With the use of email continuing to grow it has become an essential tool in business and personal life alike. It has been anticipated that by 2015 there will be over 4.1 billion email accounts in existence.
An effective email management system is therefore vital for any organization so that it can increase productivity in order to cope with the ever increasing volume of messages. An effective email management system will help you to:
- Manage your Inbox
- Improve productivity
- Help improve your response time to mission critical messages
Organize your Email
Sifting through the continuous amount of mail in your inbox can be an arduous and time consuming operation. Setting up a system that best allows you to control your inbox is vital in order to increase efficiency. Organization is the key. Delete emails from your inbox that don’t require your action. You can always retrieve old emails from an email archiving system, leaving you with only the important mail that requires you to take some action, in your inbox.
Don’t Use Automatic Updates
By turning off your automatic delivery notification tool you can free up more time to concentrate on your important business activities. It is still vital for you to set aside some time in every working day for checking through your email and responding to all emails that requires you to take action. Marking out this time in your diary and sticking to your schedule can help in dealing with your day to day activities.
Be logical
Once you’ve opened an email, don’t move onto to the next one before replying to it or doing the necessary action required. By moving on to the next email you risk forgetting about the previous message leaving yourself open for trouble.
Use other methods of communication as well
In certain cases other methods of communication can work better then email. A quick phone call or face to face (Skype) meeting can avoid elaborate email conversations that often lose the thread of the original message. Social media and other forms of IM (instant messaging) can be used also to make management of your essential email a lot easier.
Hopefully after following these tips you will be able to set up the appropriate email management system to help with the smooth running of your organization.
Check out our White paper “The Benefits of Email Archiving” for more information on how to implement the right email management system.
Organizations all over the world are continuing to implement policies and procedures to cope with the growing demand to comply with email retention laws. However some organizations are still “dragging their heels” in updating their old, outdated and ineffective practices in regards to email management.
What these businesses don’t realise is that improper email management is a serious risk in the modern digital world. These email archiving practises can drive up the storage and email management costs considerably whilst also increasing the risk of not being in full compliance of data retention laws by an inability to meet the necessary eDiscovery requests resulting from litigation.
What are these mistakes organizations are making with their approach to email archiving?
Relying on Microsoft Exchange 2010
Some organizations continue to rely solely on the Exchange 2010 for their email archiving needs. Although Exchange 2010 does have an email archiving feature it is not a full email archiving solution- it just doesn’t have the full capabilities that other email archiving solutions have to meet compliance rules and regulations. Check out our previous blog for more information on this issue.
Saving Everything
The sheer volume of emails and ESI (Electronically Stored Information) that organizations deal with is growing daily. You may feel like your protecting yourself by saving everything on your email system but all you will be doing is inhibiting the eDiscovery requests that come your way. Storage costs will skyrocket and dealing with eDiscovery requests will become more time consuming and cumbersome then needed.
Using Tape Backup as an Archive
Tape can be used for backup purposes even though it is strongly advised against and it is these same reasons and more that it should never be used as an email archiving tool. Backup tapes can be easily compromised, destroyed or even lost. Do you know the fines you risk facing if you cannot find the email or ESI needed for your eDiscovery process in a timely matter?
Leaving email classification to the end user
We all know how frustrating it can be to sift through the multitude of emails that can be awaiting you in your inbox. Imagine that you now have to categorize every single email and then apply your own retention policy to it. Not only is this a huge waste of time but it is also a very risky compliance strategy.
Now that we know how not to approach email archiving, you can now begin to set the proper retention policies in place, cut some needless costs and feel safe knowing that you are in full compliance with the multitude of email archiving laws in existence.
Download our White Paper “Email Archiving: Simple steps to Compliance” for more information to help your organization to adopt the correct approach to email archiving.
More and more organizations are relying on email as an integral part of the day to day running of their business and it is because of this that the need for a full email archiving solution continues to grow.
There are a number of reasons why every organization should be considering adopting an email archiving solution but the main ones we keep coming across are:
- Adhering to Compliance Laws
- Increasing your efficiency of work
- Too many emails to manage
- Lack of space on your email system
With these issues in mind, what you now want is an email archiving solution that is quick and easy to deploy and integrates seamlessly into your organization.
