Users can select an existing folder in their mailbox (or, as readily create a new one) and assign a classification to it. Assigning a classification to a folder is a simple one-click process. And from that point forward, all messages already in the folder, and those filed into it subsequently are classified accordingly. Open Text Email Management enables users to map classification behaviors into their existing Inbox structure, and continue working on as they always have.

Open Text Email Management also provides the capacity to classify-in-place—without having to move a message into any particular location, a user can simply apply a classification from the ribbon within Microsoft Outlook while reading it. The ability to classify-in-place enables users to identify messages according to business context while organizing them in a fashion that suits their own personal working habits.

Open Text Email Management allows users to apply classifications to outgoing new messages with a simple selection from the ribbon in Microsoft Outlook. And internal recipients are able to see the classification the sender chose, meaning that more often than not, it saves recipients the time and effort of having to take any classification action themselves.

Classification choices presented to users to based on their function in the company, ensuring users always have a simple but targeted selection of declaration options. To deal with atypical messages, users can always access a broader view of classification options, based on what they have access rights to work with.

Once email messages have been classified by users, Open Text Email Management examines the mailbox on a periodic basis and extracts any classified emails. Such messages are placed into the appropriate location in the Open Text ECM Suite repository, where their retention and disposition is fully controlled in accordance with policy.

Even though classified messages are extracted from user mailboxes and placed into a managed system under complete corporate control, the access paradigm to those emails remains intact. Extracted emails are replaced in the mailbox by shortcuts, which point to the captured message—meaning users can always click an item in their mailbox, which retrieves and opens the original messages just like it always did.

A configurable “grace period” allows companies to specify a time period during which users can “change their minds” about a selected classification. During the grace period, users can amend a classification decision without needing, for instance, to initiate a formal request workflow to a records administrator. Once the grace period elapses, messages are committed to the managed repository and can no longer be modified by users in any way.

To help curb the rampant growth of email, Open Text Email Management periodically removes unimportant and non-business value email from user mailboxes. The system will never dispose of any message that a user has identified as having business value, until the appropriate corporate policy indicates it is appropriate to do so.

A powerful email management assistant provides users with a real-time view into what’s happening in their managed mailbox. Information about how an individual email is being managed, as well as an automatically generated view of messages pending deletion is always at each user’s fingertips—ensuring opportunity is always provided to review unimportant email and ensure anything useful to save can be retained.

Built on the proven email archiving backbone that stores the business critical emails of millions of mailboxes around the world, Open Text Email Management ensures that all captured emails are compressed (with attachments “single-instanced”), stored securely, and cost-effectively within your long-term storage environment.

Open Text’s industry-leading records management engine provides the intelligence that maps classifications to retention and disposition policies in the managed ECM repository. All captured content is always under the formal control of the corporation, readily accessible via search, and can be quickly put on litigation hold as required.

Dedicated audit trails provide visibility into content managed in the ECM repository, ensuring that access to, disposition, destruction, and other actions taken against captured messages are recorded and readily available in the event of investigations.

Full text search capabilities provide users with immediate and firsthand access to captured email messages, and give records administrators, legal staff, and other authorities a targeted point of access into the business critical and intended record emails of the corporation.

A dedicated PST ingestion engine allows organizations to target file shares and other locations where legacy PST files exist. A scheduled service automates the identification and ingestion of messages in PST files into the managed repository—even repopulates shortcuts back into the user’s mailbox, providing them with immediate access to the archived messages.