One concern many users have with email retention solutions is retrieval. That is, how exactly am I going to find that email again when I need it in a centralized repository multiple people are using? It is hard enough to find your lucky pair of socks in your own sock drawer—imagine you need to find your socks in a sock drawer you share with your whole team.
This is where metadata comes in handy. In the sock example, each pair of socks would be tagged with metadata on size, type, color, pattern, fiber content, and owner. To find your size 10, wool, navy blue dress socks with little whales on them now is going to be much easier. Metadata tags work similarly to enable end users to more quickly find the emails they need.
Email metadata tags might include the sender, the recipient, the date, the subject, the client/account, project number, location, project phase, whatever is necessary given the business purpose for retaining the email. Ensuring your automation solution automatically extracts and creates certain metadata tags or prompts the user to enter other tags also increases user's ability to find emails based on metadata tags.