EMail Management The Great Unknown

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• Presented to
• ARMA Internationals
• Wyoming Chapter
• February 14, 2003

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• E-mail has become the most commonly used method
  for correspondence, both internal and external,
  in business today.

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• According to IDC, the world's leading provider of
  technology intelligence, industry analysis,
  market data, and strategic and tactical guidance
  to builders, providers, and users of information
  technology, figures for 2002 show that
• 60 of business-critical data is now stored in
  e-mail, including contracts, intellectual
  property and company know-how
• This is up from 30 in 1998

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• The average employee-user
• spends more than 4 hours of the business day
  using electronic mail
• sends and receives an average of 60 to 250
  e-mails per day
• has attachments for approximately 25 of their
  in-coming/outgoing e-mail

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• E-Policy Statistics
• 62 of employers monitor employee e-mail and
  Internet use
• 68 cite legal liability as the primary reason to
  monitor
• 87 of companies that monitor have a written
  e-mail policy and 83 an Internet policy
• 10 of companies have been ordered by courts to
  turn over employee e-mail related to lawsuits
• Source American Management Association The
  2001 Electronic Policies and Practices Survey

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• On the Plus Side
• E-mail provides a means to create, transmit and
  respond to messages electronically
• E-mail can expedite communications, eliminate
  paperwork, and automate routine tasks
• Effective E-mail systems can increase efficiency
  and provide cost savings

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• On the minus side
• Personal use of E-mail can clog up the system
• Questions on whether E-mail is a public record
• Policy enforcement is difficult
• E-mail is vulnerable and exposed

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• Technology
• has changed the way we do business
• has greatly expanded the methods of creating
  editing, maintaining, transmitting and retrieving
  information
• has provided us with new tools to efficiently
  manage all aspects, physical form, storage media
  and characteristics of our information assets
• does not negate the need for good records
  management systems and methodologies

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• E-mail Concerns
• Inadequate control over creation and maintenance
• If each user is allowed to operate independently
  with no established policies or standardized
  procedures it can result in chaos

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• E-mail Concerns
• Dependence on specific hardware and/or software
  for utility
• Systems are not universally compatible
• ASPs can be unreliable
• ISPs can have copies of deleted material

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• Hardware Software

• Equipment
• Network traffic
• Workstations
• Compatibility
• Software Integration
• E-mail, EDMS, Printers
• Software Installation

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• E-mail Concerns
• Redundancy of information in electronic and
  non-electronic formats
• Record disposition often limited to hardcopy
  formats only
• Electronic copies can reside on backup servers or
  third-party sources

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• E-mail Concerns
• Limited stability of electronic media
• Valuable records can be lost, changed or
  destroyed, inadvertently erased or overwritten
• Electronic media is not archival

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• E-mail Concerns
• Remote access complicates security
• Unauthorized access to sensitive or confidential
  information is a distinct possibility

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• Technology products (HOW) are fast outdistancing
  management and control (HOW TO)
• E-mail now includes things like
• Instant Messaging
• Groupware
• Messaging pagers
• PDAs
• Web-enabled mobile phones
• Peer to peer networks

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• Reasons for E-Mail Management
• 1. E-mail is a record
• 2. E-mail is susceptible to discovery
• 3. Destruction of E-mail may be deemed to
  constitute spoliation, evidence tampering or
  obstruction of justice

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• Good E-mail record-keeping requires
• Planning
• being able to distinguish between business and
  non-business communications
• policies and procedures for managing data
  repositories
• preparation for response to litigation

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• Good E-mail record-keeping requires
• Budgeting
• for data migration and conversion
• negotiated contracts in place for scanning and
  reproduction when needed

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• Good E-mail record-keeping requires
• Retention scheduling
• to comply with laws and regulations
• to ensure availability for operational, and
  historical purposes
• to provide consistent responsibility for all
  E-mail disposition

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• A September 2002 survey by Cohasset Associates,
  Inc. found that
• 53 of the over 500 organizations surveyed said
  they dont include e-mail in their records
  management program
• 68 were not at all confident that they could
  prove their e-mail records were accurate,
  reliable and trustworthy
• 39 do not have a formal policy regarding
  retention practices for e-mail

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• Challenges
• Lack of e-mail standards
• Lack of expertise in IT or RIM
• Integration with existing systems
• Corporate culture
• CHANGE!

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• Legal barriers to electronic document
  transactions have fallen with the passage of
• Uniform Electronic Transaction Act (UETA)
• Electronic Signature Law (E-SIGN)
• Standards work on how different computer systems
  send, receive and read electronic data

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• Credibility is still a challenge
• The perception that Electronic Records are more
  reliable and believable than hardcopy records
  because computers dont make mistakes
• E-mail, where people say things informally,
  without proofreading or thinking of the
  consequences or interpretations people will get
  from what they say

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E-Mail ManagementThe Great Unknown

• Conclusion
• Few organizations have E-mail under control
• In litigation, the largest cost component is the
  discovery of e-records, specifically E-mail
• Just having an E-mail Policy is not enough
  employees must be educated and trained in how to
  use it