As a standard for business communications, email is used to exchange ideas, messages and even valuable file attachments.
Eventually, your inbox may become too cluttered. This can make organising your important emails a tedious task to achieve.
As you look for a solution to this inbox issue, you might ask yourself the best choice between archive vs. delete.
This article explains the difference between archive vs. delete options and when you should archive emails instead of deleting them.
Managing Your Business Inbox: Archive vs. Delete
Why Archive and Delete Emails
A common reason that causes people to wonder if you should archive or delete emails is inbox space.
Generally, any email server you use will have a storage limit. The amount of storage you have differs from platform to platform. The benefit of having this storage means you can keep a majority of your emails in your inbox. Additionally, popular email clients like Gmail offer users up to 15 gigabytes of space as of 2020.
If space has become less of an issue, then what’s the real reason we feel the urge to delete our emails? The answer is simple: reducing clutter in your inbox.
After spending most of your day looking for an important email, you understand why email organisation matters. Not only does an organised inbox make it easier to find information, but it also aids in better communications at work.
While you can delete old emails in your inbox, this isn’t always the best option when it comes to your business inboxes. You may end up deleting an email you need in the future. In addition, there is legislation in place that requires certain companies to maintain their electronic records, including emails. Infamous examples of why legislation like this matter exist in Enron and WorldCom cases, where these records were intentionally altered.
In the end, finding an appropriate archive solution for your business email is crucial for organisational and compliance purposes.
When Should You Archive Emails?
The best time for you to archive your emails depends on your needs.
If your company must stay compliant with federal regulations, you’ll have retention periods to follow. These retention periods indicate the period in which a company must retain their emails. Some regulations require companies to keep their records preserved for 5 years while others require up to 7 years.
Conversely, your company could be one that is looking for an efficient way to manage its data. With email as an open standard for business communication, email remains a resource that is rich with beneficial information.
How helpful that information is will depend on how often it is archived. So, the best way to know when you should archive your emails is to examine the role email plays in what you do. For example, a team of customer service representatives can best benefit from a regularly updated email archive. Due to the team’s focus on client emails, they would require an archive resource that can keep up rather than an out-of-date archive.
Benefits of an Email Archive Solution
One of the main benefits of an email archive solution has been the ability to organise with ease. As technology has continued to evolve, so have the benefits of email archive platforms like Threads.
Threads’ shared inbox functionality expands email archive centers around an email archive’s important features while also expanding how you can use this archive. Not only can you streamline your communications by archiving your emails with Threads, but it also intelligently indexes your data. This makes it much easier for your team to find any email regarding a certain client.
Another benefit that Threads has brought to email archiving is data analysis. There is plenty of valuable information to be found in your archived emails. With Threads, you can easily collect this data and put it to good use. One example includes features such as Threads’ email tone checker. Instead of guessing what a client email is saying, a tone checker can help your team read between the lines.
By and large, there is a lot you can do with the data found in your email. Using tools like Threads helps your team make the most out of their email and stay on the cutting-edge of your industry.