In my upcoming posts I will cover all the important features that an email archiving software can possibly have. As noted before, you can use this feature list to decide what kind of email archiving solutions fit best with your environment and your needs. As things stand now, there will be three posts about these possible features. Today I will discuss the features that are relevant to the archiving process. In the next posts I will cover storage-related, access-related, and technical features.

Server-based archiving

Server-based archiving means that an email is archived immediately after it is received by the SMTP server. Large organizations with many email servers can especially benefit from this feature because the email archiving software can intercept emails before they are delivered to the server where the user’s mailbox is stored. This can improve performance because the email archiving software doesn’t have to scan all of the email servers for new emails. Another important advantage of server-based archiving is that end users can’t delete emails before the email archiving software gets a chance to store them away.

Scheduling

Even if you work with server-based archiving it might be necessary for the email archiving tool to scan all mailboxes from time to time. This will become clearer after you read about the other features discussed in this article. Basically, you will have similar schedules as those for your backup software. However, it is important that email archiving doesn’t interfere with backups, because this might put too much strain on your server. Thus, it might turn out to be useful that the email archiving software allows you to specify when archiving must NOT take place.

Quota-based scheduling

One of the most interesting benefits of email archiving is that it enables you to give up postbox quotas without bloating your email server’s database. Some email archiving solutions allow you to move old emails from the mailbox to the archive when the user has reached the quota. Because those emails are still accessible for the end user, having a mailbox quota won’t really hurt.

Archiving policies

Perhaps one of the most intricate problems when it comes to email archiving is the question of what has to be archived. The rules that are used to determine the relevant emails can be based on the following metadata:

• size: emails larger than a certain size
• attachment: only emails that have attachments
• time: emails older than a certain date
• category: emails that belong to a certain category
• folders: emails in certain folders
• sender: emails coming from a particular person or mail group
• recipient: emails received by a certain person or mail group
• subject: emails with certain subjects
• body: emails where the body contains specific words
• privacy: end-users can mark emails as private, to prevent them from being archived

It might also make sense to combine criteria. For example, you could archive only emails of a certain size that are older than a specified time period.

Automatic categorization

Categories might play a role in your archiving policy, but that isn’t their only purpose. Categories are also important for organizing emails, to simplify searching, or to link them to other tools such as CRM (customer relationship) or ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems. One way to automatically categorize emails is through full text analysis. For example, you could apply the category “invoice” to all emails that have an attachment and the email body or subject contains the word “invoice” or “bill”.

Manual categorization (tagging)

The problem with automatic categorization is that it is error prone. If categorization is important for your organization, then you should choose an email archiving solution that also supports manual categorization. However, it is important that the email archiving software allows the administrator to pre-define categories. It can also be useful if the end users are also able to use their own keywords in order to organize their emails. But, if the category of an email has an effect on the archiving policy it is necessary that you establish organization-wide guidelines on how emails have to be categorized.

Multiple object archiving

The main purpose of email archiving software certainly is to archive emails. However, you might also want to archive other objects like calendar items, tasks, contacts, or notes. In case of a lawsuit it might turn out to be helpful if you are able to access such information.

PST import

Especially when you introduce an email archiving tool, it might be necessary to import all the private PST archives that are scattered throughout your organization. Perhaps it is only necessary do this once. In this case, a manual import where the software scans the user’s PCs and file servers is enough. If you still want to allow your end users to keep their private archives, you will need a solution that allows you to schedule the PST import. If your company forbids PST archives, you might like to have the possibility of deleting them once they have been imported.