The best email archiving solutions in the market today operate within the confines of your system without interfering with your normal day to day business activities. You want an email archiving solution that:
- Allows your IT department to focus on other operational tasks
- Lowers your IT cost’s
- Allows you’re email server to perform faster and more efficiently
- Operates itself within your set of parameters
It doesn’t matter the how big or small your organization is or what industry you are in. What matters is that you need an email archiving solution in place to keep up with the modern era technological businesses which you are competing against, if you want to succeed.
Download our free white paper “The benefits of Email Archiving” that will go into more detail on how a full email archiving solution will help your organization to succeed.
Litigation can be a huge cost for any organization but thanks to the wide digitization of modern documents, that cost can be significantly reduced. The discovery of electronic documents, commonly referred to as eDiscovery, streamlines litigation making it faster, easier, less burdensome, all of which makes the process less expensive. What we will be looking at today is how it does all of this.
When the threat of litigation arises, your organization needs to respond in a quick and timely manner. And given the drain on your resources during this process, faster is better. eDiscovery allows you and your organization to retrieve your email or ESI (Electronically Stored Information) very quickly using search terms and keywords. This ability saves your organization from sending a team of lawyers to search through boxes and boxes of hardcopy documents, racking up plenty of billable hours in the process.
The tools used in the eDiscovery process, including an email archive, allows organizations to more efficiently respond to litigation requests in several ways:
- Removes the dependency on your Legal Team and IT department to locate and retrieve email.
- Allows for the easy access to data by implementing an intuitive web interface.
- Offers a solution for the litigation support process, allowing for classification of records and collaboration among internal discovery users, including outside counsel.
- Enables powerful, efficient and high volume search capabilities – includes the capability of searching bykeywords or phrases.
- Produces evidence by mass-exporting to common formats such as PDF, LDAP, or PST.
With these eDiscovery tools in place, the threat of litigation becomes far less ominous. Organizations are better able to deal with their litigation without it affecting the day-to-day operation of the business.
As more and more business documents move online, the eDiscovery process will only increase in importance.
Download our free white paper "The Jatheon Guide to eDiscovery" for more information on how eDiscovery will be of benefit to your organization.
On Friday we looked at the first two factors that are driving customers to seek out an email archiving solution. Today we follow up with the next 2 reasons and we will also take a look at what customers are looking for in their email archiving Solution.
Email Archiving for eDiscovery
EDiscovery is another big driver for modern day organizations. The main purpose of eDiscovery is the ability to retrieve email in a quick manner for legal audit purposes or for someone who needs to find a certain piece of Email quickly. Once the threat of litigation arises you want to be able to deal with the issue immediately. What you need will be an email archiving solution that is user friendly and intuitive to ensure the recovery process is as easy as possible.
Email Archiving for Internal policy management
This refers to the policy and rules setup by your organization that are policing all the emails traveling through your email server. With an email archive you can create alerts for messages from specific or priority clients. You can also create a family policy that monitors all emails to ensure all your staff are adhering to the policies your organization has in place. These are all done using keywords which can be assigned to your desired parameters which allows you to control your server without having to look at every single email passing through it.
What we now need to know is - what are we looking for in an email archiving solution? The main factors that you want are:
- Simple to Manage and Deploy
- Very Intuitive software
- User Friendly
- Cost effective
Thankfully Jatheon's Plug n Comply technology matches all these criteria and much more. But if you would like to find out for yourself why not check out InfoTech’s Vendor Landscape report that rates all the email archiving Solutions in the market today.
Download our free white paper “InfoTech Report Names Jatheon as Email Archiving Champion” to see why our Email archiving Solution is the only solution for you!
We all know that emails have grown to be the primary tool for business communications in recent years but do you know the main factors that are driving customers to seek out an email archiving solution. This blog will be broken into 2 parts with part two following on Monday May 7th.
