Patent ID: 8327384

Claim:
A computer implemented method of managing the retention and disposition of data in an Enterprise Retention Management System comprising: providing at least one event consumer, wherein data is stored in the at least one event consumer; providing at least one event producer, wherein at least one business event message originates in the at least one event producer, wherein the at least one business event message provides an indication of at least one business event has an intended effect on at least a portion of the data within the at least one event consumer, and wherein the at least one business event indicates a change in status at an organization; polling the at least one event producer about what type of events are produced by the at least one event producer; receiving, from the at least one event producer, information about what type of events are produced by the at least one event producer, wherein each type of event produced by the at least one event producer declares at least one event parameter, and wherein the at least one business event is of an event type in the type of events produced by the at least one event producer; providing an Enterprise Retention Management System; propagating the at least one business event message from the at least one event producer to the Enterprise Retention Management System; identifying a portion of the data within the event consumer affected by the business event message; translating the at least one business event into a data disposition request, wherein the data disposition request is of a data disposition type that is related to the event type of the at least one business event; propagating the data disposition request to the at least one event consumer; and disposing of at least a portion of the data within the event consumer based on the disposition request.