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Some of the recent messages on this list concerning email
retention policies reminded us of the importance of thinking about content when
it comes to records retention rather than media. In other words, the retention
policy for email messages should be driven by the content and context of the
message and not the fact that the message was delivered by an electronic
messaging system. The problem is that the communication method creates records –
or at least data – where more old-fashioned communication methods might
not have done i.e. an informal chat in the corridor or a phone call is now often
replaced by an email. This got me thinking……
An “old-fashioned telephone call” does not
usually create a record by default. It may be business practice to create some
form of telephone report, and that becomes a record and is subject to one’s
retention policy. However, the actual phone call itself is just a business
transaction. But what about VOIP technology (Voice Over Internet Protocol)?
If a VOIP telephone system is used, it is quite possible
that the phone call is captured automatically and at the very least, held as a
temporary file on a server somewhere, but possibly held as an official VOIP
record. These may currently not even be known about by the records manager and
probably not known about by the record creator; they’re probably ‘managed’
by I.T. or the Telecomms Dept (if the organisation has one). I know that some
Government departments and also private companies routinely record phone calls
made and these records are often subject to the standard retention policy. But
what about “non-recorded” phone calls that just happen to have been
made via a VOIP system?
So, what do we do about records retention? It seems that
many of the discussion threads that we’ve seen around emails are directly
relevant to the retention of VOIP records. Retention should be based on
content. But how do we decide when a chunk of data (a phone call) should become
a company/organisation’s record?
Any thoughts from anyone on this somewhat philosophical
topic??? Does anyone actually have a policy for VOIP records?
Best regards,
Eldin.
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