In this Integro white paper, authors David Hopkins and Doug Magnuson provide valuable insight into best practices in email management. Hopkins, a certified records manager and Magnuson, a 30-year information management veteran, expand on 10 steps to a successful comprehensive email management solution.

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Excerpt:

Introduction

Once considered simply an information transport, email today has become a storage location for official documents or records. A variety of pressures are forcing companies to look at their strategy for managing email. Not only has email become admissible in legal discoveries, several industries are seeing strict regulations placed on them for records management. These issues in turn drive the need to effectively store and archive the mass of emails that continue to grow exponentially. All this is taking email archiving to a new level. A comprehensive email management solution looks at more than storage restrictions - it depends on business value. The solution must manage the entire life of an email from creation to disposition. A well thought out solution can help companies:

• Reduce legal risk
• Comply with regulations
• Maximize productivity
• Reduce storage costs

Email As Records

Some emails will constitute official corporate records and must be managed in accordance with approved methods of retention, as specified in organizational directives and documented staff responsibilities. Emails will constitute official corporate records provided that each of the following criteria are applicable:

• They are created and/ or received in connect ion with the organization’s business mandate.
• They serve as confirmation of an official corporate responsibility and/or action that has or has not been undertaken.
• They constitute the official master copy of the record. This means that they are the most comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date of all existing record versions.

Emails that constitute official corporate records must be managed in the same fashion as all other corporate records (e.g., file folders, binders, database and network digital data, etc.). This requirement is specified in the recognized standard Managing Electronic Messages as Records, which was produced by the American Nat ional Standards Institute ( ANSI ) in conjunction with the Association of Records Managers and Administrators Inc. ( ARMA ).

Emails have existed since 1965, but they have become increasingly common within the last decade. The majority of persons now use at least one email account (either corporate or personal). Emails have largely supplanted the traditional methods of disseminating corporate information via interoffice mail and communicating in written format with relatives and friends by sending hard-copy letters delivered through the postal system.

However, a number of issues must be addressed in order to best utilize and reduce risks associated with emails. Some of these issues are also common to other documented information resources like hard-copy files or microfilm rolls. The key issues concerning email management are discussed in more detail in the following sections of this document.

It is important to note that best practices for management of emails requires both technical solutions (interfaces, storage repositories) and non-technical solutions (user guidelines, training, procedures).