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Email Governance – Do we even need it?

By Kedar Thakkar posted 10-25-2016 10:21

  

I know, the title itself is going to make RMs, IGPs and CIPs scream. What are you talking about? Are you out of your mind? Well, in a way, I am! But in all practical sense the question does deserve some merit. In this day and age, the business case for needing Email Governance is getting weaker. Storage is no longer the driving factor for two reasons: 1) Storage overall is getting cheaper and then there is the “Cloud” factor and 2) If the organization does get an email archiving tool then it is even more difficult to use that as a driving factor. Email archiving has very little to do with Governance depending on what parameters were put together during the email archiving project implementation. In some cases, it has nothing to do with Email Governance at all.

Secondly, employees have resisted deleting email in general because 1) It is hard to keep up with the volume and 2) The percentage difference between emails with business value v. with limited or no business value. Obviously, there is that mentality of “What if I need it?” that plays a huge role in wanting to keep everything. The “smarter” ones argue that they use email in lieu of a real Knowledge Management tool or even a Document Management system. They point to the powerful searches available within email to go fetch things they need just like they would within a DM system or a KM system.

Agreed, there are strong arguments to counter the above mentality. But it does beg the question, who is really asking for Email Governance? IT? Legal? RIM? And Why? Based on what are we driving the business case for it? How are we calculating the ROI now? I understand that throwing in “E-Discovery” potentially tilts the argument in our favor but so what? Moreover, what if you also own a good E-discovery tool as well. How does it now impact the need for Email Governance and do we really need it?

Thoughts and Comments welcome.

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Comments

11-08-2016 17:19

Scream? No, maybe a little sigh. Less than 20% of companies have spent the money to bolt on a tool to manage email. That doesn't mean they have not set policies. Most major companies I talk to have some policy in place.

Why you ask? Let's look at a couple of your points. One, cost. Cheaper is not relevant, budget is. IT surveys show the majority of business add 6-9% to their storage budget annually. There is only one way to reduce budget and slow it's grow, delete.

Second, employee resistance. Not just theirs but mine too. Who was told in a job interview they would have to spend time reviewing emails, e-records, etc. vs. performing the work they are being interviewed for? Automated disposal is the only method. What time period that should be needs to be based on how you operate as a business. I never agree with tagging, pick from a list etc. That just takes more time away from real work.

Litigation a.k.a. e-discovery. So there are a few headlines each year. If the litigation tail is wagging the business dog, get out of business. Either that or figure out why you're so scared and fix that. Maybe your not effectively working your ethics and compliance program.

Searching will find everything. Yeah, wake me when you can truly find my email in the 25 GBs I have without having to bolt on more stuff. I've heard that so often my ears bleed. That and most folks really suck a searching regardless of training. Memory is short on gee who sent it, what year was it, I think I know what brand we did that work on eight years ago.... More time wasted. 

Budgets that continually needs more funding regardless of the shifting to low cost storage. Folks losing real working time to managing stuff time is what drives us.