Email and calendar
Exchange Online carries federal correspondence, and most agency decisions still start and end in email, which makes the inbox one of the largest sources of federal records.
Records in Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365, all the way to NARA.
Federal agencies have standardized on Microsoft 365. Email, SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive are where most federal records are now born. It's a superb collaboration platform, built for the way federal teams work together. Feith RMA iQ makes the records born in M365 meet NARA's requirements (cross-system capture, case-file logic, multi-stage disposition, and the federal transfer obligation) without moving them out.
6 / 6 NARA UERM categoriesM365 covers part of each; Feith closes all six
4 M365 surfaces, capturedExchange · SharePoint · Teams · OneDrive, plus the audit log
0 Records relocatedContent stays in M365; Feith governs it in place
IL4 / 5 Azure Government posturesCommercial, GCC / GCC High / DoD, or on-prem capture
Where the work happens
Microsoft 365 is an exceptional collaboration platform.
Email, documents, chat, and files in one place: it's where federal teams do the work, and where most federal records are now born. Feith adds the recordkeeping layer on top.
Documents and sites
SharePoint Online holds the documents, libraries, and sites teams build their work on. It's where a draft becomes the official version.
Chat and meetings
Teams carries the day-to-day: the messages, channels, and meetings where decisions actually get made, and increasingly where they're recorded.
Files and search
OneDrive keeps individual work, and M365 search makes it findable across the tenant. Fast, familiar, and everywhere agencies already work.
That's exactly why records management has to be deliberate in M365: it's where the records are. A collaboration platform and a federal recordkeeping system do different jobs. M365 was built to help teams work together. Capturing every record into a federal file plan, classifying it, gating its disposition through approval, and transferring it to NARA: that's the work Feith adds. How Feith captures from M365
Where the baseline stops
Six places M365 stops short of full NARA UERM.
NARA's Universal Electronic Records Management requirements define six functional categories. M365 covers part of each; full NARA compliance takes the capability it leaves out. Those gaps show up once agencies move past routine content into mission records, cross-system capture, and the federal transfer obligation.
Capture
What M365 covers
M365-native surfaces only.
What full UERM requires: Feith delivers
Records also live in ServiceNow, Salesforce, case systems, legacy DMS, SMS, social media, and paper. Those land outside M365's retention scope, so Feith captures them into one file plan.
Maintain & use
What M365 covers
One retention label per item, applied flat.
What full UERM requires: Feith delivers
Mission and case records need layered classification: a case file with sub-categories, each carrying its own retention, all contingent on closure and approval.
Disposal
What M365 covers
Policy-driven deletion at the retention trigger.
What full UERM requires: Feith delivers
Federal disposition needs multi-step approval before destruction or transfer, with records custodian, agency counsel, and program office signing off independently.
Transfer
What M365 covers
Manual export workflows.
What full UERM requires: Feith delivers
NARA transfer requires the ERA package: SF-258 metadata, record-series mapping, accession bundles, and the cryptographic artifacts NARA accepts.
Metadata
What M365 covers
Per-workload schema that varies across Exchange, SharePoint, and Teams.
What full UERM requires: Feith delivers
The five NARA-mandated fields (Identifier, Title, Description, Creator, Date) present, normalized, and durable on every captured record, with room for agency extensions.
Reporting
What M365 covers
Posture dashboards and per-policy summaries.
What full UERM requires: Feith delivers
Records officers need disposition-readiness reports, transfer manifests, schedule-coverage maps, and audit-ready evidence packages for inspectors general.
M365 plus Feith closes all six.
Your records stay in SharePoint, Exchange, and Teams. The compliance layer that makes them defensible lives in Feith.
See how Feith closes themThe augmentation layer
RMA iQ closes every gap, without moving your records.
RMA iQ runs alongside M365 and extends it into full UERM compliance. Records stay where they're created. Three capabilities close the gaps that turn an audit into a bad day; six more fill in the rest of the surface.
Accession and transfer to NARA
Produces the ERA package, SF-258 metadata, and record-series mapping NARA requires, and manages the transfer manifest end to end. This is the accession work Feith takes on.
Multi-stage disposition approval
Records officer, agency counsel, and program office sign off independently before any destruction or transfer, routed through the Feith workflow engine. Holds persist until every stakeholder signs.
Classification, markings, and CUI at IL4/5/6
Banner enforcement, marking inheritance through derivative records, and CUI tagging with downgrade and declassification logic: what takes the page from commercial M365 to classified workloads.
Multi-pick NARA classification
A record can hold several classifications and category memberships, each with its own retention. The longest applicable retention prevails.
Closes: Maintain & useMulti-stage retention triggers
Time- and event-based triggers chain: active → inactive on a date → eligible on case closure → through approval to final disposition.
Closes: Maintain & useNARA metadata normalization
The five mandated fields are captured at intake across every connected source, normalized to UTC, and held in a durable schema independent of M365's per-workload variations.
Closes: MetadataFile-plan inheritance across surfaces
One agency-level file plan governs records inside M365 and outside it. Divisions, branches, and offices inherit rather than duplicate.
Closes: Maintain & useEvent-based disposition
Records move on real business events (case closed, contract expired, FOIA resolved) captured from the systems where those events happen.
Closes: DisposalDeclassification, FOIA/PA, interagency tasking
Workflow-driven modules for classified review, FOIA case management, and cross-agency tasking, each integrating back into the file plan.
