Security within UCM operates at the document or content level. The first step in securing content occurs upon entering the document into the system. When an item is checked into the system, certain metadata information is required, one of which associates the document to one specific security group. While UCM comes with two out-of-the-box groups, additional groups are easy to add. The next step is permissions and roles. Permissions consist of capabilities, including read, write, delete and admin. Roles are groupings of permissions. Some roles might have read and write capabilities and other roles might have admin rights. Once roles and permissions are associated, the fourth step to document security is to assign users to roles.

Let’s look at an example to demonstrate the first four steps of securing a document. Ben Adams, in Figure 1, has a Subadmin role in the public group, which means he has read, write, delete and admin capabilities.