What is Email Archiving?

Email archiving is a system that allows an organisation to automatically record and store all emails (including attachments such as word documents and spreadsheets) as they enter and leave the company.

The aim of an email archive is to ensure good business practice, adherence to Government legislation and compliance to international codes of practice.

The email archive should be 'tamper proof', i.e. not easily accessible to unauthorised personnel, and allow for a complete audit trail if there is a legal requirement to do so.

The future of email archiving

The email archiving market is set for continued growth due to the fact that there are many acts of parliament and legislation that compel organisations to retain copies of all emails sent and received. This legislative process is set to continue, especially as companies are impacted by issues caused in the early 2000's such as the Enron scandal and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Together with the continued growth of internet usage, this will only encourage the need for email archiving systems. In fact, with the growth of other mediums of communications, such as messaging and online chat, archiving systems are becoming more complex and can often encompass these communications.

Why email archiving?

The main reasons for implementing an email archiving system, is to comply with the following legislation, or codes of conduct:

• BSI 7799.
• BSI PD00008, PD0010, PD5000.
• Data Protection Act.
• RIP (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000).
• Employment Law.
• SEC 17a.
• To ensure that an organisation's email usage policy is adhered to.
• For use as evidence if required due to any form of litigation.

Please note that this list is not definitive and you should be aware of all legislation that may affect your company and your specific requirements.

It should also be noted that:

• Companies, company directors, and users can be held liable for failure to retain documents and records.
• Electronic documents are admissible before a court of law (UK Civil Evidence Act 1995).
• UK Applicable Laws include:
• Vicarious Liability, e.g. the Defamation Act, and the Sex Discrimination Act.
• Privacy, e.g. the Data Protection Act, and the Human Rights Act.
• Regulatory Obligation.

Types of email archiving

As a potential user of email archiving systems you have two choices:

1. to purchase a system and implement it in-house, at your office or,
2. to rent the service and facilities from an organisation that can support, implement and maintain the system on your behalf.

In-house email archiving

Large scale enterprises tend to have the facilities on-site as they have the capability to support and maintain their systems. They also tend to prefer to retain the element of control that a hosted solution does not provide.

Hosted email archiving

Hosted email archiving is of particular use to smaller companies who do not have access to technical expertise in order to support an email archiving solution. This has a number of benefits:

• No need to be supported by an internal IT Department or specialist personnel.
• The system will be managed by a specialist supplier.
• Can be more cost effective as hosted solutions tend to be priced per user.
• No up front costs i.e. rather than having to purchase hardware and email archiving software the cost can be spread on a per month basis.

What can I expect to gain by implementing email archiving?

This is a particular conundrum as it may well be that you will never be required to use the email archive. Your organisation may only need this to comply with particular legislation or just in case there is ever any need to revert to an old email. In this case, you will only ever recognise any financial benefits in the event there is a need to gain access.

However, the result of not archiving emails can be considerable and can range from a fine to potential imprisonment.

Benefits of email archiving

What type of companies would benefit from an email archiving system?

It is fair to say that most companies would benefit from an email archiving system, but the following are organisations that for legal and compliance reasons require email archiving systems to be implemented:

• finance and banks,
• police,
• healthcare,
• government,
• local government,
• defence industry,
• construction.

Further Benefits of email archiving

Organisations can gain a number of benefits by implementing an email archiving system. The type of benefits realised will depend on the requirements, the situation and the type of organisation.

