Should emails be included as part of a records management strategy?

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The role emails play in terms of critical business documentation is often grossly underestimated. In fact, email is the most frequently requested document type by legislative bodies such as e-Discovery and Freedom of Information Act as it often contains indisputable proof of a wrongdoing.

Good management of emails, therefore, is absolutely essential in order to reduce liability and legal costs.  Also because email volume has grown and is still growing at a phenomenal rate, it has become the key means of correspondence within an organisation and often holds the only record of important business transactions.

Storing emails in the Inbox and Sent Items folders is no longer an efficient way to manage this document type and they must be included in a company wide records management strategy. The most effective way to manage emails is to store them in an electronic document management system which has a structured format allowing the emails to be referenced and stored in relevant cabinets where they can be easily retrieved. The other advantage of using  a document management system is that retention rules can be set against the documents to automatically control the periods of time records are retained for.

M.Store, The IPC Group’s document management solution, allows users to store emails direct from their application without having to print and scan. Attachments can be indexed separately if they are to be stored in different locations and as soon as this is done there is no longer a requirement for the emails to be kept in the Inbox, which not only makes them inaccessible to others who may need to view the information but also takes up server space and slows down the system.

To find out more about M.Store, please click here or call The IPC Group on 08081 45 46 47 and one of their document management experts will be pleased to help.

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