Email Management Brings Harmony to Discovery, Compliance and Storage
Everyone's talking about it. It's a top issue at industry events. It's permeating the entire organization—from the CFO, to legal counsel, to compliance and records managers—it's no longer just a technology thing. What once was simply an information transport system, email has become a valuable repository of corporate records and the subject of serious attention.
Email is increasingly being admitted as evidence in corporate litigation, sending many organizations through painful and expensive efforts to restore and produce email files. New e-discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are also on their way, which will affect every organization. As industry regulations tighten, compliance is an ever-evolving concern. All the while, the exponential growth of corporate email is driving total storage costs up and productivity down. Everyone is looking to control email volumes before they get out of hand.
There's no denying it—the issues are significant, and the risk is high. It's no wonder email management is a focus on corporate agendas today. As issues with managing email affect more and more areas across the enterprise, a comprehensive, well-thought-out solution becomes paramount.
Historically, many organizations have attacked these issues at the pain point with archiving strategies that simply retain everything. However, after a year or two of doing so, they're finding themselves overwhelmed with masses of emails of unknown business value. Others have imposed strict space and time quotas only to learn their users have found a work-around by storing email locally, exposing the organization to unimagined risk and lost productivity when local drives are seized for discovery.
These are just a few examples, but the list goes on. The point is, it's an organization-wide issue and it requires an organization-wide solution that addresses all these goals:
- Identifies and protects company records;
- Aggressively prevents accumulation of "convenience" email;
- Allows temporary retention of certain email based on business value;
- Complies with laws and regulations;
- Supports litigation policies and processes; and
- Is usable for all your employees.
Email Zone Management
The solution starts with the ability to identify what is and is not an intended (official) company email record. This is possible through "zone management"—managing the mail system based on the business value of each email. The key to zone management is end-user control. Remember, email is really an individual application provided by a corporate system. Individual employees are the subject-matter experts on what lies within their mailboxes.
Email zone management leverages concepts already familiar to the end user. Most employees use their desk surface to store items requiring immediate access. Working files are kept close and stored in nearby file drawers. Intended records, which the company must keep for compliance requirements, are typically stored centrally or off-site. People naturally manage physical records because they cause clutter and take up space, neither of which is obvious to end users in an email system.
Applying a similar approach to email, we can make it obvious and natural for our employees to help accomplish all the goals mentioned earlier. By dividing an email box into "immediate," "working" and "records" zones, employees can designate each email into a folder associated with the appropriate zone. "Immediate" is like a user's desk surface, temporarily storing emails of immediate need. This zone is IT-controlled based on time limits. "Working" is like a department file cabinet, keeping emails with near-term business value. This zone is space-controlled by the mail user. Like a file cabinet, when there's no space, files are deleted or archived. Finally, "records" is reserved only for those emails that are official records. Once users declare emails as intended records, they fall under corporate control and are controlled by the official retention schedule.
With this simple email management strategy, you are now able to distinguish intended email records from the rest of the email clutter. You can now treat those intended records appropriately by disposing of them according to your records retention policies. You have confidently prevented the accumulation of non-essential email—a substantial benefit because there is less to retain, less to search and less to discover. And last, but perhaps most important, you've given your employees a non-intrusive, productive working environment.
Integro helps companies design and deploy enterprise content management solutions for email, records, and document management, as well as enterprise search. Integro's "policy to technology" services include business consulting, systems integration and training. Integro's clients are mid-size and Fortune 500 firms across the US and Canada, and span a range of industries. For more information: call 888-575-9300 or visit
www.Integro.com.