Email Management, - how much do we have to manage?

A Record is defined by DOD5015.2 as “Information, regardless of medium, detailing business transactions. Records include all books, papers, maps, photographs, machine-readable materials, and other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics. Records are made or received by an Agency of the United States Government under Federal law or in connection with the transaction of public business”.

But what is a record in the private sector? ISO15489 tells you that a Record is “information created, received, and maintained as evidence and information by an organization or person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business”. This means that you should manage information that has legal, fiscal, administrative, historic, and transactional value for the organisation.  Or you can ask the following 3 questions; does the law require me to keep the information, does the information help me prove a business decision, or does the information help me to ensure business continuity?

So, - what should we then do about the millions of emails? The above definitions tell us that email should be managed based on its content and context, either manually by users or automatically by software, but some very experienced consultants still say that the organisation should delete as much emails as possible. For example; all emails are deleted automatically after 60 days except the very few emails that are required by law to be kept. They think that this reduces your storage requirements and liability, and email is then seen as an informal medium, which is then mentioned in all email footers.

What do you think is the best solution?

Comments

[Patricia Flournoy]

I am trying to find the salary range for an ECM Manager.

[Atle Skjekkeland]

I do not have any statistics available about this, and I suggest you check the salary levels for open positions published at the AIIM Job Center.