Once again, people are forgetting the fact that usually, an email is just a
memo or letter that came by an electronic messaging application.

Let me ask you what you would do with a letter or a memo that arrived at
your desk regarding (example only) an accounts payable situation.  Would it
not be classified and filed (after processing) in a specific filing system
folder with a specified retention period?

Granted, an email is often just a few sentences (without the fluff of a
letter or memo), but it pertains to a specific subject.  Why would an email
be any different to a letter or memo?

The problem here is that, to this point, very few of us have developed
classification systems that can easily be applied to an electronic system.
Generally, this is because many of us are bamboozled by the jargon of IT
folks who do not understand that emails are usually records.  They believe,
because it has not shown up on their budgetary radar, that it is not a
project that management has any interest in, so they do not pursue it.  If
they do,  they think they can throw  email archiving technology at it and it
will go away.  We all know that it is much more complicated than that.  It
is our job to make sure it does show up on that budgetary radar by showing
management the facts and figures about  discovery.  It is also our job to
inform the software houses of the importance of such software, and if enough
records managers make a noise about it, they will begin to think there is a
market out there.

When this happens, our IT folks will come to us and ask us why we didn't
tell them about the situation (even though we have been banging our heads on
the wall with the subject for years).

Please excuse my soap box performance.

-- 
Graham Kitchen

(866) 333-2015

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