Email, Email, who's got the Email?

This is a question that content and records managers, as well as the management team, in an organization need to ask. Not just who’s got the email but where do they have it stored? Email is the fastest growing element in our world of information glut. We know that inboxes are filling up at an unbelievable rate both on the employee’s PC and on the corporate server but where else can this information hide? Think about this for a moment in relation to what you or your fellow employees might do if you want to have a copy elsewhere or if you want to share the information with someone.

 

My guess is that instinct takes over and you forward the email to that person with attachments is they exist. I would also guess that if you want to work on the attachment in an email and you have no way to bring your PC home or offload the attachment to a shared drive or thumb drive, you email it to yourself. So, where do all the emails in your organization reside?

 

In my view, you must remember and the organization needs to accept is that email, like any other content or record that is of a business nature belongs to the organization not the individual. As such, you must have a policy and process in pace to address the proper management of email and email attachments. Who is responsible for the capture and storage of email when sent? Who is responsible to capture and storage of email when received from outside the organization? Do you save the attachment, text body or both? Where do you store the email when it is captured and are duplicates allowed? Do you allow storage of email to a handheld/PDA? Do you allow email to be forward to a personal account?

 

All of this is vital to sound governance and management of all your information. All of this needs careful attention and planning. All of this needs to be taught and enforced across the organization to ensure compliance and consistency. I hope this helped provide a better perspective on the importance of email management and things to consider as you move forward with your efforts to control and manage information more effectively.

 

 What say you? How do you handle email? Do you have a story to tell? I want to hear from you and learn what you and your organization are doing.

 

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Bob Larrivee – AIIM

blarrivee@aiim.org

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Comments

[James]

Hi Bob,

Many of our clients are using SharePoint and OnePlaceMail as solution to seamlessly mange emails within SharePoint. OnePlaceMail provides the seamless connectivity and capture of email metadata/additional Columns as defined in SharePoint Libraries/List and content types.

Using SharePoint and OnePlaceMail, the emails are classified/ connected to the appropriate Content Types and are therefore managed according to the record retention/policies of the organisation.

See the screencast on our website for further information. You are welcome to download a free trial of OnePlaceMail at:
http://www.scinaptic.com/oneplacemail

Regards,
James Fox

[Christophe MONNIER]

This is an intersting post ; I agree with you Bob.

There is an old and major misunderstanding about our use of e-mailing ; e-mailing should just be a simple way to send/ receive informations,not a tool to store, share and use the company knowledge. This is very useful to say it again and again ; but of course, if there is no other tool to help (a basic document management is enough but a strong culture to share information is the first prerequisite) , e-mail will continue a bad answser to a good question.

- - - Christophe MONNIER - Consultant

Montpellier, France
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[Frédéric Veve]

Hi Bob,

I agree with you. I'm working as a communication consultant for a French Companie who developed a soft (Pi-Host) who is an ECm suite.
On of is top effect is to manage the document flow directly coming in or going out of the user desk. It manages Email in the same way. When a email comes on the desk it is automatically or intuitively stored. They use existing applications of the company, so as the user do not have to learn new techniques.
Their vision is that if you want people to share mail, to organize them to be shared, it must be intuitive, easy, fast enough. I guess it is the good way. if it is simple for users, they are motivated to do so. And people who are motivated produce good results, and good results give fast ROI.

Frédéric VEVE
Communication Consultant
Paris -France

[Harold Rozario]

Hello Bob,
First, thanks of addressing this old issue again. Information Management foot soldiers in many organizations have long raised this flag. However with policies, procedures and etiquette, human behavior is difficult to curb. Sending emails home or to other external sources is rampant and one of those reasons could be the burden of workload. With Berries (comes in more flavors than Black) for example, you are essentially tied to your organization even after hours. So, the major players to control still come down to company senior management’s commitment to strategy.

Harold Rozario
Wise RIM Consultant