case rather than isolated demonstrations. Small-group reviews test whether proposed controls satisfy policy, audit, and operational requirements. Daily troubleshooting clinics use deliberately misconfigured records to build diagnostic judgement. The final workshop converts the casework into an implementation plan and administration pack that participants can adapt for their own repository.

Course outline

Day 1: Records governance and repository foundations

• OpenText Content Server and Records Management architecture
• Records lifecycle stages from capture through disposition
• ISO 15489 records management principles
• File plans, classifications, and records aggregation structures
• Metadata categories and attributes supporting record control
• Roles, permissions, and records administration responsibilities
• Mapping organisational policy requirements to repository controls

Workshop: Participants analyse a business records policy and produce a first-pass file plan with classifications, owners, and control requirements.

Day 2: Classification, declaration, and retention configuration

• Creating classifications and hierarchical file plan structures
• Configuring records folders and records management containers
• Record declaration methods and declaration criteria
• Retention schedules and retention policy objects
• Event-based, time-based, and trigger-based retention calculations
• Applying retention schedules to classifications and records
• Validating metadata inheritance and classification assignments

Workshop: Participants configure classifications and retention schedules for contract and employee records, then test record declaration and retention assignment.

Day 3: Security, holds, and disposition control

• Records permissions and functional access rights
• Security design for restricted and confidential records
• Legal hold creation, assignment, and release procedures
• Hold precedence over retention and disposition processing
• Disposition actions, approvals, and disposal authorities
• Reviewing records due for disposition
• Documenting defensible destruction and transfer decisions

Workshop: Participants apply a legal hold to a litigation scenario, configure restricted access, and prepare a disposition decision record for eligible content.

Day 4: Administration, reporting, and issue resolution

• Records administration views and management functions
• Searching for records by classification, status, hold, and retention attributes
• Records reports for retention, disposition, and hold monitoring
• Audit trails and evidence of administrative actions
• Bulk review techniques for records lifecycle exceptions
• Diagnosing classification, permission, and retention calculation errors
• Operational procedures for periodic records administration

Workshop: Participants investigate a set of misconfigured records, correct the lifecycle issues, and produce an audit-ready exception report.

Day 5: Implementation planning and operational assurance

• Designing records administration operating procedures
• Retention schedule governance and change-control methods
• Testing records controls before production deployment
• Migration and legacy-content records considerations
• OpenText Archive Center integration considerations
• Records performance indicators and compliance monitoring
• Building a phased OpenText records implementation roadmap

Workshop: Participants assemble and present a records administration configuration pack and 90-day implementation plan for the course case organisation.

Tools & standards covered

OpenText Content Server, OpenText Records Management, OpenText Archive Center, ISO 15489

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions