Email Rentention

Email is the global standard for business communication. It’s fast, easy, and creates a written record. However, keeping track of all the email can be a daunting task. Keeping an accurate email record is important for many reasons: regulation compliance (especially for healthcare, legal, and financial sectors), legal reasons, intellectual property disputes, and data backup of company information. The first step to a good email retention system is to brainstorm a plan that answers these simple questions:

Initial Questions

How much email does your company need to store? How long do you need to store it? How scalable do you need your email retention system to be? These are also questions that an email retention system needs to address, and their answers vary depending on your business. Answers to these questions aren’t easy, and they require serious thought. It all depends on how your business uses email; each business is different.

What compliance regulations does your business have to follow in your business sector?

When making an email retention choice, it’s very important to be compliant with the email retention standards of your business sector. Each sector is different, and each sector has different laws and standards. The most important thing is to have an email retention policy in writing, especially in the case of an eDiscovery lawsuit. Good legal counsel can help you determine what compliance regulations you must follow in your sector, if any.

In-house retention or online hosting?

Choosing between hosting your own email retention server or an off-site solution can be a tough choice, and it all depends on your company’s needs. In the long run, especially with a sizable amount of email per year, per employee, running your own email retention server in-house can be a cheaper option. Though an in-house server costs more up front, you’ll eliminate the monthly fees from online hosting, saving you money over time. However, for a very small company that only needs limited email retention, the monthly fees for online backup can be a better option than a server. So the best answer for this question is a resounding: “it depends.” Alliance Technologies has set up many email retention systems for our clients, both in-house and online, so we’ll be glad to help you make your choice.