Some potential benefits include:

• Email archiving ensures that legislation and compliance issues are adhered to. Many organisations have to comply with strict codes of conduct or face being fined. These include banks and other financial service organisations as well as legal practices and organisations that retain medical records.
• Email archives can be used to retrieve information at a later stage if a suspected misdemeanour or criminal act has been suspected. This has become particularly important over recent years due to incidents of criminal activity such as drug dealing rackets using companies' computer resources, and even issues around terrorist activities.
• In the past, organisations relied upon individuals to archive their emails. This would cause issues if archiving wasn't carried out regularly or indeed, at all.
• A good systematic archiving system can reduce the costs of email retrieval in the event that an old email is required. In circumstances where a particular email is required for evidence, companies could potentially spend a fortune on people and resources trying to find the details. A good email archiving package will eliminate this and greatly speed up the process.
• Email archiving systems can be invaluable if your computer or network has major issues such as a hard disk failure. At least there will be copies of emails available for you to retrieve and re-loaded onto the systems.
• Certain organisations are required to keep records of emails for a specific time period. An email archiving system will automate this process rather than leave it within the realms of an IT department or individual users.
• Emails can often contain specific information that might be incredibly useful if an organisation is in dispute with a client, supplier or regulatory body.
• Email archiving systems can reduce the need for large amounts of storage as they will compress messages and attachments, remove duplicates and if required, remove them from the system at the end of the required retention period.
• E-discovery. Electronic discovery is a relatively new term that allows organisations to use emails or instant messages as evidence either for criminal, civil litigation or for potential use in company disciplinary procedures. For further information see Electronic discovery on Wikipedia.

Potential pitfalls

• If emails and other electronic communication need to be stored for a long period of time, email archiving can become expensive as the storage requirements can become huge.
• Emails must be archived regularly (it should be an automated process) otherwise it will be a wasted system.
• The system must be secure and only authorised personnel must be allowed to view the content in case of breach of the Data Protection Act and Human Rights legislation. This could be considered intrusive - as long as emails are marked 'personal' then it is reasonable to allow people some personal activities.
• The system must be 'tamper proof' to ensure that emails can not be accessed and altered.

Buying and installing email archiving

Step one

Identify the needs of your organisation and your users.

• What sort of emails do my employees send and receive?
• Do they send/receive a great deal of attachments?
• Do they use other forms of communications such as instant chat, and webmail such as gmail or hotmail?
• Are there any requirements that a particular group may need? Don't take anything for granted. Why do I need an email archiving system?
• You need to be completely clear that email archiving will benefit your organisation and you need to be especially aware about whether you are regulated in any way by legislation or codes of practice.
• Your potential supplier should help you analyse your storage requirements depending on usage and the types of emails sent and received.

Step two

Identify your needs for a new email archiving system.

• What equipment will I require? Will I require a dedicated email archive server?
• How much will it cost?
• How much will it cost to maintain and support?
• Consider future options - you may be looking to open another office or expand your current operation. As a result you will need to ensure that whatever you purchase now will be able to meet your future requirements.

Step three

Identify the right supplier.

• Use the search box on the right hand side of this page.
• Look through magazine and online reviews.
• Talk to others who have recently installed an e-mail archiving solution in the same area as you.
• Use forums, networks and personal contacts to obtain recommendations.

Ask questions such as:

• Who has the experience of working with a company of the same size and profile as yours?
• Are any of those suppliers local to where you are located?
• How many similar installations have they made?
• Ask for references - ensure that the company is capable and reliable.
• Talk to a couple of their customers in order to see what benefits have been gained and what pains those customers went through when installing the system.
• Obtain a credit check through ICC Credit directly from within your chosen supplier's listing in Conjungo to ensure that they are financially stable.

Step four

Request a detailed proposal from three or four of your preferred suppliers.

• Set a deadline for when you need the proposal back.
• Give out details in advance as necessary to ensure that the suppliers you have selected can give you the best proposal.
• Go and meet them in person - get a good feel for whether you will be able to work with them.

Step five

Select a supplier.

• Who best demonstrates that they understand your business and your requirements?
• Is the solution flexible and scaleable and therefore able to meet future demand? You don't want to find out later that by investing a little more money now you could have saved money in the long term.
• Is it cost effective? Have they shown how and where you will save money?
• Does it clearly demonstrate the functional benefits - rather than just listing particular features? Does the proposal clearly show what the benefits are? There is no point on spending money for a system full of features that are of no benefit or that you will never use!
• How will your potential supplier support and maintain your system afterwards?
• How much will support and maintenance cost?
• Have you spoken to a couple of your preferred suppliers' customers?
• Agree on financial terms - you may be required to pay a deposit but do not pay the whole amount in advance of delivery.

