BIG COMPANIES ARE BAD AT MANAGING E-MAIL.

• Position: Survey by Veritas Software - Brief Article

Only 16% of big French companies are capable of retrieving e-mails that are more than a year old, even though 51% of such firms now use them to conclude contracts that are legally binding, according to the results of a survey made public on June 10 by Veritas Software. "IT managers of big companies face ever-tougher challenges managing e-mail, and yet the rules for using and archiving e-mail messages are not widely used when they exist", said Jacques Sebag, Vice-President of Veritas Software. The survey, conducted in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa by an independent firm, Dynamic Markets, polled 850 IT managers in companies with more than 500 employees. It revealed that 39% of IT managers have "no idea how long it would take to retrieve their system after a breakdown."

The question nevertheless plagues more and more IT managers, adds...