Although collaboration and messaging platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, WhatsApp and the like are offering alternative ways of working, email remains a vital part of business communication. In fact the number is growing, with Statista estimating that 281 billion emails were sent and received daily in 2018, with the number expected to grow to around 347 billion per day by 2022.
On a more local level, with the average business person receiving 122 emails per day, the need to professionally manage and archive company emails and attachments becomes clearer and clearer. In this article, we’ll look at why SMBs should archive email, and how it is advantageous (and essential) from the dual perspectives of regulatory compliance and business continuity. These advantages can range from the obvious such as eliminating the risk of important emails or attachments being permanently deleted, through to some cost savings that can be achieved by thinking about archiving a little differently.
I have backup already, why do I need archiving?
The information contained in and attached to emails is systematically categorized and protected with archiving. The main difference between backup and archiving is that the former simply saves a copy of the data, whereas archiving provides a recorded historical reference, and, if required, rapid recovery of information in the event of a compliance audit or legal requirement to do so.
Is email archiving really essential for an SMB?
There is a perception that email archiving is overkill for an SMB, especially when IT budgets are limited. Yet the use case for considering email archiving goes far beyond lawsuits or audits – there are day-to-day business scenarios in which it can prove extremely useful.
One of these examples is when an employee leaves a company, and with the benefit of email archiving, their successor is able to access all previous communication records. A prime example of this would be when a sales rep leaves a business that does not operate a CRM to store client and prospect data or opportunity history, and an email archiving solution would enable the replacement rep to seamlessly continue communications on contractual or commercial terms.
Productivity and speed
In addition to the transition scenario outlined above, effective email archiving also helps firms to maintain good productivity levels. Effective archiving utilizes indexing systems which enable users to search through large volumes of content as quickly as a Google search on the web.
For team collaboration across for example an HR or finance department, the use of archiving tools such as tagging and commenting can make it even easier for colleagues to rapidly locate information about an employee’s file, or a supplier’s credit history.
Co-ordination can reduce costs in other areas
For SMBs with finite IT budgets, email archiving can often get pushed down the list of priorities, and we understand that there’s only so much money to go around. However, overlooking email archiving can also mean your business incurs more costs in other areas.
Although file sharing apps are helping to reduce the burden the size of attachments that email systems are expected to cope with, the fact remains that the sheer number of emails exchanged on a daily basis means that the total data within most firm’s email systems is considerable. This can reduce server performance and slow the entire system down, which in turn represents another drain on productivity.
Archiving serves to reduce the number and size of messages stored on the servers, and also potentially reducing the overall storage costs by only retaining a single instance of a file in the scenario that many emails contain the same large attachment.
Archiving can also work neatly with backups if implemented correctly. Backups of data are single snapshots from a particular moment in time that are then updated with new copies as time goes on – which means that if a user erroneously or maliciously deletes an email or file before a new ‘image’ (copy) is taken, that information will be lost to the business causing potential compliance, not to mention inconvenience implications. Properly implemented archiving processes eradicates this risk, since it ensures that messages are automatically saved, filed and protected.
Given this, taking a holistic view of storage, backup, disaster recovery and archiving means that your firm’s vital data will not only be well managed, but it may also benefit from cost savings as a result.
It fits well with modern working practices
The evolving working environment means that many users are now working offsite and away from the safe confines of the traditional LAN office environment. With increased use of personal devices for work, cloud applications, collaboration and chat tools and many other ways of working, it’s more vital than ever to ensure that email and files are adequately archived.
Good email archiving systems ensure that remote workers don’t need to remember to save files into separate systems, or to work behind a VPN – instead, through a cloud-based system, those users can store, locate and share files safely and securely inside or outside the corporate network.
In summary
As we have discovered in this article, email archiving isn’t simply an unnecessary cost for filing company emails and files that will probably never be looked at again. Instead, if implemented effectively, it can facilitate greater productivity, more efficient storage costs, and faster network performance among other business benefits.
References
https://www.statista.com/statistics/456500/daily-number-of-e-mails-worldwide/
