I concur with Patrick.  I've seen a few situations where they went into this
sort of thing with no real plan and wound up with very large volumes of very
unmanageable data.  If you're going that route, I'd have a good hard look
before hand at file formats, naming restrictions and other parameters, as
well as compatibility and integration with records management and document
management software.  I'd also think very had in advance about indexing,
policies and procedures and the like; otherwise it'll be a can of worms.

John Montaña
General Counsel
Cunningham & Montana, Inc.
29 Parsons Road
Landenberg PA 19350
610-255-1588
[log in to unmask]
www.cunningham-montana.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Patrick Cunningham
> Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 10:09 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Unified Messaging
>
> I'm not sure who is selling unified messaging systems, but they seem to
> be gathering traction. I've heard a few rumbles around our firm, and
> there are some folks looking for this, but the folks in IS who manage
> storage are horrified. We've had decent success keeping email volumes
> down, but adding in voicemail recordings and faxes (over and above what
> we already deliver to some desktops) scares them. HR and General
> Counsel have concerns about increased volumes of retained messages.
>
> I'm not particularly opposed to unified messaging systems if someone
> also implements a responsible records management component at the same
> time. That means that record-worthy messages are retained in an EDMS or
> some sort of centrally managed records management system. Frankly, that
> ensures that some significant gaps in many programs (faxes and
> voicemail) are closed.
>
> However, I think some technologists get so enamoured with the
> technology (and hear demands from end-users to implement the
> technology) that they forget about the storage nightmare they are
> creating (not to pick on Outlook, but I think most Outlook users never
> delete anything -- they just create unlimited PST files). And that is
> where you'll find most attorneys lying awake at night.
>
> So the issue is not necessarily the technology. Properly tied to a good
> recordkeeping system, with *enforced* policies, unified messaging may
> well be a benefit to the organization from a records management
> standpoint. But if it is just being tossed out there with no policies
> or systems to properly retain the records, it is a train wreck waiting
> to happen.
>
> Patrick Cunningham, CRM
>
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