E-mail is a primary means for communicating with people inside and outside of your organization. Most of your customers use e-mail to negotiate contracts and agreements and exchange invoices and payment information. Very often, e-mail messages are the only record you have of important transactions.
Unfortunately, many organizations underestimate the value of knowledge that is stored in corporate email. According to Osterman research, email contains nearly 75% of the information that individuals use on a daily basis, therefore, the amount of corporate knowledge stored in email is enough to justify its safekeeping over long periods of time. However, many organizations are still finding it hard to accept that they need an email archiving solution. After all, they point out, traditional backups are sufficient. It is not that simple.
Why should a business archive its email?
The reasons why a business needs email archiving and email management can vary widely. What is certain is that a company can ill-afford not to archive email because it never knows when and which email it will need at a future date. That email may be a ‘to-do’ list compiled by sales but it may also be an email that could save a company thousands of dollars in legal fees and fines.
Access to old / deleted emails
Traditional backup solutions that restore systems if you have an outage, such as a disk system failure, are no longer sufficient. These backup products do not allow you or your employees to easily search through thousands of e-mails to find, for example, the messages outlining the payment information that another company had agreed to. With an email archiving solution management and employees can search for, and retrieve old or deleted emails in minutes.
Storage problems
The volume of email that is being generated on a daily basis is becoming a problem for IT administrators. As employees send and receive more emails with larger attachments, storage space on the server starts running out. If server quotas are cannot be increased, then emails must be stored in PST files on workstations or a network share – creating more problems. With an email archiving solution, all emails are stored off the server yet easily accessible. The problems associated with PST files are also solved.
Legal safeguard / email compliance
Legislation in many countries has been amended to include emails as a source of data that needs to be retained for varying periods of time in the event that such information is required in a court of law. Various sectors, such as finance, have their own email compliance regulations that need to be followed. The inability to produce email evidence when required in a court case may result in fines, court sanctions and loss of credibility. With an email archiving solution, all corporate emails stored safely, tamper proof and accessible within minutes making it easier for that company to provide the necessary data and also defend itself in a court of a law or prove it is compliant with the regulations in that country.
Ability to manage / check employees email
Most companies do not monitor what emails are being sent or received by their employees. Although corporate email should be used solely for company business, there are times when management may need to monitor an employee’s email activity. With an email archiving solution, management can assign department heads with permission to check on emails being sent by individuals suspected to be using company email abusively and / or malicious intent. Email archiving can prove extremely beneficial in internal investigations or employer/employee disputes.
Email archiving is no longer an expense but a justified cost of doing business and insurance cover against possible legal or compliance repercussions. Companies that use an archiving solution find that the benefits go beyond those they had expected when the purchased the product.
There is a huge amount of legislation and compliance regulations that organizations need to be aware of. It is impossible to list each one here, however the following links will provide you with a summary of legislation in particular countries, that stipulates, directly or indirectly, the need for the retention of emails, who is affected and how, and the penalties that may be incurred.
 
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