Posts Tagged ‘archiving email’

Email Archiving 101 – What Happens After an Email Is Read?

August 11th, 2010

Have you ever wondered what happens to your email after it is read? Hate to keep email in your inbox but still need it to consult later on? Email backups are becoming more and more common. Gmail has it enabled as one of their default features for every single account. Other web email services and email hosts are starting to bring in the ability to archive the email for later viewing.

Email archiving is equivalent to search for your email. Users select which messages they wish to archive, archive them and can consult them at any time down the road. They may remain in the inbox or may be moved to another folder. Best of all, archived messages can be set up as threads on some email providers. This way, users will be able to tell whether someone has emailed them in the past in regards to this topic as well as what date they emailed them and what the message was. Email archival is especially important to power email users such as corporate customers. They have been known to search for a clients email and find it within seconds instead of minutes.

Email archiving used to be considered a special feature and many software developers wanted to charge extra for it. Now, most email providers offer some type of search feature for free. Email archiving software was tested among individuals in the workplace. It was found that employees at a major accounting company who had email archiving software were more efficient than employees who did not. The difference was staggering, at over 20% efficiency increased among the email archiving employees.

Email archiving is a feature that takes some getting used to. Not every employee will want to adapt right away and some may find it difficult to use. There are thousands of different programs that let employees search through their archives. Many of these programs, especially Google Apps for business, take it to the next level. They have short cuts which allow business users to put labels on certain conversations that pertain to a certain month or job. They also allow users to search in different folders. Whether the email is categorized incorrectly or placed correctly, it does not matter. Emails can be searched for by using the email address, name, subject line or even keywords. Some programs allow you to go a step further and suggest as you are typing.

Email archiving is the way of the future. People are able to be more efficient as well as categorize work. The work load per employee is able to be increased while decreasing the amount of time spent on an excellent customer response. Email archiving software also proves useful to solve disputes as well as keep records of what orders were placed and when they were placed. The archiving software does not solve all the problems in the world but archiving software is able to help businesses with tons of problems. Take care of your email addresses by using a web mail provider who has email archiving enabled.

Archiving Email. Why?

July 21st, 2010

Business uses email for the vast majority of its communications, it’s quicker, more convenient and more productive than any other form of communication across geographical distance that we have. Because of this, there is a whole range of legislation that compels business to conduct this communication safely and securely. With than in mind, having a complete and compliant email archiving solution is essential to prevent data loss and litigation being brought against the company.

Archiving email used to be restricted to forward thinking companies that had an eye on disaster recovery. With the advent of this legislation and events like 9/11, every company who operated in the United States has to treat email very seriously indeed. Having a coherent email archive is the first step towards making a business secure and to prepare it for any eventuality. Email is so prevalent, that many organizations could cease to trade if their email system went down. Having an email archiving system that is available 24/7 and during disaster situations is worth the considerable trouble and expense involved in putting one together.

Couple that need with the need to comply with legislation such as the SEC, FINRA, HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, NYSE and NASD rules and you have a compelling case to have an email archiving solution in place before you open your doors for business. All these organizations have reams of regulations regarding the use and storage of electronic company information. The regulations are complex and cover just about everything from how they are written, read, managed, sent, received and stored.

Most rules pertain to security of the information. Using secure systems, having adequate building security, ensuring staff cannot abuse their position. Having a secure email archiving infrastructure in place and other such considerations. Many of the entities mentioned have rules about retaining emails for specific periods of time. For example the SEC and FINRA requires email to be stored for up to 6 years. They must be stored in their original form, be secure, tamperproof, non-erasable or rewritable and must also have copies stored at a geographically diverse location. SOX, or Sarbanes-Oxley dictates that relevant emails must be stored securely to 5 years, especially financial information.

All these laws have a similar look and feel, but cover different industries and types of information. One thread flows through all of them though, they are more concerned about how email and information is handled rather than the contents of them. It’s how this information is created, transmitted, read and then stored that companies have to bear in mind. Email archiving is just a small piece of this giant jigsaw, but the one piece that gets the most publicity.

Archiving email is a practice that many organizations did anyway, but on a much smaller scale. They are now compelled to use email archives to comply with the law, as well as protect themselves from disasters. Having a complete and coherent email archive is the best way a company can protect itself from abuse and litigation as email if often used in evidence. So it isn’t all about protecting yourself from the lawmakers, it’s about protecting yourself from everyone.