Do not assign the technology department sole responsibility for developing and implementing your strategic IM program. Allow IT to determine how long IM is stored on the system and you may expose your organization to legal challenges from litigators who claim your record retention decisions are driven by technology, not by the law. Instead, have your chief information officer work together with legal, compliance, records management, and HR professionals to develop and implement a strategic IM program— complete with clear retention, deletion, discovery, and litigation response rules—that meets the specific needs of your organization and employees. [4]
[4]Nancy Flynn and Randolph Kahn, Esq., E-Mail Rules, New York, AMACOM, 2003.