Electronic Content Records Management (ECRM) has taken a prominent role in the records information management field, driving the evolution of records management and becoming one of the most critical elements of an organization’s records system.
Harnessing the vast amounts of email data that circulate in and out of your organization is hyper-critical. When an email arrives, how is it managed? Where does it go? How is it tracked? How do you find it? What about searching — can you find what you think you have? And when you say you don’t have something, are you certain?
There is no single industry fix that would work in all firm environments, but certainly there is a fundamental methodology that you need to be aware of to establish a basis for your email management architecture.
Much like the need to manage your paper records, emails warrant their own classification schema and the diligence that goes along with managing data within a defined media format. They should have a structured design that is uniform enterprise-wide. As with anything rolled out to an entire organization, continuity and compliance are keys to success. This is inherently necessary with a single office or location.
The theory is to identify and retain official records in a logical and manageable order, and dispose of everything else routinely. Now, the issue becomes how to accomplish this daunting initiative.
Each email coming into or being sent from the firm is a record or can be a record. It is the content that determines the email’s level of relevance. Much like paper, not all emails are germane to the practice of law or the business of running a law firm.
The end user is responsible for determining what is relevant and what is not. This decision is an imperative function, based upon the knowledge of the information provided, known circumstances and the work at hand. Official emails should be maintained separately; non-relevant or unofficial emails should be discarded after their intended use.
Relevant emails are matter-affiliated or contain substantive conversations essential to business and/or client work. Important information should be extracted and forwarded accordingly, but the email should then be moved to a separate folder out of your in-box. This folder can be identified by the client and matter name and/or the client and matter number. This frees up your in-box and organizes all client and matter-related emails into a single location. You are better able to search in this folder and find the information you are looking for when the time comes.
Another best practice is to add another organizational level in managing your emails. In your in-box, create two separate folders for your client files. One marked Closed and the other Active. At the end of a case, you can move a client folder from Active to Closed and add the date the matter was closed to the folder name — for retention and destruction purposes.
Attachments can sometimes be problematic. The solution is to keep the unchanged attachments as part of your email maintenance for preservation purposes. Should you need to open the attachment and make changes, this becomes a different version of the attachment and it should be saved separately. If you make changes and resave the attachment to the original email, you spoil the original and may compromise the integrity of the official record.
Sophisticated software packages are available that will incorporate all of your emails into your firm’s Records Management System (RMS). The integration will identify, via your RMS, emails that have been properly profiled under specific client and matter numbers through your email system (Outlook, for example). The email is profiled in Outlook and made available through your RMS.
There is robust searching available that will search the entire email (to, from, date, subject fields) and key-word searching functionality to search the body of the email as well as the attachments (including PDFs, if saved with OCR). While in your RMS, you are able to locate the email you are searching for and click on the icon, and it will revert back to your Outlook and open the email in its native format. All this fluid interaction is available directly from the RMS.
Emails have no humanisms. They are static. There is no emotion, and even with the advent of emoticons there is always room for interpretation and misinterpretation. Random remarks or responses can lead the reader to one conclusion despite an email’s original intention. Remember: If you don’t want it on the front page of the National Enquirer, don’t email it!
Be mindful of what you write in an email that can be deemed an official record. Once classified as an official record, the email and its contents become transparent and everyone (within approved rights) can access and view the email. Keep yourself from becoming infamous through the sleight of hand.
Your Deleted folder can be cleared out every 30, 60 or 90 days (manual or automatic process). Remember, emails of relevance and deemed an official record should be moved accordingly and instantly. Waiting until the end of the week to review emails and move them into appropriate folders is not recommended.
There are many ways to roll out new email management technologies and systems or to introduce enhancements to existing email engineering concepts and protocols. But knowing how people manage their emails now will help determine how the firm should manage emails in the future.
Know your starting position and determine what is essential to a successful rollout, particularly as these rollouts can take several months to complete. Don’t let your decision weigh heavily on your mind. Get your facts and look for other information that you weren’t aware of. Speak to others and perform your own needs assessments. Do your homework — know your firm, your staff, your attorneys and your clients.
There is a level of peopling that is required when introducing new products and processes. Establish a pilot team of principal players, attorneys and end-users to help test and roll out your new systems. And surround yourself with qualified professionals who are experts in managing and implementing changes, and are familiar with navigating through a change environment.
Arm yourself with a comprehensive ECRM analysis, along with cultural firm knowledge before taking the first steps to tackling your email issues. Most of all, do it right and do it right the first time.
Andrew J. SanAgustin is the records and conflicts manager with Foster Pepper PLLC in Seattle.
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