Issue No 1

Welcome to this edition of Computer Smarts for Business. Our objective is very simple - to keep our clients and friends abreast of important computer and networking news and to provide practical tips. We value your feedback, ideas, and suggestions for future topics.

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Should you read your employees' e-mail?
Of course not you may say. But most legal experts would recommend that you at least reserve the right to read all company e-mail. Without some forethought and care, and a written policy, your employee's use of e-mail can land your company in trouble.

We've seen situations where lack of an e-mail policy has caused serious, unexpected, problems. Frequently the difficutly seems to stem from one employee harassing another using company e-mail. Or, consider this newsgroup posting we recently came across from a fellow provider of computer networking services:

"I have a client who is just about to loose a senior member of staff to his competitors. He wants to recover her deleted emails and monitor all incoming and outgoing emails from her mailbox in order to see if she is passing on information. Can this be done, and if so, how?"

Here's another thought provoker. How long should you retain e-mail? Would you want all of your e-mail subpoenaed if you were involved in a suit? Many companies purposefully erase e-mail that is older than a few days.

These issues require careful consideration - particularly if your company is growing in size beyond a small family business.

Inexpensive software is available to monitor, delete and un-delete e-mail on a server should you wish to have this capability available. Care and planning can help you avoid pitfalls. Of course, having your own e-mail server (such as that offered in Microsoft's Small Business Server 2003) makes the task much easier.

These web sites contain insights about administering e-mail.