Email Retention and Management

Ever wondered what the life would have been with out the use of Emails. The moment one talks about internet, the first thing that comes into the mind is email. No doubt, the emails today are considered as the best means of conveying messages and has simplified our lives enabling exchange of information and the best use of communication. It has also been the most cost-saving option to get connected and stay tuned. But, as a matter of fact, the retention of emails and mailbox management has gathered wide attention since email has been part of the core business process and fetches real return on investment.
So much importance the emails have acquired today that most of the business transactions take place through it’s use rather than the use of cellphones. The email facility is now available even in the cellphones which are WAP enabled. The storage of mailboxes has facilitated good working condition for all businesses. Even the sales calls to customers and the new leads are generated through the use of emails in the present time. Barring a few organizations almost all of them communicate internally through emails. Indeed mail has become a part of daily life.
For many reasons like business, legal and regulatory, email needs to stored and managed. In the quest for better business values and productivity, some methods need to be adopted in order to manage emails. The most important thing to remember in this regard is one must know what all emails to save and when to shift from redundant mails to primary mails which can be put to good use and deliver strategic advantage. The biggest problem with the emails today is the entry of spams and the large volume of stored emails. Subsequently, the organizations have invested on tools to manage email storage and spam removal. In this regard certain laws have been enforced so as to have an access to these mails since the organizations seek help from the third party to manage them.
Some of the following methods will help the effective retention and management of emails.
• Use email archives: Save your past emails under the separate category of Archive section. A range of tools like the Mail manager software under the Microsoft Exchange lets the user view the mails stored under the archives.
• Frame certain rules for storage and deletion of mails: As soon as you finish up with the important work as asked in the email message, delete them after a certain period of time. Ask other employees to do the same.
• Keep away the junk mails: With malware, spams making its space as junk mails, delete all of them at once or at the best install a software which would block the entry of spam into your mails.
• Adopt best practices suitable to your organizational size: Retaining emails by process of Archiving may help the SMBs but not the large scale organizations. In such a situation, be very selective in usage and storage of emails. Invest on the storage solutions only when you feel the need.
• Maintain the regulatory environment: In order to abide by the software rules and regulations regarding email management, you may need to retain certain mails. Also follow regarding privacy of mails.
• Always get your mails monitored: You need to actively monitor, check the records, ensure regulatory compliance, all these will require help from an IT manager. Some vendors offer browser based email monitoring and reporting and archiving of products.
In any case, if you have organized your mailbox effectively by archiving, you are relieved from the yoke of storage. One good example of mailbox management tool is Artisan, an archiving solution for Microsoft Exchange. By centrally managing the user’s mailboxes reduces the costs of storage. It enables automatic archival of mail contents and allows long-term storage. The main advantage of having Artisan is it is easy to install apart from many other important features.