Investigation of Representative Mark Foley Highlights Challenges Facing Organizations in Managing E-Mail and Instant Messages

Most Organizations Operating Without a Real Strategy or Plan

Silver Spring, MD – October 5, 2006 - According to an upcoming survey of 1,000 organizations by AIIM - The Enterprise Content Management Association (www.aiim.org), most organizations do not have any real plan or strategy when it comes to managing e-mail and instant messages (www.aiim.typepad.com).

The recent charges against Representative Mark Foley and demands that his office and the House of Representatives produce and preserve all e-mails and instant messages relative to the investigation highlight the challenges facing organizations of any size in managing e-mails and instant messages. A survey to be released next week by AIIM focuses on the current status of e-mail management—and finds it sorely lacking.

"For most organizations, e-mail management is an oxymoron," notes AIIM President John Mancini. "E-mail and instant messaging have become a critical source of documenting what goes on within organizations, and yet managing this critical information resource is often an afterthought."

"Many organizations (46.9%) simply do not allow instant messaging in the workplace, often because they do not have a way to effectively control the content of the messages. Of course, 'not allowing' instant messaging, and in fact making sure that it does not occur are two separate questions."

In terms of the broader question of managing e-mail, most organizations have yet to develop an effective strategy. In response to the question, "How would you characterize your organization's status with respect to IMPLEMENTING an e-mail management strategy (such as archiving, retention, life cycle management, or disposition)?" over 1 in 3 organizations (35.1%) have yet to even begin developing an email management strategy.

39.7% - Have begun to implement one or more e-mail management initiatives, but much remains to be done.

12.5% - Have completed implementation of an overall e-mail management strategy across the entire organization.

11.4% - Have completed one or more e-mail management initiatives within particular departments or groups.

35.2% - Have not yet begun.

Most organizations confuse e-mail back-up—being able to reconstruct a system from a specific point in time in the event of a failure—with e-mail archiving. E-mail archiving points to the need to identify what needs to be saved, why it needs to be saved, and putting in place the technology resources necessary to archive e-mail and be able to reproduce it in the event of an inquiry or litigation.

"Very few organizations have reached this basic standard of competency in their e-mail and instant message systems," notes Mancini. "For most organizations, what passes for e-mail archiving is the creation of massive .pst back-up files that no one knows what to do with. Effective e-mail archiving is done by less that 15% of those we surveyed."

Survey Question: How does your organization view e-mail archiving?

8.4% - As a stand-alone application.

7.4% - As part of an overall ECM strategy.

25.5% - As part of an overall strategy for managing information of all types.

45.9% - As the responsibility of the individual employee.

10.3% - We haven't begun to think about it.

The full survey, sponsored by EMC (NYSE: EMC), FileNet (NASDAQ: FILE), IBM (NYSE: IBM), and TOWER Software, will be released on Wednesday, October 11. If you're interested in obtaining a copy please contact me at (bmayhew@aiim.org).