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Newsletter June 2008

1. GROUP Technologies among the finalists for the IBM Beacon Award
2. Two sides of the coin: inbound & outbound
3. iQ.Suite Tips & Tricks: avoiding ping-pong effects
4. The Exchange/SMTP Corner: using an SQL server as a quarantine index
5. Retaining compliance in the corporate organisation

1. GROUP Technologies among the finalists for the IBM Beacon Award

Every year IBM presents its Lotus Beacon Award for the best solutions developed by IBM partners in 37 categories. The prize is awarded for highly innovative and successful solutions based on IBM technologies. These must focus on generating higher value for customers and solving the tough challenges in day-to-day business.

This year GROUP Technologies reached the finals in the "Outstanding Cross-Industry Solution by an ISV" category with its iQ.Suite. We positioned our solution successfully in the face of competition from numerous global players. We are very proud of this award, as it shows we are pursuing the right strategy.

With our iQ.Suite we are one of the leading providers who develop for the Lotus Domino/Notes platform. Read more about the IBM Beacon Award here.

2. Two sides of the coin: inbound & outbound

There's no disputing the fact that e-mails are the no. 1 information carrier in business enterprises today. And many companies have already drawn up comprehensive policies and use appropriate technologies to control their inbound e-mail traffic. These cover all aspects from virus and spam protection to archiving.

But what do they do about their outbound communications? Here, they need to focus not only on legal requirements such as EHUG (German law on electronic commercial registers and cooperative societies registers as well as the register of companies), which stipulates the data that must be quoted in e-mails, but also on their business interests. Although e-mails make it possible to distribute information at amazing speed, sending sensitive corporate data via e-mail still represents a major risk. In this context, precisely defined policies used in conjunction with iQ.Suite can erect an effective barrier that no employee will be able to circumvent. One possible option is to use fingerprints to exclude certain file types from transmission.

But it`s more than just the dispatch of confidential information that's important: archiving outbound e-mails is another crucial area, since you only have a complete picture of electronic correspondence when you view it in conjunction with the corresponding incoming e-mails. It is this ‘completeness’ that actually guarantees the obligatory legal compliance. Establishing a legally secure e-mail process therefore means taking all aspects of inbound and outbound communication into account. We will be happy to advise you on how to take effective action against damage, image loss and know-how drain - just give us a call!

3. iQ.Suite Tips & Tricks: avoiding ping-pong effects

Does this situation sound familiar? You have made plans for handling inbound and outbound e-mails. The configuration is fine and everything running smoothly. A few days later, however, your server goes haywire. Your troubleshooting efforts find your mailbox spilling over, with one and the same e-mail apparently arriving every second. By the time you finally discover that the villain is a loop of e-mail confirmations and can rectify the error, you have spent far too long on the phone. Minor problem - major impact!

Our training courses advise you not only on the basic approach to take when planning an e-mail concept but also on how to take such "minor disasters" into account. We build a concept with you step by step, harmonising it with your needs. Come and see. We look forward to your visit!

Read how to avoid the dreaded ping-pong effect here.

4. The Exchange/SMTP Corner: using an SQL server as a quarantine index

iQ.Suite quarantines comprise blocked e-mails and an index database. Standard practice is to use a local MDB file. Very big quarantines may reach the maximum MDB capacity of two gigabytes, making it necessary to deploy an SQL server. Read about the steps you need to take here.

5. Retaining compliance in the corporate organisation

Along with the much-discussed parameters that dominate the area of compliance - regulatory requirements, legislation, influences from the US, implementation of the 8th EU Directive, etc. - discussions are now turning to the organisational aspects.

Companies are searching for the right place for compliance within their organisation. They are weighing up all the pros and cons: should they establish the compliance officer as a staff unit that reports directly to the management board/executive management? Or would it be more appropriate to position the function in an independent Legal department or assign it to upper-level risk management? An alternative proposal is to set up a value management system within the company and to map compliance within this system.

Each of these alternatives can fulfil its purpose, and the choice a company makes will depend on its individual situation - a case-to-case decision is therefore indispensable. Whichever solution you choose, we recommend that you firmly embed compliance in your organisation. Anyone who has listened to a public prosecutor waxing eloquent on this theme will understand that there’s no alternative. We have already described the potential outcome of non-compliance in previous newsletters and we see numerous examples in the press daily. We will be happy to assist - and to provide you with help as well as advice. Why not put us to the test?