We’ve covered the benefits of a quick, simple content export for tasks such as legal holds or review lists. But what about when you are working with a lot of content and need to share its metadata with others?
A set of data that provides information about other data, metadata can be anything from the document title and content type to date created and keyword tags (see figure 1). Beyond making content searchable, metadata can serve as an aid in many organizational instances.
Using the metadata export functionality from the cloud-based data lake solution Collabspace, we’re going to describe six ways the ability to export content metadata can provide value for organizations:
1. Providing those outside of the content solution with information
The top value of this type of functionality is the ability to select one, several, or all pieces content in a search template, review list, or hold in Collabspace and share its metadata with those outside the platform. Selected metadata can be exported into a spreadsheet and shared within minutes.
As a use case scenario, if the procurement manager of an organization required overview of the state and last modified date for project contracts to make sure his team was on track for content review, he could request that information from a team member that has Collabspace permissions to access, export, and share a list of modification dates in spreadsheet form.
Figure 1: some of the metadata properties listed in Collabspace
2. Share all or select metadata
In some instances, it’s only necessary to send partial information about content to colleagues, clients, etc. While there is an option to select and export all metadata of the chosen content, Collabspace users can also customize what metadata properties show on their template or list and then select the metadata with current view (see figure 2). For example, only sending file name, type, version, and last date modified to the prior-mentioned Procurement manager.
Figure 2: Users have the option to either export all metadata properties or those within the current view.
3. Some tasks only require information about the content
While it is important to be able to quickly export and share full content from your storage, sometimes colleagues only require information about the data rather than entire documents. For example, in the case of a litigation where a legal hold needs to be placed on relevant content to send to lawyers, this type of functionality could prove very useful. The organization involved could assign an employee to select and put content on legal hold, and then share certain metadata properties from this content to the legal team for approval on whether this content is applicable before all the actual files are exported and shared.
Figure 3: It is not always necessary to send all content. In the case of a legal hold, it would save time and money to send file names and content location when confirming with lawyers that the content included is relevant, before exporting and sending over entire files.
4. Cost savings
The ability to export metadata can also bring cost savings. In cases such as legal retrieval audits, many organizations spend money for third party sources to conduct costly outsourced services. This is not only expensive, but frustrating for the records managers if there is a wait period for the audit results. With the metadata functionality, records managers with permissions can search Collabspace for all necessary content and export the metadata within minutes, bringing ROI to the organization.
5. Useful for reporting and analyzing content
Exported metadata can be transferred into nearly any platform that can produce a list of content. This way, exporting metadata about content issues, volumes, types, sizes, etc can be used as for reporting and analyzing the content.
For example, when someone outside of the Collabspace platform wants to know what SharePoint content for their team is coming up for disposition, they can request a spreadsheet of metadata showing upcoming review dates. It can also be useful for reporting on record category content, how much space, how many files, seeing what state in the content is at in its lifecycle, etc.
6. Can be used for physical records
Regarding physical records circulation, with Collabspace physical records functionalities, metadata exports can be used to report on charged out items that are past due and during circulation. For example, for inventory managers who need to know who has requested a box, they can request metadata properties showing who to charge out and deliver this box to. Metadata export is enough to determine who has requested and where to get this content from so it can be delivered quickly.
Conclusion
Just like the content itself, there is a lot of value which knowing the metadata can provide an organization. Reach out to us if you’d like to learn more about how Collabspace metadata export can benefit your organization. Or, read our blog to learn more about the Collabspace data lake solution and all of its features. We've included our free product brochure below:
