Turning Back the Tide: Email Management Without Specialist Software

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Turning Back the Tide Email Management Without
Specialist Software

• Susan Graham
• University of Edinburgh

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Agenda

• Context
• Legal issues
• What we did
• Is it working?
• Next steps
• Key learning points

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The Setting

• Large University
• 7,000 staff
• 24,000 students
• More than 200 buildings
• Devolved structure
• Records Management Section
• Reports to Academic Registrar University
  Secretary

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Devolved Approach

• Reasons
• Cultural fit
• Ownership
• Pragmatism
• Structures
• 6 Promoters
• 164 Practitioners
• Records Management Section

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Constraints

• Devolved environment
• No single IT service
• No single email client
• Not everyone has access to shared drives
• Ownership
• Myths
• Funding

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Drivers

• Critical University records not captured
• The archival dimension
• IT issues
• Legal issues

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Legal issues

• Data protection
• Keep information for no longer than necessary
• Subject access requests
• Freedom of information
• Must be able to retrieve information in emails
  within 20 working days
• Assessment regulations
• Conditions of funding

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Legal requirements

• Prescription limitation
• Limitation Act 1980
• Prescription Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973
• Benefits taxation legislation
• Health safety legislation
• Preservation issues

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Legal admissibility

• Evidential weight
• Authenticity reliability
• Electronic records particularly vulnerable
• Code of Practice for Legal Admissibility and
  Evidential Weight of Information
• BSI DISC PD 0008 series
• Always consult regulatory bodies

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Audit trails

• Author
• Date
• Accessed/changed by
• Content changes
• Media format changes
• Authentication measures
• For copies
• For data transmission migration
• Routing information
• Demonstrate that all aspects of system operated
  correctly

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Procedures

• Who is responsible for what?
• Access policy
• Data capture, amendment, retention destruction
• Security arrangements
• Back up system recovery

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Risk assessment
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What we are doing about emails

• Part of overall records management programme
• Guidance
• Advice
• Demonstrator projects
• Publicity
• Training

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Email dos donts

• Delete unwanted emails
• Important emails must be accessible
• Save to shared drive
• Copy to departmental secretary
• Print file
• Purge the remainder
• Other messages
• Plain text
• Diplomacy in content
• Out of office messages
• Personal emails

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Clearing out legacy emails

• Clear out in box and sent items
• Empty deleted items folder
• Avoid opening individual emails
• Sort by date delete older emails
• Sort by size can largest emails be deleted?
• Sort by name delete emails to particular people
• Move remainder to quarantine area
• Avoid backlog in future

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Implementation

• Publicity measures
• All staff email
• Newsletter articles
• Presentations
• Training
• For practitioners on records management issues
• Action learning techniques

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Policy Planning demonstrator project (1)

• Key University department
• 7 sections
• Email as part of larger records management
  project
• Shared drive filing scheme
• Went live November 2005
• Mirrors paper filing scheme
• gt1,000 emails filed electronically
• Folder for legacy records
• Clear out your records weeks
• 40,454 emails deleted in 1 week

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Policy Planning demonstrator project (2)

• User representatives
• Conduit for consultation
• Organise work in their section
• Bite size training
• Step-by-step user manual
• Detailed underpinning procedures
• The personal touch

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Is it working?

• Gradual progress
• Change without resources
• Highly reliant on users
• Senior management supportive
• User buy in gradually building
• Outstanding issues
• Practitioner availability
• Access controls
• Loss of functionality
• Legal admissibility

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Next steps

• Extend use of action learning techniques
• Maintain awareness raising measures
• Standardised email client
• Software for deletion?
• Potential to delete 80 of emails
• No solution for staff without shared drive yet

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Key learning points

• Significant effort involved
• No compulsion
• Persuasion policing
• Need senior management buy in
• Need individual buy in
• Be as helpful as possible
• Need an EDRMS?

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Susan Graham

• susan.graham_at_ed.ac.ukwww.recordsmanagement.ed.ac.
  uk