Kara,

Julie was right on the mark with her response.  The question is why is IT 
making the decisions for email?  If they're leaning toward a simple 
archiving solution the reason is simply server performance and space- 
which Julie also mentioned.  You need to get involved NOW and tell them 
that the solution path they're headed down doesn't help with good  records 
governance,risk mitigation ,process improvement, etc.

As for auto-classification  the answer is it depends
     If you're going to use a simple archiving tool you can lock messages 
down and do some basic categorization of say names,departments, etc but 
not contents of individual messages.
     If you want to move into a RIM solution they can do more but be sure 
to ask about real success rates both of projects and audit results of 
actual message auditing to confirm the correctness of the 
auto-categorization.  I think they'll surprise you  The cost also goes up 
considerably.

You first need to decide as an organization what the goals of the project 
are, what are the implications(pro's vs cons) of various solutions and 
then move forward understanding in advance what the risks and benefits 
are.  This also needs to be done by a cross-functional team that includes 
RIM,IT, legal,  compliance and END USERS.

If you 'd like more information on the project at Rockwell Collins that 
uses the Sherpa tool  and just finished the first purge to some facilities 
please contact me off-list.

Thanks

Steve Petersen CRM
Sr. Records Administrator
Rockwell Collins Inc
319.295.5244 

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