Email Archiving for Compliance with Government Regulations
There are numerous laws that are in existence but the 2 main laws that seem to be the driving factors for compliance are Hipaa (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and the SOX Act (Sarbanes-Oxley). Non-compliance with these laws can lead to large fines, a multitude of procedures being put in place (such as mandatory audits) or even prison sentences. Although you are only fully obliged to have an email retention policy once the threat of litigation arises you are leaving yourself open to a lot of trouble and scrutiny by not being prepared. Once you have an email archiving solution in place your email and ESI (electronically stored information) is safe and secure. This allows your organization to rest assured knowing that, once archived, your email/ESI cannot be deleted or tampered with in any way. This keeps your organization fully in line with all compliance laws in existence.
Email Archiving for Storage Space Management
This is a big driver for today’s businesses. With emails being used so much around the world organizations are struggling to find enough room to keep their emails stored. This leads some organizations to seek out new servers to relieve the stress on their own email systems but this can be a very costly approach. Email archiving is a much more cost effective solution. You free up space on your email system by storing your older email or ESI to your archive. This is also offers huge savings in time wastage as recovering files from an email server or backup can be quite tricky and cumbersome whilst with an email archiving solution it is only the click of a button away.
Please join us again on Mon May 7th for the remaining factors that are driving customers to seek out an email archiving solution.
In the meantime download our free white paper “Email Archiving - Simple steps to Compliance” for more information on why Email Archiving is necessary in any modern day organization.
To many people the “double-deletion” of email is an everyday occurrence, with the majority of people deleting emails and emptying their trash folders routinely every day. In fact certain email providers such as Outlook even issue a prompt on your screen to delete your emails when you are closing out of the program. On top of this most organizations would impose a short retention period on your emails or a mailbox size limit, all of this done to stop your mailbox getting out of hand and causing performance issues on your email system.
But a recent lawsuit throws a curve ball at this as it alleges that certain organizations tried to cover up illicit communications by instructing each other to double-delete their email. The case in question is the “e-book price fixing lawsuit” brought against Apple and some individual book publishers by the Department of Justice. The lawsuit is based around the allegation that they “took steps to conceal their communications with one another, including instructions to ‘double delete’ email…”.
Is Double Deletion Illegal?
The crazy thing about all this is that double-deletion is not illegal as long as there is no duty or regulation to preserve it. But once a duty or regulation has been created (such as a notification of impending litigation) then you are legally required to keep all of your ESI (electronically stored information) for ediscovery and compliance reasons.
Does Double Deletion Work?
Another strange fact about double deletion is that it is not even effective in its attempt to hide information. Although the information may not be visible to the user it may still be live on your hard drive and there are a multitude of forensic tools available to recover any deleted emails.
Why Double Delete?
The main reasons that organizations tend to double-delete, impose mailbox size limits and short retention periods on your inbox is that they are trying to restrict the strain that the multitude of data will cause to your system which in turn will slow down its performance or even lead to a crash. All of which would be detrimental to any organization. Although double deletion is not illegal, it is not the solution as it leaves you open to run afoul of a multitude of compliance laws.
What is the solution?
The best answer to these problems is a full email archiving solution. The great thing about email archiving is that is does everything that has been mentioned above but it keeps you in full compliance with the various rules and regulations that are in existence. Email archiving frees up the space on your email system by taking your emails to its archive - and the great thing about it is that those emails are only a click away so you don’t have to worry about the time constraints imposed trying to recover these files.
In summary. although double-deletion may not always be illegal there is a definite grey area that can lead to major ramifications if litigation arises. Email archiving gives you the freedom to remove emails off your system but there is no risk of breaking any compliance laws.
Download our white paper “the benefits of email archiving” for more information on why email archiving is needed in your organization.
If you’re not sold on the value of email archiving, just take a look at the list of laws and regulations that require archiving to satisfy their compliance requirements. The list of laws and regulations governing the healthcare system especially is lengthy and complex. Each of the following laws mandates strict record keeping when it comes to emails:
The FDA Title 21 CFR Part 11, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Freedom of Information Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, HFTA (Hedge Fund Transparency Act), HIPAA, FINRA, Investment Advisors Act, NASD Rule 3110 and NYSE Rule 440, Sarbanes-Oxley, SB 1386, Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 17a-4, SEC Rule 17a-3, and The USA Patriot Act.
HIPAA Email Compliance
In the health care industry, there is no law with as much punch as HIPAA. Non-compliance with HIPAA can mean lengthy and onerous penalties and procedures, like mandatory audits for organizations. In some cases it involves lawsuits against anyone who violates HIPAA in a Federal District Court and those lawsuits tend to include statutory damages.
