Article submitted by Jon Simms of TeamLogic IT of Mountain View
How much valuable time does your staff lose accessing their email, sorting through spam, finding misplaced messages, and dealing with unexpected outages? Electronic communications are the lifeline to most businesses today, and if you don’t have a comprehensive system that connects your customers and employees in a timely fashion, it can cost you dearly.
In today’s competitive climate, email has become the most reliable and cost-effective way to move documents and other communications. However, the networks that deliver email are so efficient that it’s also easy to deliver malware (commonly known as viruses) and spam using the same system. Safeguards need to be in place to ensure business email remains effective, reliable and secure.
In addition to ensuring optimal productivity and protection from spam and malware, companies must also comply with federal and state statutes that require businesses to be able to produce email and related files in the case of legal action. Failure to do so can have substantial ramifications in terms of time and money lost.
The most effective businesses recognize the importance of developing proper email procedures and implementing the latest technologies to improve efficiency and security. When these companies combine the enforcement of company computer policies with continued employee education, they are better prepared to deal with potential threats and other issues that could affect their bottom line.
The Real Cost of Spam
Unsolicited bulk email messages make up a significant percentage of the electronic communication. I say “too much” spam because, to some degree, every system is vulnerable to spam. Creative spammers understand the verbiage these filters look for and continually look for new ways to beat the system. This is why you and your solution provider have to remain diligent with the maintenance and updates to your security controls.
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| Time Spent on Spam Mail |
The primary cost associated with spam is lost productivity. According to the most recent National Technology Readiness Survey, dealing with spam messages costs companies approximately $21.6 billion per year! Businesses that implement the latest proactive procedures to thwart these malicious attacks typically gain a competitive advantage over their peers.
Secondarily, archiving these worthless messages can increase data storage costs and put a strain on the efficiency of computers and servers. Prompt removal can result in cost savings and help to ensure greater efficiency of your systems.
Reduce Viruses and Security Threats
Viruses are often delivered via email, exposing a company to huge security concerns. The financial losses from a breach of intellectual property or confidential information can be devastating, ranging from lost revenue to the cost of litigation, or potential fines for noncompliance with state and federal statutes. Even if liability is not a major concern, losing client information or company secrets can significantly damage a company’s reputation or their customer relationships.
Antivirus software and antispyware are essential to prevent the invasion of your business networks. Isolating email messages that contain potential threats is a key first step, with employees playing a significant role. Each must be personally responsible for reviewing and disposing of suspicious messages and attachments, and alerting the technology support team when they have questions or concerns about an email they receive. Due diligence is the best threat-prevention method.
Reducing Your Business’ Litigation Risk
When called into court by a customer or former employee, finding related (and required) electronic messages and attachments can be a nightmare —unless the proper archiving and retrieval tools are in place. You need to be able to archive and retrieve certain information quickly and simply.
In addition to the requirements of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, some state and industry regulations dictate that businesses have the ability to locate and produce certain email messages and related files. Those not complying with these rules face significant court penalties or even the forfeiture of a lawsuit. The eventual cost of not having the proper archiving solution in place could be expensive, considering business lawsuits typically approach millions of dollars.
Implementing an easily searchable archival storage system could save your business a substantial amount of labor hours and reduce the aggravation of trying to find all the files required to defend a lawsuit. Growing organizations typically produce a large number of emails and other data, so sorting through it manually can be a monumental task. If your archive has search functionality, the process will be much less painful and costly.
Email is a mission critical application for almost all businesses today. If the productivity of your company suffers from unwanted SPAM or virus infections due to malicious emails, TeamLogic IT can help. We use state of the art SPAM and virus filtering to protect your company and keep your communication channels open. For more information, contact us at 650-204-3150 or email MountainViewCA@TeamLogicIT.com.
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