Digital Dialogue:

Resulting in Effective E-Mail Management Solutions

by Andrew J. SanAgustin

With two offices, 115 attorneys, 95 administrative employees, and 40 secretaries, the mid-sized law firm where I am the records and conflicts manager had myriad e-mail data flowing into and out of it that needed to be captured and managed. The firm’s 250 employees, with their diverse idiosyncrasies and work styles to accommodate, meant that our eight-person records department had a difficult task to develop and implement an effective e-mail strategy that would be seamless and not disrupt workflows.

 

During the course of an 18-month review period prior to roll out, the firm identified four major steps it needed to take to be successful.

Step One: Establish Credibility

 

First, the firm had to become familiar with how employees used their e-mail, which allowed the records department to establish itself as subject matter experts in records and e-mail management.

 

This provided leverage for delivering an imperative message that would be accepted, even embraced, by the end user on all levels – from attorneys, who are more concerned with the practice of law than the management of e-mail, to support staff. The mantra was simple: “E-mail data is either managed or unmanaged. Managed is good. Unmanaged e-mail poses great risk, exposing the firm to potential liability.”

 

The records department had to educate users on why and how e-mails must be moved into folders, identified properly, and managed by a system that can track and search the information as needed using various search criteria. Staff had to learn that e-mail that is transitory (informational and timely based) should be deleted routinely.

 

Step Two: Find the Right Software Solution

 

The next step was to research available systems that would adapt well to the firm’s existing data infrastructure. An effective solution would resolve existing issues, as well as encompass future, unique trends and needs.

 

Robust and sophisticated e-mail search capabilities were highly desirable and necessary. The firm needed to be able to search all the address fields, as well as the body of the e-mail, including attachments – even PDFs (which is possible if they’re properly translated using optical character recognition). Metadata fields also needed to be searchable.

 

Radically altering the e-mail end user interface was not going to be possible. That would not be universally accepted; users were not going to learn a new e-mail system. The firm needed to acclimate to its existing structure with minimal intrusion.

 

For its solution, the firm obtained a records management system (RMS) to capture all its e-mail data, as well as manage its electronic and physical files. The immediate concern was e-mail, but the RMS also provides the potential for complete records asset management, which is the ultimate goal.

 

Step Three: Implement and Train

 

By foldering e-mails into four categories (active cases, closed cases, administrative, and personal), the records department was able to establish an e-mail foundation and present it in a manner that users were receptive to.

 

To meet the firm’s search criteria, e-mail folders were then profiled to a client and matter, which were numbered through the e-mail management system. E-mails associated with these folders were profiled accordingly. Personal and administrative folders were profiled to a non-billable number (created specifically to track non-client related records).

 

An advantage of profiling was that e-mails were moved from the e-mail server to the new RMS server. This cleared congested data space on the e-mail server and increased performance. Profiled e-mails were accessible and available in the aggregate and in their native format to anyone in the organization.

 

This data-sharing concept was critical not only for the management of e-mail, but also for its accessibility (transparency). Users could instantly access and view all e-mails related to a specific matter from their desktops, although ethical wall restrictions were added as necessary. For legal holds, e-mail (and its metadata) could be segregated and preserved based upon the client and matter number, so they could not be altered or destroyed.

 

Employees were provided with a one-on-one training session on the new e-mail system, focusing primarily on specific users with unusually large e-mail boxes who needed to harness the vast amounts of accumulated e-mail data. Training classes provided continuing learning education credit to attendees, who learned about the importance of properly managing e-mails as part of the system training. The attorneys responded especially well to this structure.

 

There were some issues that had to be resolved:

 

• Profiled e-mails could not be viewed via PDAs or wireless devices, and users could not distinguish between read and unread e-mails. These issues were addressed by having users focus on profiling less active (transactional) or closed (litigation) cases. E-mails for active cases were still foldered, but they were not profiled until the matters were concluded.
• Users had the ability to opt out of the de-duplication preferences. This required an additional layer of design to eliminate, which was best left for post roll-out considerations.

Step Four: Measure Compliance

 

When an e-mail is received, it needs to be processed. If the end user retains an e-mail, it should be properly placed in a folder. Each folder should be profiled to a specific client and matter number (billable or a non-billable administrative number). If an e-mail isn’t needed, it should not be retained. The records manager oversees compliance by monitoring e-mail box sizes.

 

As part of retention and destruction, when a matter closes, a retention tickler is triggered in the e-mail management system. Once retention is met, an alert is sent to the records manager. Attorneys send approvals to destroy all e-mail records before they are destroyed and disposition is set. Physical records are simultaneously destroyed with this process.

 

Lessons Learned

 

The most effective instrument in the firm’s arsenal was promoting the direct and immediate benefits this new system would provide to end users. Making the conversion was all about them, on an individual level. This encouraged involvement and created positive word-of-mouth.

 

The greatest success of the e-mail integration was that it only slightly changed the end-user view through their e-mail system. Only minor variations and even fewer at-a-glance modifications were made when e-mail folders were profiled.

 

It took time, planning, and a cautious rollout to get this business solution up and running properly. The firm developed the e-mail architecture, policies, training, and approaches for participation. There was only one chance for true enterprise-wide acceptance. The result of a seamless interface was a smooth transition with a high end-user participation rate. Users gained trust in the records department. The new goal: to gain everyone’s trust in the system.

 

Employees are now responsible for managing their e-mails properly. Ultimately, they will determine the success of this initiative.

 

Andrew SanAgustin can be contacted at SanAA@foster.com.