Yesterday, the Office of the Chief Records Officer held a meeting with selected Federal agencies to discuss a new pilot program that is underway. Over the next several months, we will be working to potentially develop new records management guidance around electronic mail. The traditional approach to managing email in Federal agencies is evolving as agencies deploy more tools, such as email archiving applications (see NARA Bulletin 2011-03), to store email.
We are exploring more efficient and effective ways for agencies to manage email electronically and hope to test different strategies for the capture, management, and eventual transfer to NARA of email. We will gather and evaluate feedback on what agencies current practices about the management of email are, the availability of email to support agency business needs, cost-effectiveness of different management strategies, and the overall records management risks and challenges. Results of this pilot project will inform future development of NARA guidance.
Please feel free to leave any comments or questions about this project here. We will provide updates about the project right here on Records Express.
From my experience, this is definately a pain point that requires a substantial effort to implement. Most organizations are often forced to look the otherway as email management is such a beast and money and resources are limited.
I’m encouraged to see this effort. How is it going?
Here are some tools to consider:
> Open Text – Email Management (http://www.opentext.com/2/global/products/products-email.htm)
> Compliance Suite for MS SharePoint by GimmalSoft (http://www.gimmalsoft.com/Products/Compliance/Pages/default.aspx)
All The Best
Ken