Outlook: e-mail-archiving and customized print output

Request: A law firm requests print outs of e-mails to be added to the paper-based file which must be kept for German clients. The default designs of Outlook do not match the request, because relevant client information and the metadata of the document management system are missing. (Outlook does not provide means to set up a company-wide print design, because such designs are strictly saved in the Outlook user profile). Additionally, e-mails should be saved together with attachments in the DMS.

Difficulties: (1) It is not possible to design an automatic filing referring to the sender of the e-mail, because the person filing the e-mail is not identical to the "real" sender (the client) due to the fact that frequently lawyers are forwarding client-related e-mails to their secretaries for archiving. (2) The relevant content of the e-mail (e.g. the clients answer) cannot be found after multiple forwardings of an e-mail, due to the growth of the e-mail body.

Solution: The requested extension is provided by a COM Add-in for Outlook. The content of the e-mail and the DMS metadata are transferred to a Word template with the correct layout, thus creating a printout copy. During this process the user has the possibility to select the relevant content and the "real" sender for presentation on the first page of the printout. E-mail, printout copy and attachments are all saved in the DMS (Hummingbird DM).