GroupWise eDiscovery strategies from Ross Phillips
In a previous post, we discussed some of the obstacles presented by GroupWise personal archives. In addition to migration challenges, personal archives make GroupWise eDiscovery particularly burdensome. However, quality third-party tools can bridge the feature gap.
For example, suppose a court order demands that you gather a wide range of data in PST format to enter as evidence. GroupWise does not support PST. Furthermore, because GroupWise offers limited search capabilities, administrators will have to access each affected mailbox individually. The request can quickly prove overwhelming.
In the modern business environment, these eDiscovery requests will arrive with greater frequency. Eventually, you will exhaust the creative capacity of your staff in finding ways around GroupWise limitations. You will have to either accept fines for non-compliance or find a more accessible solution to the eDiscovery conundrum.
Limitations of GroupWise eDiscovery
Attempt to collect eDiscovery data using only the capabilities built into GroupWise, and you will quickly run into frustrating limitations. These include:
- Lack of data integrity reporting – The chain of custody documents the history of the data since its collection. This documentation is essential in authenticating data used as evidence. However, GroupWise offers no auditing to provide a chain of custody or establish data integrity.
- Limited search capabilities – Because GroupWise includes no built-in search tools, administrators responding to eDiscovery requests face the daunting task of opening each mailbox and personal archive individually to manually search for and extract data. This process presents frustrations for administrators and impacts end users.
- Cumbersome retention process – Effective information governance includes defining retention policies to ensure regulatory compliance. However, GroupWise does not operate well as a file cabinet. Holding onto data to make it available for eDiscovery can place undue stress on mailboxes not designed for heavy loads.
Benefits of a Third-Party Archiving System
Using applications from third-party vendors, organizations can expand the possibilities for GroupWise eDiscovery. An application such as NetGovern Archive fills in the gaps and allows for robust eDiscovery.
With advanced data collection features, the archiving system can find and collect data from both the live system and personal archives. And because data collection happens in the background, the process remains invisible to end users and requires no administrator intervention.
In addition, because the archiving process takes a copy of all data needed for eDiscovery or compliance, users can freely manage data in their Inboxes. Offloading data to a third-party solution eliminates the need to retain large amounts of data in the live system. This keeps mailboxes to a reasonable size and minimizes the risk of data loss and corruption.
Finally, with advanced searches, organizations can easily collect data for legal counsel, internal reviews or business continuity. Unlike GroupWise, the third-party system allows for export to a variety of formats, including PST and PDF. At the same time, it provides reporting and auditing capabilities to ensure a proper chain of custody.
Partner with GroupWise Experts
More than ever, organizations need to be able to quickly respond to eDiscovery requests. While GroupWise eDiscovery alone presents almost insurmountable difficulties, a third-party archiving system supplies the features you need.
The consultants at Messaging Architects bring deep expertise with GroupWise and information governance. As NetGovern partners, we have the tools necessary to automate compliance solutions. We will assist you with ensuring data integrity and achieving optimum system performance.
