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US businesses warned of system overload as staff email thanksgiving photos and videos
Date: 18 November 2005 Media Contact: Stuart Bruce, Bruce
Marshall Associates LLP +44 (0)20 7870 5322 / +44 (0)113 282
5321 / +44 (0)7900 985960
US businesses warned of system overload as staff email
thanksgiving photos and videos Small businesses across America
could be under threat, experts warned today, as Thanksgiving Day
approaches. All across America people will be coming together to
offer thanks and hold family gatherings, preparing special
thanksgiving meals and taking part in thanksgiving parades. But
as employees return to work it is expected that they will send
photographs and even videos as huge email attachments.
New York based messaging and collaboration software company
Softalk says that as small and medium sized businesses don't
have their own large IT departments to manage and monitor their
email system they will be particularly under threat.
"Email is now vital for many small and medium sized businesses
and has even overtaken many traditional methods of business
communication like telephone and post," said Simon Bates, joint
CEO of Softalk. "So I can't stress enough how important it is
for small and medium sized firms to make sure they have an up to
date system that can cope, too many businesses make the mistake
of relying on outdated systems which will leave them vulnerable
to collapse."
By following these simple steps Softalk say businesses can
protect their systems against collapse:
* Set limits for maximum size of attachments that can be sent
and received through the email server * Prevent employees using
the email server for storing huge files of personal photographs
and videos by setting quotas for individual users mailboxes *
Prevent users from sending or receiving certain types of
attachment using the email server * Prevent viruses getting in
disguised as holiday photos by installing up to date anti-virus
filters * Cut down on the unproductive email clogging up users
in-boxes by installing anti-spam filters * Always ensure that
filters are up to date without the need to update every
individual user's PC by implementing anti-virus and anti-spam
security at the email server level * Make sure your employees
understand how they are allowed to use the company email system
for personal use by having clear policies in place * Ensure that
policies include rules to ensure that employees don't send or
receive inappropriate images * Check that your email server is
robust enough and has the capacity to cope with the demands of
today's email traffic which has increased from an average of 15
billion emails a day in 2001 to an average of 132 billion a day
in 2005. * Ensure that you are backing up and archiving your
email database on a frequent and regular basis
About Softalk Softalk provides a range of messaging,
collaboration and contact relationship management software
solutions specifically designed to benefit small to medium size
businesses. Softalk was set up in 1993 and is a privately held
company headquartered in Maidenhead in the UK with a US office
in New York. Customers include American Express, British Chamber
of Commerce, Cancer Research, Cap Gemini France, Cisco,
Lufthansa and Xerox. Its products include Softalk Collaboration
Suite which includes WorkgroupMail, an email server for small
businesses; WorkgroupShare to enable organisations to share
Outlook folders without the need for Microsoft Exchange; and
Softalk Organizer, a web-based collaboration client enabling
users to share calendars, contacts and email. OfficeTalk is a
low cost contact and customer relationship management solution
enabling the whole team to share corporate information. For more
information visit www.softalkltd.com or join in the conversation
at our blog at talk.softalkltd.com
ENDS
For further media information please contact: Stuart Bruce,
Bruce Marshall Associates LLP,
stuartb@brucemarshallassociates.com +44 (0)20 7870 5322 / +44
(0)113 282 5321 / +44 (0)7900 985960
About the author:
Stuart Bruce is a partner of Bruce Marshall Associates LLP, a
public relations consultancy based in Leeds, England. Stuart
specialises in technology PR and has branched out into blogging
consultancy, visit his own business blog at
20six.co.uk/stuartbruce. Stuart is currently working with
Softalk Ltd who provide affordable, easy to use collaboration
and messaging solutions to small and medium sized businesses.