Closes: Beyond UERMRMA iQ is built to DoDM 8180.01, JITC-tested under the legacy DoD 5015.02-STD. Access control is ABAC and RBAC, evaluated per request, so sensitive and classified records are confined to authorized identities by policy, not by folder convention.
The engine behind these capabilities: see RMA iQ
Worked examples
Two places agencies feel the gap first.
The gap analysis is abstract until you watch it play out on a real record. The first example is a mission record traveling as a case. The second is one agency's disposition schedule trying to govern dozens of offices.
1 · A case file, two architectures
Microsoft 365 aloneFlat labeling
MemoCorrespondence
Subject interviewCorrespondence
Interview transcriptCorrespondence
SubpoenaCorrespondence
Disposition memoCorrespondence
Closing reportCorrespondence
Retention7 years from creation
ScopePer record · no case grouping
HoldQuery-scoped eDiscovery
Each record carries one label. No case grouping. Disposition runs per record on the label's schedule, independent of case state.
M365 + Feith RMA iQLayered · case-aware
Case file · Investigation-074
CategoryInvestigation
Sub-categorySubject file
SensitivityCUI//PRVCY
Hold statePending closure
MemoSubject interviewInterview transcriptSubpoenaDisposition memoClosing report
Disposition chain · 4 gates
1Records intakeReview
2Records officerDisposition memo
3Agency counselLegal hold cleared
4Transfer or disposalERA or destroy
Records inherit case context and multi-pick classification. Disposition is gated on case closure plus multi-stage approval: the hold persists until every stakeholder signs.
The records still live in SharePoint, Exchange, and Teams. The case context, classification, and approval gates live in Feith.
2 · One schedule, inherited everywhere
The General Records Schedule covers basic financial and personnel records; mission records need agency-specific authority. Managing the one-to-many relationship between record series and the offices that use them produces a known burden inside M365: a duplicate series per office, and schedule drift over time. Feith collapses it into one agency-level schedule that every unit inherits.
Agency-wide disposition schedule GRS + agency-specific authorities
inherited by every division ↓
Mission Operations
Field Investigations
Regulatory Affairs
…and by the branches and offices beneath them, no duplicate schedules ↓
Policy Office
Region IV Field Office
Subject Files Office
Rule Drafting Office
Enforcement Region V
Citizen Inquiries Office
Physical and electronic records share the same schedule. Records inside and outside M365 share the same schedule. The GRS and agency-specific authorities are combined and applied uniformly.
Co-located deployment
Feith runs in the same cloud as your M365.
Deployed in Microsoft Azure, the augmentation layer sits in the same regional cloud as your M365 tenant. Capture traffic stays inside the Azure network boundary. Latency drops, administrative surface area collapses, and identity, access, and monitoring run through one control plane.
Microsoft Azure · commercial or government region
Microsoft 365M365 tenant
Exchange OnlineSharePoint OnlineTeamsOneDrivePurviewUnified audit log
Capture · Graph API webhook + polled fallback
Augmentation layerFeith RMA iQ
Capture servicesRecords engineWorkflow enginePrompt RunnerABAC policy engineERA transfer service
ABAC decisions per-request evaluation
Agency-ownedIdentity & monitoring
Entra IDSentinelYour SIEMAgency PKI
All ↔ monitoringAudit telemetry streamed to Sentinel / SIEM · single retention store
Network traffic stays within the region
One control plane
User management, access policy, and monitoring run through a single identity provider and one telemetry pipeline.
Traffic stays in region
Capture from M365 to Feith never leaves the Azure region boundary. Latency drops; administrative surface area collapses.
Commercial or Government
IL4 and IL5 postures are supported in Azure Government. Air-gapped and on-prem deployments remain available for agencies that require them.
Engine and deployment details: see RMA iQ
How we get there
A repeatable path from baseline M365 to full UERM.
Feith's federal records practice runs the same seven steps on every engagement. Each step extends the M365 baseline rather than replacing it, and the loop repeats as systems are added, upgraded, replaced, or retired.
1
Simplify
Define a minimum viable UERM posture before scoping any technology.
2
Analyze
Inventory records-bearing systems. Map current retention coverage against the UERM gap.
3
Prioritize
Sequence systems by records risk and volume. Exchange and SharePoint usually lead.
4
Integrate
Extend each target system with the augmentation layer instead of rebuilding records management inside it.
5
Monitor
Set success criteria. Audit for coverage and schedule drift; keep per-source retention health visible.
6
Decommission
Sunset legacy systems, but capture their records into the durable file plan first.
7
Repeat
Run the loop as systems change. The method is the operating model.
The steps repeat continuously as agency systems change. The method is the operating model.
Engage
Build the M365 records architecture that holds up to a NARA inspection.
Talk to a federal records engineer about your M365 deployment, your UERM gap, and the specific RMA iQ configuration that closes it. The conversation starts with your current schedule, your current sources, and where the work hurts.
Available through
GSA MAS · SEWP V · CIO-SP3 · State and local cooperative vehicles · Direct procurement
Azure Commercial · Azure Government (IL4/IL5) · On-prem with M365 capture
An engineer will respond within one business day.
We'll come in with questions about your current schedule, your current source systems, and where the gaps land first. Look for an email from a Feith records engineer, a real person on the records team.
This page complements Integrations & Capture (M365 connector anatomy) and RMA iQ (records engine and deployment).