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Corporate email policies still on the backburner for businesses: TE3C Statistics
The Electronic Communications Council (TE3C) stats indicate that more than half of businesses have no email policy in place; TE3C extends offer on free Policy Builder tool to meet demand

April 25, 2005 – Greenwich, CT – Due to positive demand, The Electronic Communications Compliance Council (TE3C) today announced the extended availability of a free online template tool designed to help companies create a customized electronic communications policy. Over 400 companies have already registered for the Policy Builder tool, which will be available through the TE3C site until September 30, 2005. The extension was made possible with support from Fortiva Inc., one of the founding members of the council.

Based on the registrations to date, TE3C has found that 54 per cent of companies do not have any written policy in place governing the use of business email. Of those organizations with a policy in place, only 14 per cent believe their policy is being strictly enforced. Even more surprising is the fact that 83 per cent of organizations still allow personal use of email at work, despite the risks. The results also show that 100 per cent of businesses reserve the right to monitor or review employee email – a fact that may surprise many employees.

These statistics reflect the findings of a recent study by industry analysts, Osterman Research. The Messaging Archiving Market Trends, 2005-2008 study found that outside of heavily regulated organizations like broker-dealers, there continues to be significant corporate reluctance to enforce email and IM policies. According to the report, the fact that so many organizations do not have either an email or IM retention policy in place points out the serious risk that email poses to a large percentage of organizations in North America.

“With email increasingly appearing as the smoking gun in more high-profile legal cases, as well as having an expanding role within regulatory compliance activities, more organizations are seeking guidance on how to best use email in a business setting,” said Priscilla Emery, TE3C Council Chair and President of e-Nterprise Advisors. “Having a policy in place is the first step for companies to effectively deal with the risks associated with electronic communications, and Policy Builder should be a valuable tool to help businesses create a comprehensive policy faster and at less cost than starting from scratch.”

The Policy Builder by Fortiva provides policy templates created by experts including acceptable usage, best practices, security guidelines, retention policies, and sample key words to use when enforcing policy elements. The easy-to-use tool offers secure, password-protected access via a Web browser, allowing users to view and update their customized policy at any time. It also allows one-click creation of a PDF version of the policy for company-wide distribution.

“We looked at other policy frameworks, but they were not as comprehensive, nor as organized as the approach provided by Policy Builder,” said Lorri Christopher, Institutional Advancement Officer, Gwinnett Technical College. “This is an excellent tool for organizations wishing to create and distribute an effective electronic communications policy. Policy Builder’s template allowed us to easily customize the product to meet our local needs, saving us a great deal of time. Our policy was also evaluated by our college attorney, and was well received.”

“Response to the free Policy Builder tool has been overwhelmingly positive, and Fortiva is pleased to continue to support the efforts of TE3C by extending the free availability of this tool,” said Paul Chen, President and CEO of Fortiva. “There is clearly a strong need for a tool like this that can help organizations build a strong electronic communications policy, regardless of their internal resources."

Registration for The Policy Builder by Fortiva is available at www.TE3C.org/policybuilder.html.

About The Electronic Communications Compliance Council
The Electronic Communications Compliance Council (TE3C) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate and inform users about the electronic communications compliance life cycle, provide guidance on how to minimize risk in an evolving regulatory and legal environment, and provide a conduit of communication between all stakeholders in the electronic communications compliance community. For more about the organization or to become a member, visit www.TE3C.org.

About Fortiva Inc.
Fortiva Inc. offers the only hybrid email archiving solution that combines the control and privacy of an in-house solution with the benefits of a managed offering, allowing businesses to quickly and easily meet compliance and legal discovery needs. The Fortiva Archiving & Compliance Suite™ consists of five components including Fortiva Policy, Fortiva Archive, Fortiva Discovery, Fortiva Supervision, and Fortiva Reports. Integrating with Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory, the Suite provides businesses with complete data privacy in an easy-to-implement, easy-to-use application with real-time search and discovery, supervision and enforcement features. For more information on Fortiva, visit www.fortiva.com.

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For more information:

David Gollom
dgollom@highroad.com
416.368.8348 ext. 267

Victoria Badgley
victoria.badgley@fortiva.com
1.800.366.3668 ext. 383