DIS soon to offer e-mail archiving service to state agenciesApril 2007

DIS soon to offer e-mail archiving service to state agencies

Government organizations face significant challenges when it comes to managing e-mail.

Not only can the volume of e-mail and other governmental records be daunting, but public agencies, in particular, face strict requirements for records retention and must be able to respond quickly to public records requests and legal discovery requirements.

To assist state agencies with archiving requirements, the Washington State Department of Information Services (DIS) is launching its new E-mail Archiving, Retention and Discovery System.

At this time, the service is being designed for state agencies on the State Governmental Network and the Enterprise Active Directory.

This e-mail archiving service will be tested and ready for customers by early 2008.

This combination of services creates a standard archiving method appropriate for government business, and is aligned with the Secretary of State's Digital Archiving Project.

With the E-mail, Archiving, Retention and Discovery System, agencies will respond faster to public records requests, lower the risk of missing documents, and make records retention practices uniform.

"In the past, companies often relied on end-users to maintain their own individual e-mail archives," reports CIO Magazine. "The IT department would back-up e-mail, but not in a manner that made messages searchable. If a specific e-mail needed to be traced, it often took weeks to find it."

However, legal discovery rules have made it necessary for government organizations to manage all of the e-mail in bulk so that specific messages can be located within minutes, not weeks.

"The new digital archiving service from DIS will make e-mails instantly retrievable, minimizing the burden on IT staff to recover mailbox data," says Karen Peterson, Enterprise Business Solutions Manager, DIS.

E-mail can be accurately retrieved and managed through a full records repository. You will also be able to search for content held within e-mail, as well as attachments, file directories, and collaborative environments such as Microsoft SharePoint and other content management engines.

Furthermore, data storage costs are reduced because storage is shared with other state agencies.

For more information, contact Karen McLaughlin by phone at (360) 902-3260, or by e-mail at karenm@dis.wa.gov.