Step six

Implementation, testing and go live.

• Install the new system. Only when you are entirely satisfied should you pay any balance outstanding on the invoice. This way, if there are any problems, your supplier will sort them out as a matter of urgency.
• Don't forget to account for user training!

Points to remember when installing an email archiving system

It is unlikely that you will install an email archiving system yourself but by knowing the following steps you will be aware of what the process is, in order to achieve a fully functioning system.

As a simplistic guide for a small business of, for example, 10 users in one office, the following would be necessary:

1. You will need to structure a data retention policy. This must be constructed with the input of legal, HR (Human Resources) and IT departments. If your organisation does not have this infrastructure, then you should take specialist advice. This should be supported by an Acceptable Use Policy.
2. Backup. You need to ensure that your email archive is backed up regularly in case there is ever a problem with the archive.
3. Storage. Your emails do not necessarily need to be backed up onto very fast or expensive servers. Use existing hardware where appropriate in order to reduce costs.
4. Be aware that the types of emails that people in your organisation send (and receive) as attachments (such as word documents) can rapidly use up storage. If your users send or receive a large amount of attachments as part of their work, then you will need to consider your storage requirements.
5. You may need to consider potential new legislation when implementing an email archiving system and plan for it. Generally, new legislation that is passed does give people and organisations time to understand and implement a new system but you should be aware of this regardless.
6. You must consider how long you need to retain the email records for. This may depend on any particular legislation or codes of conduct that may affect your company type.
7. You will need to consider if you need to record all emails, including webmail, chat etc.

Frequently asked questions

What is email archiving?
Email archiving is a system that allows an organisation to automatically record and store all emails (including attachments such as word documents and spreadsheets) as they enter and leave the company.

Why do I need it?
Certain types of organisations have to comply with legislation and codes of practice and keep a record of all communications such as emails and chat for a set number of years.

What about the legal issues?
You need to be aware of the legal issues and co-ordinate either with a lawyer or your HR department as you need everybody to agree to a written 'Acceptable Use Policy' i.e. what the email system can and can not be used for. Furthermore, you need to have a data retention policy in place. This needs to written and approved by your HR, IT and legal departments or by a specialist organisation.

Do I need to keep copies of both ingoing and outgoing emails?
Yes. You need to keep copies of both ingoing and outgoing emails, especially as you may need to show an audit trail of communications between two or more parties.

Can chat and other forms of communications be archived?
Most forms of communications can be archived, including chat, mail, internet mail and messaging.

You will need to check the capability of the software that you are buying to ensure most or all of the areas are covered.

What happens if a 'new' type of communication is developed a while after I have purchased my email archiving system?
Normally, companies develop their software according to what is being developed in the market place, so it most likely that you will be able either to upgrade your existing package or add a module to be able to deal with it.

Who should have access to the content of the material that has been archived?
This should be left to very senior personnel or HR. Clearly you can not let anyone use the system as this will be in breach of Data Protection laws and in some cases Human Rights.

In summary about email archiving

Email archiving is a necessary function of most businesses. The penalties for not having an email archiving system in place can be extremely high and any breach could result in a substantial fine or even imprisonment.

This is especially so for those businesses that needs to comply with legislation and international codes of conduct. Even for those organisations that are not impacted by such laws, there are benefits in terms of mitigating risk in the event that there is a dispute with a customer or even an employees, as the evidence can be quickly and inexpensively located.

Glossary

Messaging - A form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. The text is conveyed via devices connected over a network such as the internet. The most commonly known IM applications are MSN Chat, Google Talk and Twitter.

E-discovery - Electronic discovery is a relatively new term that allows organisations to use emails as evidence either for criminal, civil litigation or for potential use in company disciplinary procedures.

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