Poor email management persists, despite the risks
Poor email management persists, despite the risks
Directors and managers are continuing to place their companies at risk from possible malfeasance and litigation because they do not have in place solutions for email management and compliance.
That is the view of senior analyst Michael Warrilow, of META Group, and Evan Penn, managing director of information protection and management vendor SecureData.
"The management of email and all other forms and formats of electronic information is becoming pervasive and must be treated as a mission-critical business process unto itself," said Warrilow. "Organisations in Australia must examine how they currently undertake the lifecycle management of all forms of content and communication. These management systems must ensure compliance to whatever statutory level senior management has established."
"Directors and senior managers in large organisations are often not aware of the extent to which their business viability rests on the integrity of email and other forms of electronic document exchange," added Penn. "Transactions are negotiated, conditions are agreed to, responses to customers, regulatory bodies and suppliers are all completed and are transmitted by email every day in every company in Australia."
Penn believes it is possible that some corporate collapses and major financial losses in Australia may have been prevented or their extent reduced if these corporations had software-based email management and compliance systems in place.
"It is no longer enough just to store emails for possible future use. The speed of business equates to the speed of email. If you do not have an adequate email management system in place, it is likely that you do not know what is going on in your company."
He added that many organisations do not have email management systems with the archiving and retrieval capabilities in place that comply with regulatory and legal requirements, let alone fast and cost-effective ways to restore and retrieve historical data to meet legal discovery demands.
"Without a system that is comprehensive, management and directors will continue to be at risk because they do not have adequate control over what is going in and out of their organisations," concluded Penn.
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