Importance of email archiving

Email has become the accepted form of communication in business. Market researcher, Gartner Group, conducted a study and found that almost 97% of all business communication was via email. Another survey by Osterman Research found that 79% of all businesses now accept emails as written confirmation of approvals or orders. This means that emails form part of companies’ records and must be stored for the same time period that written records would be stored for. In fact, up to 83% of a business’s critical data can be found in its email. It’s reasonable to assume that all businesses would be interested in investing in a system that would archive their email, secure it and store it for easy access.

The primary function of an email archiving system is to extract message contents and attachments from incoming and outgoing emails. It indexes them and stores them in a read-only format, which ensures that they are recorded and maintained in their original state. One of the benefits of archiving emails is that it creates more space on the mail server. Emails are stored in a compressed format, which saves a huge amount of disk space for users and companies.

Emails can be requested as evidence in a court of law. They must be in their original state and the records must be as complete as possible. This could entail the presentation of hundreds or thousands of emails in court. Searching for all relevant emails that aren’t archived but are merely saved on a back-up system takes time and costs money.

If a company fails to submit all of the records required, or if some of the records aren’t in their original forms, the company could be found guilty of “spoilage” and face a hefty fine. An archiving system will save time in the searching process, as the emails are saved on an index in an organised manner. They are also easily accessible. Archives store emails in their original forms so there is no risk of tampering or “spoilage”.

Regulatory compliance, stricter controls and severe penalties are becoming increasingly necessary, as investor confidence decreases and big business continues to be rocked by corporate scandals. Non-compliance by business enterprises will result in large fines and prison sentences. Email archiving has come about almost in direct response to the need to enable and monitor compliance.

Compliance is based on 3 concepts:
1) Data permanence, the retention of data in its original state
2) Data security, data is protected against access by unauthorised people and any physical damage
3) Auditability, information is protected but also easily accessible.

A business’s email system serves as a repository for industry knowledge. An archive system can make accessing the information contained within the repository a much easier task than it would ordinarily be. The archive system sorts records and provides advanced message search and retrieval functions. There are two ways in which archive systems can be managed: an in-house solution and a hosted solution that involves a third party.

In-house archiving means that your repository is located on a server within the office building. This method offers greater control over data integrity and confidentiality, as the information is handled by authorised internal staff only and is protected by the company’s own IT security systems. The costs involved may prove prohibitive, however, as the company would have to buy an email archiving system as well as the server to host it. There is also the impact on the IT department to consider.

In hosted solutions, a software application is located on the company’s email server. This captures email and transports it to a third party data warehouse for archiving. The data can be accessed through a Web browser or compatible email client. The benefits of hosted solutions include: lower up-front costs, low running costs and rapid implementation. Disadvantages include: not being able to retrieve data within a specified timeframe, the provider failing to comply with the regulation statutes, or the provider going out of business.

Email archiving is of considerable importance to the modern business environment. With the rise in corruption cases as more and more people seek an easy way to wealth, businesses need to be able to prove their case, or in some instances, defend it. As courts of law are now accepting emails as evidentiary proof, it’s vital to record and store all communication entering and leaving your business. Archiving systems allow you to store those emails in their original form, in a manner that can’t be tampered with. They also store them in an orderly fashion and can access them easily with a rapid search and retrieval process. The benefits that an archiving system can add to your business include improved efficiency, time saving and financial gain. To stay on top of your email communication and information, the only decision over which you should ponder is which system to install.

Recommended Site:

http://www.gfi.com/whitepapers/why-organizations-need-to-archive-emails.pdf

Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers Star Internet internet service provider one of the leading internet service providers in the UK