Company Robert Bosch s.r.o. needed to solve the MS Exchange mail servers archiving problem, with the aim of eliminating the need for local PST files and reducing the loading of mail servers.

Robert Bosch s.r.o. in České Budějovice employs 2,000 experts in the field of automotive components development and production. The main production program comprises; tank pump modules, suction modules, cylinder head covers, and electronic accelerator pedals.

Situation

E-mail communication forms an integral part of the company’s business. Also in Robert Bosch s.r.o., the e-mail database has grown in time resulting in unreasonable loading of MS Exchange servers. The necessity to delete the e-mails and to create local PST files was considered unwanted by the company not only from the technical perspective but also from the perspective of legislative compliance.

Solution

The system was implemented for 800 MS Exchange server users in the first phase. Today, there are 1,050 users using the e-mail attachments archiving feature. The archiving is automated in the form of regular archiving jobs, provided that the following prerequisites are complied with:

  • the e-mail message is older than 42 days
  • only the attachments are archived.

The entire solution of the MS Exchange mail servers archiving is based on Livelink ECM Enterprise Archive Server and on Livelink ECM for E-mail Archiving MSE integration component. Livelink ECM are products of Canadian Open Text corporation having 15 years of experience in the field of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and 2006 market leader (Gartner).    

Livelink ECM Enterprise Archive Server

Complex solution providing functions for management of extensive and distributed archives, for rapid access to stored data, and for automated monitoring of activities within the framework of the archive. It is based on the MS Windows platform, cooperates with MS SQL database, and ensures secure archiving of individual user mailboxes, public folders, PST files, and calendars.

Livelink ECM for E-mail Archiving MSE

Livelink ECM for E-mail Archiving MSE runs on the archiving server and it integrates the archiving server with the e-mail system (MS Exchange). From the perspective of the MS Exchange Server, the archive server appears as a client. Due to this reason, no system interventions are required on the MS Exchange Server. Archiving is performed either by individual users – individual archiving, or by the system administrator on the groundwork of defined procedures without user involvement – jobs.

Example of stand-alone archiving
Example of automatic archiving based on criteria specified by the system administrator.

User controlled archiving in the current version is possible also through special icons on the Outlook client bar.

Users notice the archiving process only by changing the message attribute in the standard Outlook client window. This way, the user is informed that the message or its attachments have been archived and that the size of his/her mailbox was reduced accordingly. Whenever the user needs to view the full message again, he/she takes the same actions as in the event of common attachment. Therefore, no special training or changes in the style of work are required.

Benefits

  • Automated archiving of e-mails, public folders, and PST files
  • Interactive access to archived objects
  • Possibility to restore archived messages
  • Economic and efficient system of the archiving server

Products and technologies

  • OS MS Windows Server 2000 and above
  • MS SQL Database
  • Livelink ECM Enterprise Archive Server
  • Livelink ECM for E-mail Archiving MSE