Nearly half of those surveyed use email archiving but research highlights the need for more education to curb scepticism as to its necessity or appropriateness.
London, UK – GFI, an international IT security and messaging software developer, today announces new independent research into the status, progress and perception of email archiving uptake within UK small- to medium-sized enterprises. Of the 408 IT managers, directors and consultants surveyed, 49% have fully implemented email archiving in their organizations and the majority of those respondents (31%) are regularly taking less than one hour to find business-critical email correspondence on request.
However, the primary concern evident from the research is that of the remaining 51% of organisations who have not implemented email archiving, it appears that this is principally through lack of education. With budget restraints being the most popular reason for not purchasing (28%), a further combined 32% of those surveyed perceive it as unnecessary to their particular needs or feel too ill-informed to purchase.
David Vella, GFI’s Director of Product Management, comments, “Email archiving is clearly proving its worth and we are delighted to see its uptake so pervasive and successful, and especially that only 1% of the people we surveyed reported any negative experiences or attitudes towards email compliance. However, while the lack of appreciation of its utility is concerning, what is perhaps more alarming is the relatively widespread assumption that email archiving is not important or necessary to the business.”
Vella explains, “Wherever email is the principal form of communication within the business, email archiving is essential. Too many businesses fail to realise that each email communication sent or received is probably the only record they have of important transactions with a customer or between members of staff. According to Osterman Research, email contains nearly 75% of the information that individuals use on a daily basis, making the sheer amount of corporate knowledge stored in email enough to justify its safekeeping over long periods of time.”
Vella concludes, “Email archiving is a function that should run through all company departments – obviously storage, backups, problematic and corrupt PST files, overloaded email servers and performance are the IT department’s major concerns, while the legal team sees email as an essential factor in its discovery, disclosure and due diligence strategies. Indeed, most of our respondents who have implemented email archiving are doing so for compliance or for ensuring they have a full paper trail should there be any form of investigation. And of course, email archives boost overall productivity for employees company-wide when the need arises to access their email from anywhere in the world. With such a high proportion of companies already seeing the benefits of email archiving, educating the remainder of the necessity and advantages of the process is essential.”
A copy of the survey results can be found here:
http://www.gfi.com/documents/rv/GFIarch-survey_UK.pdf
http://www.gfi.com/documents/rv/GFIarch-survey_US.pdf
About GFI
GFI is a leading software developer that provides a single source for network administrators to address their network security, content security and messaging needs. With award-winning technology, an aggressive pricing strategy and a strong focus on small-to-medium- sized businesses, GFI is able to satisfy the need for business continuity and productivity encountered by organizations on a global scale. GFI has offices in the US, Malta, UK, Hong Kong and Australia which support more than 200,000 installations worldwide. GFI is a channel-focused company with over 10,000 partners worldwide. GFI is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. More information about GFI can be found at http://www.gfi.com.