If you fail to comply with HIPAA, you will be made to provide clarification on “wrongful disclosures” because it is a criminal offense to violate the Privacy rule’s authorization requirements. HIPAA also contributes to the significant increased in civil money penalties for non-compliance.
HIPAA fines apply to anyone that willfully neglects to comply with HIPAA and range from $10,000 for one violation, up to $50,000. The fines can also go up to $1.5million per for an identical violation.
In the health care industry, organizations must comply with HIPAA or face severe penalties. The first step is to get your email record keeping in order.
Contact Jatheon today to learn more about email archiving.
Download our white paper "Email Archiving - Simple steps to Compliance" for more information on how to keep your organization in line with the Laws and Regulations
While it may not sound like the most fun gift in the world, email archiving can actually be a godsend for your IT personnel. And if you think it’s like backup, it’s not. Archiving is a system where your emails are indexed and secured so that they can be retrieved quickly- email backups don’t allow for easy or quick searching and retrieval, and certainly don’t stand up to compliance requirements.
So what does email archiving do for your business, and especially your IT staff?
Email archiving helps businesses by protecting sensitive email records and clearing the server load at the same time. These email records are retained for regulatory or eDiscovery purposes. Email archiving captures all inbound, outbound and internal email content, so you can keep track of employee activity (the sheer act of archiving acts as a deterrent to time wastage).
Reasons to give the gift of email archiving to your IT staff:
- Email archiving automates administrative responsibilities related to the management of email systems. So it reduces the time that IT admins have to spend on these tasks.
- Time on support and at the help desk is greatly reduced, and time spent managing inboxes and retrieving lost emails is reduced with automated retention policies.
- Email archiving allows your email users to delete emails without worry. Since they don’t have to hoard emails anymore, computer systems are greatly relieved.
- Archiving protects mission critical data and addresses legal and regulatory issues, satisfying the requirements of laws like SEC, SOX, HIPPA, etc.
- Email archiving can also help out when disaster strikes. It is separate from your mail server so if it all goes down there’s still a copy of the whole archive on the archiving appliance.
With all these benefits added up, it’s obvious that email archiving makes life a whole lot easier for IT staff - and less stressful. Give the gift of email archiving today!
Download our free white paper"The Benefits Of Email Archiving" for more information on how email archiving will be of use to your organization.
Every so often I come across a story that reminds me how important it is to archive email just for legal reasons alone. This week, I read a story about the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, who is accused of deleting thousands of emails and other ESI. If they were trying to cover something up, they’ve brought way more attention to it.
Arizona Sheriff’s Office in Hot Water Over Email Archiving
In Arizona, The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office is in a whole load of hot water following an outside review of possible destruction of public records. ABC news has reported that they’ve received documents pointing to a severe breach of the law by the lawmakers themselves. The Pima Country Attorney has launched an inquiry into Sheriff Paul Babeu’s Sheriff’s office after it was suspected that thousands of emails had been illegally deleted.
Compliance and industry laws and regulations mean that there are strict protocols for the retention and protection of company records and public records. If there has been a cover up by deletion, it does not bode well for the perpetrators. Currently, the PCSO officials deny any allegations against them and say they haven’t deleted any ESI. In a statement, they’ve said that the emails were deleted because of computer storage issues and that everything had been backed up to an external hard drive.
Email Archiving: A Must For Any Organization
This kind of scenario is plausible and is common where parties don’t fully understand their data protection obligations. Indeed, for the majority of organizations an email archiving policy is necessary, but many still fail to implement one. Unfortunately, this oversight could cost some public officials their jobs, because failure to retain data where required constitutes a criminal offence.
Investigators will now be brought in and will use eDiscovery methods to try to get to the bottom of the missing emails. If they cannot be found, this will not be the end of the story by any stretch.
To avoid email retention nightmares, it is advisable to get an email archiving solution for your organization. Archiving appliances are quick and easy to install, and ensure full compliance with the law.
Download our Free White Paper "Email Archiving - Simple steps to Compliance" for more information on how to keep you organization in line with current industry laws and regulations.