The primary benchmark for creating and managing electronic records in office environments which is endorsed by the National Archives and Records Service is contained in the suite of publications Principles and Functional Requirements for Records in Electronic Office Environments adopted by the International Council on Archives in 2008. Module 2 of these publications, Guidelines and Functional Requirements for Electronic Records Management Systems (website link: http://www.ica.org/en/node/38970) relates to structured records systems such as those in which records are managed according to a file plan. A product that complies with these standards or those contained in the European Commission’s
Model Requirements for the Management of Electronic Records (MoReq) (website link: http://www.cornwell.co.uk/edrm/moreq.asp), or the US DoD 5015.2 Design Criteria Standard for Electronic Records Management Software Applications would ensure that the electronic records management application has the generic records management functionality required by the National Archives and Records Service.

The National Archives and Records Service requires governmental bodies to implement and maintain Integrated Document and Records Management Solutions that provide as a minimum the following records management functionality:

· managing a corporate file plan according to which records are filed;
· managing e-mail as records;
· managing websites as records;
· maintaining the relationships between records and files, and between file series and the file plan;
· identifying records that are due for disposal and managing the disposal process;
· associating the contextual and structural data within a document;
· constructing and managing audit trails;
· managing record version control;
· managing the integrity and reliability of records once they have been declared as such; and
· managing records in all formats in an integrated manner.