"Compliance" is a word that can make a CIO cringe, especially when it comes to document retention and -- just as important -- destruction.

The Bottom Line NextPage 2 Document Retention NextPage, nextpage.com Excellent  8.8 criteria score weight Ease-of-use 9 25% Features 9 25% Security 8 15% Scalability 10 15% Management 8 10% Value 8 10% Cost: Base cost is $100 per user per year with volume discounts (minimum base price of $25,000) Platforms: OS: Windows XP or 2000; productivity: Office 2003 or XP (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint); e-mail: Outlook, Lotus Domino Bottom Line: NextPage 2 Document Retention is a distributed document management tool that will actually get used. Once installed, NextPage 2 Document Retention agents unobtrusively observe document actions on each user’s machine to keep track of documents as they move around the network. Its light touch will dovetail nicely into established workflows. About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology

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Traditional document management products require that knowledge workers use a centralized system to track documents associated with a project. For some organizations, this is just enough of a disruption to established workflows that the systems frequently aren't used at all. The very applications we use to create, edit, and share documents often compound the management problem by hiding multiple copies all over the computer.

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NextPage 2 Document Retention changes all that. The beauty of Document Retention is that it increases compliance with your organization's document retention policy without requiring significant changes to an employee's normal work habits. Once installed, it functions as an interested observer, watching actions taken by the user and keeping track of document flow and versioning. What's more, Document Retention requires minimal information from the user to accomplish this task. 

Document Retention injects modest amounts of workflow into the user's normal routine, but does so at appropriate spots. The user creates, edits, saves, and shares Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents as usual; Document Retention watches these actions and creates a document tracking database in the background, based on the distributed information from each user. 

As I worked through my test scenarios with Document Retention, it was very easy to envision how a group could effectively use the tools to manage documents without significantly impacting their workflow. I suspect that after a few weeks, no one would even notice it was there. 

Installation and authorization
I tested Document Retention using two instances of Windows XP running inside the Parallels Desktop virtualization system on my MacBook Pro. These two instances acted as two different people working on the same project. My imaginary workers created, edited, and exchanged documents and e-mail messages in a simulated workflow. 

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The first job, of course, was to install the product — a simple task — and activate it. Activation ties the instance of Document Retention on a particular machine to a set of projects inside the enterprise. The installation process requests the user's e-mail address; if that address is one authorized by the central administrator, the system automatically sends an e-mail message with an activation attachment to complete the initialization.

When you first launch it, Document Retention brings up a page warning the user that Document Retention complies with strict privacy policies and requires that you click a box stating you've read the warning. When you link out, however, the site seems to offer a general NextPage privacy policy that applies to NextPage's Web site as much as it does the Document Retention product. This is confusing — a link to specific information about how the product handles personally-identifying data would be more comforting.

Natural interactions
The first time a new document is saved, Document Retention prompts the user to select an existing project to add to, or create a new one. Document Retention automatically tracks any new documents that the user creates, but needs the user to assign them to the correct project before tracking can begin. While only administrators can create permanent projects that are visible to all, anyone can create a private project that can later be made permanent. This allows individuals to begin work immediately without a cumbersome permissions process — a good example of Document Retention trying hard to not get in the way of getting things done.