1. www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Email or MEmail Alan Cameron Records Management Consultant JiscinfoNet

2. Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Some propositions Email is a person to person communication channel, but it is not the private possession of the end-user. Email is the equivalent ‘ ….of sticking a post card on a public notice board……’ An end-user can commit an organisation to a contract or legal risk All Emails created or received within an organisation are legally discoverable Email management is a business issue not just an IT problem.

3. Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Three horror stories Norwich Union settled out of court for £450k. Employees had exchanged defamatory Emails about a competitor (believed to be an in-joke). By time writ was issued Emails had been destroyed. London Law Firm. Litigation still in course. Racial and sexual discrimination as a result of internal Emails. Potentially no top limit on the potential fine. UBS Warburg incurred US$206k costs retrieving Emails from IT archive for litigation.

4. Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk ApplicationsBusiness Requirement SERVERS, Short term storageContinuous availability 24 x 7 Anti-virus, anti-spam, content control, authorization Security Management Archive Retention/disposal, search and retrieval Email archiving Email blocking, access rights, retention/disposal Policy Management Use of folders, agreed file conventions, deletion/save, attachments End user training/management

5. Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk How does an Email system fit with a Records Management system? Anti-virus & Spam filters Firewall Policies and Policy Management Email System Searching and Retrieval Records Management Systems ?

6. Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk The Storage Problem One HE institution with 4,500 staff processes av.45,000 + Emails a day. (not constant, has peaks and troughs) It allows free student use. ++? Email archive, which goes back 3 years is already many gigabytes, achieved by back-ups daily, and debateable how much could be retrieved An Email plus attachment sent to all staff is stored 4,500 times.

7. Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Email Storage; Conflicting Interests? IT ADMINSTRATORS  limit size of personal mailboxes to contain data volumes which are growing exponentially END USERS  Want to keep more that they are allowed  Rarely ‘manage’ their in-box  Resent Interference in ‘personal’ business COMPLIANCE OFFICERS  Keep everything ‘just in case’

8. Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk The Search for Solutions The IT Answer  Looks to major vendors such as IBM and Microsoft to produce systems answers  Automatic indexing and retrieval  Cost of storage reducing ‘..therefore a minor issue..’ The Business Answer  Making better use of existing capabilities of Email systems  End-user training  Use of corporate file spaces,metadata conventions etc.

9. Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk The Reality The vast majority of Institutions have no strategy for effective management of Email All Institutions are therefore vulnerable to legal discovery, fraud, and compliance issues particularly FOI and Data Protection. The retention period for an Email is identical to that of a record containing the same information in any other medium. Few end-users of Email are aware of their employer’s liability for their Email use.

10. Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Email studies in FE/HE Only aware of 3 1.University of Central England  Case study by the Butler Group 2.Loughborough University  Study commissioned by JISC (contains a generic Email policy document) http://www.loboro.ac.uk/computing/irm 3. Secure E-mail in UK Further and Higher Education http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?=jcas_PAPERS_secure_email

11. Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Towards an Email Policy in an Institution Summary 1.E-mail Management is a corporate responsibility. It is not reasonable to expect the End-User to know what should or should not be deleted/retained 2.It has to operate at 3 distinct levels As part of overall IT strategy because part of the answer lies in technical development A clear policy for all users which is enforced and monitored Training in the better use of the facilities contained within the major Email systems

12. Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Providing Expertise in Planning & Implementing Information Systems www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk Questions? Thank You