EAS Update

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In our Newsletter 2, 2004 we announced a partnership with SecureData for the sale and implementation of the ZANTAZ EAS product range.

Due to some distribution changes in Australian\ New Zealand market place we have further enhanced our relationship with ZANTAZ and are now acting as a direct distributor and implementer of the EAS product range.

The management of e-mail archiving is a significant issue for all businesses big or small. We all have increasing compliance issues to be considered as so much business is done predominately, or even exclusively, via e-mail these days. An automated mechanism of capturing and storing business related e-mails is a critical component of any document management/records management solution for electronic data.

The key point here is the need for an automated solution. A number of organisations are relying on their staff to follow manual processes when it comes to the storage of key electronic data stored in their e-mail. Unfortunately it is our experience that not all staff follow the established procedures for a number of reasons and as a result businesses are not successfully controlling the risks associated with the data stored in their e-mail.

Consider the following example which has implications that could turn very nasty for the organisation in question if an appropriate e-mail archive solution doesn’t exist.

Imaging a hypothetical company called Acme Housing P/L, a private company that builds, maintains and leases public housing as an outsourced government activity. Acme determined a few years ago that in an effort to reduce some maintenance costs a number of the older houses would be sold to private citizens. Many houses where sold to existing tenants and a generous scheme, subsidised by government, proved to be well received.

In recent time it has become evident that a number of the houses sold contain significant amounts of a dangerous building material. A number of the now owners are claiming they where not aware of the likelihood of this material in their houses. Acme Housing claims that at the time of sale they made it know that all houses, due to their age were likely to contain this product that had been widely used in the building industry before its dangers were known, and recommended that potential purchasers conduct a building inspection before purchase.

For Acme Housing to backup their claim they would need to produce the appropriate documents and e-mails to potential buyers (if any exist) that might back up their claims.

The private owners of these houses are now considering their legal options and are considering litigation which could prove costly to Acme Housing.

To assist Acme Housing in preparing its case against this type of litigation it will be necessary to retrieve appropriate documentation that backs up their claim that they did make potential purchases aware of the likelihood of the product being in these houses and that they recommended a building inspection.

If staff at Acme Housing has been following correct document management and record management procedures then the identification and location of this information will be easily found (probably in the form of hard copy records). Of course if some of this information is contained in only electronic form (increasingly likely in this day and age) the ability to retrieve this information will be dependent on the electronic document management and record management procedures used by staff.

This fictitious situation may sound very real or similar to other such scenarios that we have seen reported in the press in recent times!

Many organisations are exposing themselves to enormous risk due to the way in which they are not only managing e-mail but all electronic data. Some are simply burying their heads in the sand hoping that nothing arises in the future that could see significant problems for them. The reality is that this problem will not go away and that all businesses need to carefully consider how they will deal with this problem.

The Quill Consultancy believes no single solution can resolve electronic data management requirements. Different solutions with different emphases are required. There is a need to manage traditional file share data and e-mail data differently. This is why we are so passionate about e-mail archiving and EAS.

Hydro Tasmania implemented EAS for Exchange in late 2002. The reasons for implementing EAS where:

Let as expand each of these points.

Hydro Tasmania, like many companies today, is extremely reliant upon its e-mail communications for the day to day operation of its business and the sheer bulk of e-mail communications ran the risk of bringing their Exchange server to its knees. Not only was there a danger of server collapse, but compliance with corporate information management needs and legislative requirements had also become an issue.

Hydro Tasmania identified the requirement to implement an e-mail archiving solution to better manage and store e-mail and provide a more stable e-mail environment to ensure business continuity. It evaluated the leading e-mail archiving vendors and selected ZANTAZ EAS due to its ease of implementation, simplicity and flexible rules for archiving.

According to John Behrens, Information Management Manager, Hydro Tasmania, "Our Exchange server was stretched to the absolute limit with over 120 Gigabytes of e-mail data being stored. It was at risk of collapse, which would have taken two or three days to re-build and this was an unacceptable risk for the business. We recognise that something has to be done and identified an e-mail archiving solution as the ideal answer."

Previously users were responsible for managing their own mailboxes, and e-mails would be deleted to maintain mailboxes below set storage limits. This led to the loss of valuable intellectual property for Hydro Tasmania, and did not comply with its information management strategy. Users were supposed to copy e-mails across into a records management solution, but as this required extra effort it was often not carried out.

John Behrens again, "We wanted a solution that would automatically secure our information assets, providing a record frozen in time but also one that would allow rapid access to the information when required. EAS provided the ideal solution with search routines that are superior to other archiving solutions on the market. We were looking at investing in a bigger server with more storage but this solution allowed us to leverage our existing server and we simultaneously migrated to Microsoft Exchange 2003."

EAS ensures compliance with Hydro Tasmania’s document strategy and provides every user with access to his/her personal e-mail archive as well as enhanced search functionality from archived data. Hydro Tasmania can now accurately track information and there is no danger of deletion. The system has allowed the introduction of new processes for the management of e-mails and delivered value in consolidating information.

EAS has provided rapid ROI and reduced e-mail storage by 80% even today when they have grown from 650 to 1300 users. The solution has provided Hydro with improved operational procedures as well as increased productivity through faster and more reliable e-mail provision. As a by-product they have achieved compliance with both internal and external regulations. Additionally users are now more careful about what they send and receive in their e-mail.

EAS has also provided Hydro operational benefits such as the recovery of critical strategic information. Recently when one senior executive was heading out to an important presentation and his computer failed, what traditionally would have been a crisis, was easily averted as Hydro was able to access the presentation as it was stored in his e-mail archive and recover it, allowing him to head off to his presentation as planned.

The archiving solution eliminated the need for e-mail account maintenance at Hydro Tasmania and provides simple access to historical data, even from users who have left the organisation. The e-mail data is still accessible, whereas once it would have been lost in an inactive mailbox. The ZANTAZ EAS system has provided real benefits to the Hydro in terms of stability of its e-mail environment, accessibility of information and compliance with regulations.

Consider your current practices.

Where does your organisation archive e-mail? Options might include:

If any of the first four options is familiar, think about the inherent business, compliance, and knowledge/document management risks, and determine the costs of not doing enough. Can you continue to bear these risks?

If not, give us a call. We are happy to discuss, in an obligation free way, the options that are available to you.

ZANTAZ has just released EAS for Lotus Notes. This means the same e-mail archive solution is not only available for Microsoft Exchange Server but also for Lotus Notes. In the Tasmanian context very few situations exists where either Exchange or Notes is not used.

Since Microsoft Exchange Server and IBM Lotus Notes are the two most popular e-mails systems in use today it is indeed exciting that EAS is available for both these mail systems.

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