From email archiving to eDiscovery to IP Loss Prevention
I came across an interesting blog entry here at eWeek. Looks like my former employer (and still good friend) Forrester Research has released interesting data around email security. What does that have to do with email archiving and eDiscovery, you might ask. Well, maybe not a whole lot at this very second, but there is a convergence between archiving and security – one that will heat up in 2009.
The data point mentioned in the eWeek blog is that 41% of companies are monitoring employee email, a 2% increase over the previous year. The blogger goes on to make a great point of her own – asking why companies would pay people to read the emails when technology like email archiving and eDiscovery can do it? Great question, but the answer may not be what you are expecting me to say…we still need people to look at those emails. In reality, it’s the combination of technology and people that will ultimately create good content governance.
Today, technology alone cannot tell you if an employee is violating and email policy (or, just as importantly, a network file share policy like no price lists on public shares). But, it can proactively alert a supervisor that there is a potential violation and have the supervisor review the content in question. At Mimosa, our Content Monitoring Option is what serves this purpose. It allows organizations to create alerts across all archived content (e.g. email and file system) so that supervisors can govern that policy is followed.
NOTE: the first step is to make sure you actually have policies; too many organizations do not. As we continue to become an economy driven by information in the form of intellectual property (IP), technology to help us ensure we don’t lose it (or let competitors get it) will become increasingly important. Because email is the communication method of choice, monitoring it is key – why not do that with the same platform you use for archiving and eDiscovery? It’s cost-effective and it’s doable – it’s a platform, after all.
My call: within 2 years, you will see the same percentage of companies using email archiving for both eDiscovery and content governance. Let me know if you agree.
