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US businesses warned of system overload as staff email

Article:

NEWS RELEASE

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of relying on outdated systems which will leave them vulnerable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

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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.