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Email archiving soon to become a norm

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CIOL Bureau
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NEWDELHI: With email moving beyond convenience and into the role of a strategic communication tool, email communication is becoming an integral part of the decision-making process. More and more countries are going the US way in making it mandatory for companies to save email-based communication.



"Email is increasingly coming under scrutiny in criminal investigations and legal proceedings. We have seen in the recent past in US how big companies played with the vital information. Communication based on email has evolved quite a lot and governments in countries like - Japan, Korea, Singapore and Vietnam - are making it mandatory for companies to store email records for a certain number of years," informed Legato Software intercontinental operations strategic development director PK Gupta.



There are some record retention requirements, such as tax and employment records that apply to almost all the businesses, but there are business- or industry-specific record-keeping rules, too. For instance, in US, government contractors under some conditions must keep all records relating to a project for three years. So must broker-dealers regulated by the US Securities and Exchange Act.



"And even if you don't need to save an email, if it contains business-critical information, you probably should. The amount of storage on email has risen sharply too. In the year 2002, it was just four pedabytes, it went up to 230 pedabytes for 2003.



Analysts claim that email archiving drives 40 percent of storage requirements. Because of the wealth of information contained on company email systems, they have become a prime target of discovery in litigation," Gupta explained.



Users also spend significant time managing email boxes. While trying to quantify the cost of email management without an email management system, one has to also factor in average salaries and time lost to users.



"Moreover, Virus-laden emails can also lie dormant in the system, waiting to do more damage to the system if an unsuspecting user triggers another outbreak. We have a solution - Email-Extender that can take care of the archiving part for users," Gupta added.



Taking a cue from the US and other developed countries, Indian financial watchdogs are all set to introduce guidelines for the financial industry on email archiving front. "Electronic communication is already legal in India. Now, both RBI and SEBI are working on email records - front and soon, they are likely to come out with the guidelines," Gupta informed.



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