ROHDE KG has to meet some very stringent requirements to be able to do business in Germany. It must archive all its documents for a full decade. That includes paper and electronic documents.Karl-Heinz Rohde, CEO of the 60 employee-strong company, said his company has been certified to do its work for over 15 years, and so these regulations are an absolute must.
GFI Archiver helps German firm meet stringent regulations
“The German regulation HGB (=Handelsgesetzbuch) § 257 determines that all business papers must be stored (and available at any time) for a minimum of 10 years. In the past, this was for paper-based correspondence which was not so difficult. It is more difficult for all electronic correspondence, like emails,” Mr. Rohde said. “For emails this was not possible without a software-based solution.”
After checking what was available on the market and consulting their external administrator, the company chose GFI Archiver®.
Saving mail the old way was cumbersome and inefficient: “In the past we stored all important emails in Outlook. Then the size of everyone’s email account became big. Finding older messages was not so easy and took a long time. Now with GFI Archiver® it is very easy. It was a huge advantage to transfer all the old emails from the accounts in GFI Archiver®. In our accounts we only keep the emails which are in use – all other emails are deleted after work. This allows us to work faster and more effectively.”
Since the company produces hygienic coatings that it sells to hospitals, the pharmaceutical industry and high-risk labs, stricter rules apply. GFI Archiver® helped no end but it gave the company that something extra as well.
“In the beginning GFI Archiver® was only a solution to help us become compliant with the regulations. Now it is also a good solution to keep an overview of all emails received – including those from the past,” Mr. Rohde explained.
Getting emails back is also a big benefit: “The feature to sort and look up emails is used by nearly all members of our team. This saves time and ensures the company does not lose any important email. We are pleased with the ease in which we can search for archived emails.”
Straightforward installation and operation
Installing and operating GFI Archiver® was a breeze and three years on, the company is more than happy. As Mr. Rohde said “Installation of GFI Archiver was done by our administrator, fast and without any problems. The software runs in the background on the company’s server, so there is no fuss. It was working from the first moment with any trouble. It makes administration of emails easier and faster.”
Did GFI Archiver® help your company reach its goals, Mr Rohde? “Perfect – 100%.”
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