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Computhink Helps School Districts Address FRCP Amendment Concerns
Chicago, IL, July 12, 2007 – The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) Amendments passed by Congress on Dec. 1, 2006 are forcing public and private organizations to keep better track of their employees' e-mails and other electronic documents in the event the companies enter litigation.
The Auburn-Washburn School District was one such organization concerned with these FRCP amendments and quickly realized a need to implement an Email Archival Solution. Their school district provides public education to approximately 5,300 Kindergarten through 12th graders in Topeka, KS. It consists of nine schools and a total of 903 teachers and administrators who use email through the district’s main server. These 903 education professionals average 12,000-14,000 emails per day. The large number of individual users coupled with the enormous volume created an interesting challenge for Don Williams, Director of Information Technology at the Auburn District.
The tremendous growth in email usage has made email a primary source of legal discovery. When organizations are faced with litigation, producing email is virtually inevitable. Every organization must now implement effective and efficient email archive strategies in order to meet the e-discovery demands of possible litigation. When thinking about e-discovery, many neglect to consider how preserved emails could be used to mount an aggressive defense that can save organizations fortunes in unnecessary settlements and verdicts. Additionally, according to the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), it can actually be a federal offense to destroy emails in certain situations. This could lead to a scenario where an uninformed information technology employee who routinely copies over a backup tape could illegally be committing "virtual shredding."
Taking these changes to FRCP into account, Auburn-Washburn School District decided to install Computhink’s ViewWise Enterprise Document Management System with the Email Archive Module. Effectively giving them an Email Archival Solution that interfaces seamlessly with their existing internal Novell GroupWise Email System. Vince Smolek, Computhink’s Director of Product Management explained, “ViewWise allows archival of all e-mail messages that are sent and received by the school districts email users. This archiving takes place automatically, and prevents the user from deleting messages until they have effectively been archived. This both removes the requirement of the user having to manually archive their messages while ensuring adherence to the organization’s e-mail usage and retention policies.”
Computhink created ViewWise with a built-in ROI advantage by making its acquisition and deployment costs affordable. “Email archiving and retrieval is not an installation where ROI can be found in the conventional sense,” says Williams. He continues, “If the time should come when we are responsible for e-discovery, then the cost of this installation will be extremely minimal compared to our potential savings in civil judgments or federal non-compliance fines. People need to know this is a law and it must be taken seriously.”
About Computhink
Computhink provides best-in-class ECM / Document Management solutions for secure information sharing and compliance, targeting small and medium size organizations. Using state-of-the-art technology Computhink solutions operate on a wide range of platforms, including Windows, LINUX and Novell. The ViewWise Product line includes Email Archiving Solutions for Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise. Founded in 1994, Computhink has thousands of worldwide customers in government, financial services, education, healthcare, manufacturing and utility organizations.
