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This is the fourth entry in our NARA series. Check out the others below!

• The Reports That Records Managers Can’t Live Without
• 7 Simple Steps Records Managers Can Take to Develop a Risk/Value Framework
• Retain or Destroy? How to Make Tough Records Management Decisions
• Email Records Management Done Right: A Walkthrough of NARA’s Guidelines
• 3 Clear-Cut Ways to Get Executive Buy-In on Your Records Management Initiative

Here’s a little inside baseball on how we develop AvePoint blogs: we have a well-defined process for developing our content. We begin with a relevant topic, then consult an expert who provides the key information we should touch. Then, we do our own independent research and determine how to properly tee up the issue and how AvePoint can provide a solution.

The subject of this blog is centered around the importance of managing emails as records in the federal government. The prompt I was provided for this blog was to bring up relevant news events around how mismanaging emails can cause issues for federal employees, then present an AvePoint solution to help users not repeat those same critical mistakes.

… I’m not going to do that first part. If you’ve been living in the United States within the past 2-4 years you know EXACTLY why managing emails as records is important. If you really need an incentive to keep reading, just do a quick google search for “missing emails in federal government.” Don’t worry, I’ll wait…

Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s start talking solutions! AvePoint’s governance and compliance capabilities have expanded every year with new and innovative solutions. With these technologies, we’ve used our empirical knowledge of archiving and retention to build new solutions like our Records and Cloud Records tools.

These platforms provide administrators and records managers the tools they need to manage records across the enterprise. However, AvePoint doesn’t stop with admin tools. We extend the capabilities of our tools to end users to make creating and accessing information as intuitive as possible.

Many times, records management (or should I say “mismanagement”) is exacerbated because the burden is too high on the end user. Even with Records Managers setting the policies, creating the disposition schedules, and training the end users on what to click, users still might not end up in that records repository.

This issue stems from a couple of things, but one key area could be because many folks think all emails sent and received are archived and automatically turned into “records.” Unless the user falls in the CAPSTONE category, that most likely is not the case. If there are users who aren’t in that category yet still need the appropriate metadata and context for your email records, how does the Records Manager make it easy for users?

Introducing Office Connect, an AvePoint Solution that operates as the front end to help users get email records where they need to go. Let’s go over 3 key features that will increase adoption and compliance with your records policies and keep you compliant with NARA mandates.

Office Connect Lives in Office 365

Instead of requiring users to forward emails to a special inbox or worse—download and upload emails to a third location—Office Connect is installed as an Office app and lives in the ribbon for easy access.

Easy Exporting

Instead of requiring users to forward their emails to multiple locations or, again, download and upload their emails to additional locations, Office Connect makes it easy to directly copy emails to approved records repositories specified for that user.

Simplify Metadata Attachment

Office Connect makes it easy for end users to supply the metadata that’s required for their emails without leaving Outlook. Office Connect can ask the user to provide the necessary metadata based on where the email is being placed. Then by simply clicking “upload” records management has been made much easier!

In Summary

Email Records Management doesn’t have to be difficult and isn’t something that should land you in the news. Tools like AvePoint Records and Office Connect make it easy for end users to do the right thing. In some cases, the future of our nation can depend on it.

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