Companies Scramble to Archive E-mail

Fonseca, Brian. "Companies Scramble to Archive E-mail." ComputerWorld. 23 July 2007.

Because of regulatory and legal issues, IT managers are having to create e-mail storage and archival systems. Electronic documents are replacing paper as official business records. Courts are making companies produce e-mail documents on demand, and if the company fails to produce the requested e-mails, they will face penalties. One example is Intel Corp., who did not properly archive critical e-mail messages and therefore could not produce them for the court by their March 2007 deadline. As a result, Micro Devices Inc., the company who filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel, charged that Intel was negligent in not saving or archiving the disputed docuements. In a case invloving a class-action lawsuit against Best Buy and Microsoft Corp., a lawyer representing Best Buy admitted to falsifying at least two e-mails that were given to the plaintiffs.
Enterprise Strategy Group has found that three out of four organizations that go through court-ordered electronic discoveries must produce e-mails related to the requests. E-mail archiving is expensive because companies must keep up with evolving data retention and regulatory compliance requirements by buying new technology. First Albany Capital Inc. uses Iron Mountain Inc.'s Email Archiving and Supervision hosted services to monitor e-mails passing through its servers, and to store and archive e-mail and instant messages. They must also store all incoming and outgoing correspondence for at least three years to comply with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulations.
This is relevant because a company's ability to produce electronic documents could make or break a case. Plus, as more and more companies begin archiving all correspondence, e-mails that employees send to one another will be monitored and kept, meaning that e-mailing done from the workplace is not private, nor is personal e-mail that you send to someone who works for a company that monitors e-mail.