GWRetain - Success Story


   Mert Rountree, Network Administrator, ElectriCities of NC, Inc.

Overview

ElectriCities is a not-for-profit government service organization representing cities, towns and universities that own electric distribution systems. Today, ElectriCities represents more than 90 members in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

ElectriCities is a recognized leader of Public Power, supplying power to fifty-one cities and providing leadership, information and opportunities for member cities and their customers.
ElectriCities is committed to providing extraordinary service to member communities and customers, in a
professional & fiscally responsible manner that is fully accountable to owners and customers.
 
Challenge

ElectriCities needed a Retention & Compliance solution for its GroupWise system to fully meet existing & new
corporate governance regulations regarding email & documents. As a public not-for-profit organization,
ElectriCities had to meet the highest requirements in terms of Security, comprehensive Retention, strong
Auditing capabilities, and user-friendliness, while implementing a cost-effective & maintainable solution.

ElectriCities, a geographically-distributed organization spanning three states, had to ensure that end-users
be provided convenient - yet secure - access to material retained from their GroupWise accounts.

ElectriCities was interested in identifying a solution that provided added value over and above the need for
Compliance: for example, removing inactive GroupWise accounts after safely retaining the accounts' contents
would reduce the size of the GroupWise database - and backups, and free GroupWise licenses for new users.
 
Solution

ElectriCities chose OpenNet Software's GWRetain - a solution that ensures full compliance thanks to its being able to retain all GroupWise content (email, documents, appointments, tasks, notes, etc.), and
ensure the Retained Content is complete, authentic, and secure.

Given the mission-critical nature of the Retention & Compliance solution, ElectriCities put OpenNet's technical support & response to the test as part of the evaluation process.

"OpenNet certainly gives the best customer service I've ever had before a sale and during testing," said Mert Rountree. "I couldn't believe the responsiveness."

GWRetain will allow ElectriCities to safely Retain & Delete inactive GroupWise accounts reducing the load on their GroupWise system and freeing GroupWise licenses for new users, while ensuring all content is retained & accessible.

Detailed Retention Polices may easily be defined, based on keywords, sender, and recipient - even by attachment pattern, providing ElectriCities with powerful compliance monitoring capabilities over
GroupWise content. GWRetain allows defining Retention (and Retain & Delete) of an entire GroupWise account - with a single mouse click.

ElectriCities can offer employees convenient, web-based access to their retained content, using their GroupWise credentials to authenticate to the Retention Store. AES or RC4 encryption of Retained Content, Role-Based access control, & full auditing ensure that all Retained Content is secure.
Content Indexing and Digital Fingerprinting ensures that no content can be deleted or modified without leaving evidence that is easily accessible to auditors. The supported Auditor role provides external auditors with access and tools to ensure compliance while maintaining Content owners' confidentiality.

"We want to be in full compliance with any local, state, or federal guidelines for email and document retention", explains Mert Rountree. "GWRetain provides us with a secure, auditable source of our email messages and attachments."

The Single Instance Store of attachments & documents ensures that Retention Storage requirements remain manageable over time - identifying files' uniqueness by calculating and comparing binary digests.
 
Result

ElectriCities implemented OpenNet Software's Retention & Compliance solution to ensure they fulfill their commitment to their members, customers, and employees, and comply with all Federal & State regulations. GWRetain's rapid deployment and comprehensive management capabilities allow ElectriCities to ensure Compliance in a timely manner, without having to add expensive dedicated resources to deliver this solution.

"GWRetain was extremely easy to install and configure on an existing server. I didn't have to run and purchase new hardware to make the GWRetain solution work in our environment, and any questions or issues I ran into during testing were quickly solved by the friendly, knowledgeable, and responsive staff at OpenNet", said Mert Rountree. "Day to day operation of GWRetain is easy…just set up the tasks and jobs you want and let them run. They require very little administrator intervention or fine tuning."

Deploying GWRetain took less than an hour, with OpenNet's Configuration Wizard managing setting it up as a Trusted Application - testing every step of the process to avoid having to troubleshoot potential problems related to eDirectory & GroupWise Authorization, Credentials, file system mappings, etc.
Being able to grant end-users access to their retained content via web browsers using their GroupWise authentication credentials avoided deployment and training issues - a single email with the Retention Web Viewer's URL was all that was required.
The Single Instance Store and 1-click Retain & Delete feature provided welcome ROI in terms of storage and GroupWise license fees.

"GWRetain is a great product," said Mert Rountree, "and OpenNet provides world class customer service."
  Copyright © 2006, OpenNet Software Ltd.