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True, but a similar argument applies to e-mail. How many e-mails from three years ago are still relevant? The main value proposition of GMail when it came out was that you never have to delete email anymore. Why not do the same with contacts and take the hassle out of it?

Besides, most modern CRM/ERM systems interact with e-mail (where you bcc the CRM system to add data to it). So adding a CRM system only exacerbates the problem.




It depends on what you do. Personally, I'm a pretty meticulous filer, I keep lots of paper and digital records, filed in filesystems so I can figure out wtf happened 3 or 5 years ago. (I'm a manager in a large IT organization)

Ancient email is often important to establish the context surrounding decisions that have multi-year impact.

Also, many folks use email as an ad hoc general filing system. They rely on search to find information, and email is often the ONLY system available with reasonable search ability.

If you're in a small company, this will sound insane. But in a mega-sized org like the one I work in, its essential.




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