“We expect compliance and policy management solutions to be protecting 110 million mailboxes worldwide by year end 2006, up 78 percent from 2005,” writes Masha Khmartseva, principal analyst of the Radicati Group, in a recent report. By 2010, the firm expects to see 517 mailboxes protected worldwide.
According to the Radicati report, the worldwide market for compliance and policy management solutions will be “over $505 million by the end of 2006, up 38 percent from 2005.” By 2010, the annual revenues will reach $1.7 billion.
The Radicati Group has put the 2006 worldwide revenue figure for outsourced email archiving at $248 million; but by 2009, the firm predicts that figure will be $1.3 billion.
The prospect of saving money in litigation searches, avoiding fines and lawsuits, could tip the scales in favor of outsourcing. For many firms, adding compliance and email security products on top of archiving could mean added cost and complexity, particularly given the costs of filtering software, which can be $25 per seat. (See Stop That Email!.)
End Result? If services function as promised, expect to see outsourcing grow in popularity as an email management option.
The introduction of email has brought many benefits to organisations. One main benefit is having the capability to monitor email use by capturing communication metrics through which companies can then act in producing usage policies and provide education to try and reduce wasted resources and improve employee productivity. However, email monitoring also has complex ramifications on the organisation and on its workforce in terms of maintaining a balance between the protection of the employer and for its employees.
In other words, getting the right balance between allowing the organisation to continue business operations and not upsetting staff by invading their privacy rights or by using over-invasive monitoring methods that may affect staff morale and performance. Careful consideration and planning by both management and staff representatives is needed to evolve corporate policies to maintain this correct balance.
Written on 24 September 2006
by Dicontas Blog Admin under
Email Compliance
with
Tagged with business_operations, communication_metrics, compliance, corporate_governance, corporate_policies, email_management, email_monitoring, employee_productivity, ethics, privacy, staff_morale