Here is an interesting situation that was quickly resolved using an email archiving system. For those organizations – large and small – without such a system in place, you should think twice about the ancillary benefits email archiving provides.

I was on call with a client earlier today. We sold them fax server application a year ago. At the time, they did not have the necessary hardware/infrastructure in place to support the solution and we recommended a required upgrade to their Cisco Call Manager system.  Several months passed and the company decided to move forward with the fax server install. During the time lapse, they upgraded their Cisco Call Manager, but skipped a version. Our fax server needed the enhancements in the version that was skipped. At some point the fax server will support the latest version of Call Manager which was recently released.

This brings me back to the purpose of the call. The client spent close to $100,000 for the fax server solution and at this point was very upset it did not support the latest version of Call Manager.  They threatened legal action if we did not provide a refund and stated we never disclosed the system requirements for the fax server solution.  I knew this information was relayed in an email and utilized my email arching system to find it. Within 30 seconds, I was able to retrieve the email with all the details and send it to the very person who questioned if we ever sent him such information.  After we sent the email to the client which vindicated our position, they were speechless and acknowledged the error was on their end.  We have since worked through the technical issue and are in the process of making it right.

That said, as a small business owner, I am not required by law to save email records, but in situations like this, an archiving system proved to be invaluable. Had I not been able to produce the email communications documenting my position, it would have cost me time and money dealing with the legal issues, etc. If you were in a similar position, would your current email infrastructure enabled you to find business-critical information?

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