Streamline, Organize, Archive, Retrieve: SOAR Above the Data Chaos with Effective Email Management

By Laurel Sanders, Optical Image Technology, Inc.

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Finding information instantly—the moment you need it—can be a challenge, especially when it is buried in email correspondence or attachments. Critical email communications can get lost in the shuffle when the recipient is on vacation, leaves a position, is unable to keep up with incoming email, or messages are inappropriately deleted. In the event of an audit or litigation, vital data may be trapped in someone’s Inbox, difficult—or even impossible—to access.

Time spent searching can slow your ability to make judicious decisions. If the information you need is trapped in someone else’s email, you may not be able to find needed answers. With a strong email management application that is tied to a document management system, however, you can streamline, organize, archive, and retrieve critical information stored in your emails and email attachments as soon as they are received.

An email management system that is part of your document management strategy gives pre-authorized persons the ability to search through your company’s mission-critical transactional data so that you can make informed decisions. When email management is integrated with business processing software such as workflow, the arrival of emails can trigger specific tasks that are part of your business routine, expediting processing. In the event of audits or litigation, the ability to search through pertinent emails saves considerable time and money. Also, it eliminates the temptation to print and file important email communications and attachments, conserving paper and eradicating waste.

This article explains the four basic parts of email management, and describes how they work together to ensure that data stored in emails can be easily found. It illustrates how proper email management can keep projects moving that are tied to email correspondence and files. Finally, it also explains how email can be integrated with digital workflow, allowing you to maximize the occurrence of specific events that are communicated via email.

Streamlining email messages and attachments

One of the greatest time-saving elements of email management applications is the ability to streamline emails as they enter the system. Although companies that are subject to the stringent rules of Sarbanes-Oxley may need to have a supplemental email archival device to ensure that all email data is saved (including junk mail and personal emails), most businesses don’t want to be hampered by storing irrelevant messages on a daily basis. Software containing blacklist and white list capabilities helps to ensure that you receive all messages from approved senders, and are no longer bothered with communications that are not critical to your business. You can refuse all emails from a particular sender, emails that end with questionable suffixes, or other pre-defined criteria. This helps to ensure that the messages that reach the next step (organize) are messages of value.

Organizing emails for processing and storage

Automated indexing of emails can be tremendously helpful in cataloguing and organizing the messages that flow into and out of your company. Rules can be established to index messages and attachments by a variety of standard and custom fields, including the subject line, the “to” and “from” fields, date, which individuals were copied on the email, or another category of choice. Emails can be routed to specific Inboxes as they arrive, or held in batches that are designated for routing at a specific time period (such as during the night shift, or every four hours). As a result, they are ready for processing when staff arrives at work, or whenever you decide they should be processed.

These same criteria can be used to associate designated emails or email types with specific documents or document types. The receipt of these messages or message types can be used to send alerts to staff, or simply push the messages to the right location in a document management system for future access. This is particularly valuable if the emails and attachments pertain to a specific business process that requires timely action. For example, let’s assume that you represent a college admissions office, and you need one final piece of documentation before a decision letter can be sent to a student. When the email arrives with the requested item as an attachment, an alert can be sent automatically to the appropriate person that their email needs prompt attention. Quicker action means faster decisions, and a better chance of the student enrolling at your institution before he is accepted elsewhere.

Archiving emails for future retrieval

Three vital elements to consider as you set up an email archival methodology are:

how diverse groups of people will ultimately search for the information;
which information each individual or group of persons is permitted to see; and
how long the emails need to be retained.

An email management system functions much like a records manager and is part of a document management system and strategy. It helps to think like a records manager when you decide how to archive information. Security is of paramount importance, especially in the realm of compliance. Your application should be capable of ensuring privacy and confidentiality of information. It should also be capable of making information available automatically to the right people or departments for business decisions. You will also want to eliminate the storage of useless emails and messages relating to inactive files that have exceeded their required retention periods. In the case of e-discovery, searching through hordes of irrelevant information can be costly. Emails should be scheduled to be purged from the system in accordance with policies and regulations. A good document management solution should be capable of scheduling and managing email retention.

Archiving emails by subject may be sufficient for most of your business activities. However, some individuals may need to search for messages or attachments by the sender’s name, a specified time period, or may need to use multiple criteria such as a specific topic from a certain sender within an explicit timeframe. Diverting junk mail to a hardware storage device may be the best way to archive seemingly unimportant data. This method would keep it out of your business systems; at the same time, it would maintain data availability in the event of litigation. Make sure that you consider potential internal and external needs as you determine the criteria for archival, so that everyone can find what they need in the future.

Retrieving data when you need it

There are two basic reasons a company is likely to need its email correspondence and attachments: in response to a question (which could be from staff, a customer, or could include an audit or court subpoena), or to support an active business process. Email management software that is part of a document management system ensures that only authorized persons can view, add to, or otherwise act upon the email correspondence and attachments in your electronic storage repository.

If you have remote workers, Web-based access leverages the value of stored emails. It allows preauthorized persons to access information from any location in the same way that they would access any other data that they are allowed to view. When the indexed emails or attachments are pertinent to a routine business process, such as supporting documentation for an insurance claim or a college application, they can be sent automatically to the work queue via digital workflow to further expedite processing.

The addition of digital workflow to an email management and document management system dramatically improves productivity and efficiency. Take, for example, an application for a mortgage. Let’s assume that your workflow system has been instructed to collect a standard list of specific documents from all prospects before loans can be reviewed. All of the paperwork has been received from a particular applicant except for one final piece of supporting documentation, such as an insurance statement or a pay stub or 1099 for proof of income to support the loan.

The system has been previously instructed to send you alerts as emails are received from your prospects, and to bump those to the top of your work queue for quick review and processing. Rather than searching through your emails to make sure you didn’t miss any pertinent information, messages are automatically sent to your work queue and associated with all related documentation, keeping your process moving. Furthermore, with Web-based access, you aren’t tied to finishing your work at your desk. A few minutes of down time—whether it is in a waiting room, between meetings, or at home—can become productive.

Summary

If you want to gain a solid grasp over all of your company’s critical communications, it is important to have an information management policy, an email management strategy, and a good software solution. Make sure your chosen product guarantees data security, intelligent indexing, advanced search capabilities, and the ability to integrate with digital workflow and your other business applications as you grow and your needs change. By streamlining your communications, organizing your information, and archiving it sensibly, you will have what you need exactly when you need it. Your efficiency, productivity, and reputation will soar.

Optical Image Technology offers an integrated suite of imaging, document management, and workflow products, including email management and document archiving software. To learn more about our products and services, visit our website at www.docfinity.com, call us at 800-678-3241.

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