EMC National Life Company

Insurance Company Implements Email Archiving for Legal Discovery

SITUATION While engaged in a lengthy legal proceeding in 2005, EMC National Life Company (EMCNL) realized the importance of maintaining an effective email archive in an organization. Without an email archive in place, EMCNL's legal department encountered substantial difficulties in searching for and retrieving crucial email records, as well as demonstrating the adequacy of its searches. “We stored our email for disaster recovery purposes. However, having the mail stored on tape impeded the restoration process. Restoring and searching from tape was time-consuming and sometimes required extra resources and expenses,” commented Marc Comstock, Assistant Vice President and Technical Services Manager at EMCNL.

Today, email is considered a dominant form of evidence requested in corporate cases. This places a heavy onus on businesses to ensure that email is managed consistently and effectively. “I had heard about the new regulations regarding message retention. However, I was not aware of all the new amendments being made to the laws,” explained Comstock. “Our old email retention standard was to store email on tape at an off-site location for a maximum of two weeks. Due to a limited backup window, we only backed up our email database as a whole and not by each mailbox.”

“While our system was adequate as initially developed, I anticipate that new rules will require us to retain all our electronic correspondence for a longer period of time than our old retention policy,” added Comstock. With the rules governing the laws of record retention and e-discovery constantly being updated, EMCNL decided to be proactive and looked for a solution that manages its email records and ensures that it complies with the latest legal rules.

SOLUTION
After researching several email archiving products, Comstock was attracted to the Proofpoint Email Archiving solution. “Initially I was attracted to in-house products because of the privacy they assure. However, storage was a big concern for me. I did not know how much storage space would be required to archive all of our email in-house. I was also uncertain about how to manage the growth as the archive became larger,” Comstock explained. “This is the main reason why I opted for the Proofpoint Email Archiving solution. The solution is fully managed and scalable with the growth of our company. The level of security promised by their DoubleBlind Encryption technology also made outsourcing to Proofpoint a more attractive option.”

As a fully managed solution, Proofpoint makes sure EMCNL complies with regulations regarding e-discovery and record retention. In addition, multiple copies of the EMCNL archive are kept by Proofpoint to ensure absolute safety of their data. Comstock was also impressed with Proofpoint from a legal perspective. “I can tell our lawyers that all our email is archived and easily accessible. We now have the tools to prevent damages from lawsuits and will be better prepared for them in the future.”

“It was very apparent that all the elements, from the appliance, to the user interface, to the encryption method had been well thought-through,” said Lendvai.

BENEFITS
Proofpoint ensures real-time search and retrieval of archived data, regardless of the size of the archive or how quickly it grows. Users can easily access archived data within Outlook or a Web browser with guaranteed search performance. “With Proofpoint in place, I was able to import all my old PST files into the archive, making it easy for me to conduct searches through my old records. A full text search takes less than 10 seconds,” said Comstock, “It's incredibly fast.” While many email archiving products claim to offer fast search capability, Proofpoint is the first to back up its claim with a guarantee regardless of how much data is stored in your archive.

Once Comstock decided on Proofpoint, he was impressed with how quickly the solution was implemented in his organization. “I was incredibly happy with the service. My systems administrator hooked up the equipment and we had it up and running ahead of schedule. I also like the fact that the solution is fully managed and does not require any user intervention since emails are automatically archived in the system.”

Proofpoint keeps EMCNL prepared to respond quickly, efficiently and accurately to potential e-discovery requests, giving them a chance to document their activities and prove their case, even before the case is brought to trial. “Now I can easily search through my archive by applying the search criteria prescribed by my lawyers in order to respond to legal discovery requests on time,"”Comstock explained.

By outsourcing the email archive to Proofpoint, organizations can focus on their business and not worry about keeping abreast of every new legal regulation surrounding their industry. Proofpoint makes sure that the organization complies with all the laws governing record retention and legal discovery. In addition, Proofpoint takes care of the monitoring, management and backup of the email archive.

ABOUT EMC NATIONAL LIFE COMPANY
EMC National Life Company (EMCNL) is a U.S. based life insurance company offering a variety of products to both individuals and workplaces. Affiliated with the Employers Mutual Casualty Company, EMCNL is represented by over 10,000 independent insurance agents in 44 states across America.