Often, the actions of a handful of users have a significant impact on email operations. For example, Permessa’s analysis of email use at dozens of companies indicates that 4% of the users create more than 85% of volume. These few people send “colleague spam” with excessive attachments or use of “Reply To All.” A small number of users disproportionally increase compliance and legal risks by violating policies and regulations.

Permessa Email Control! v5 makes specific recommendations based on the best practices Permessa developed over 15 years at some of the world’s largest and most demanding organizations. IT departments can adjust the recommendations and use the software to run “What-If” scenarios that name exactly who would be affected by any policy change. For example, the CEO can be exempted from policies that are appropriate for other employees. Organizations may elect to enforce their policies immediately by blocking or quarantining messages.

By refining email policies to suit their specific enterprise, IT managers can act quickly to do the following:

• Stop wasteful messages, such as colleague spam, attachment ping-pong and excessive use of reply-to-all
• Reduce costs and meet service level commitments (SLAs)
• Prevent abuse and compliance violations
• Manage the overall impact of message size
• Improve the health and availability of the overall email system
• enhance IT managers’ understanding of underlying messaging issues

Permessa Email Control! v5 is the first in a series of the company’s flagship Permessa Control! solutions for unified management of today’s collaboration technologies, including IM, work spaces, email. Support for Web 2.0 applications, such as social networking and wikis, is planned. Permessa Email Control! v5 was showcased in Permessa’s booth 232 at today’s Lotusphere 2008 event in Orlando, Florida.

"Companies are increasingly concerned that the growth in messaging volume hurts productivity, adds unnecessary costs, and creates legal risks. Yet, they want to make sure that email flows smoothly so business proceeds without interruption," said Michael Osterman, principal of Osterman Research, an industry analyst firm focused on messaging and unified communications. "Permessa Email Control! v5 distinguishes itself by enabling companies to determine who would be impacted by each email policy before it is implemented, and can easily provide strong enforcement or a mild warning on a policy-by-policy basis when an enforcement is deployed."

“Organizations are starting to realize that out of control email is a major driver to IT cost increases and decreased worker productivity. In the past, they might have implemented simple solutions that cause more problems than they solve. Now, with Permessa Email Control! v5, companies can easily implement comprehensive policies, based on best practices developed using our 15 years of experience,” said Stefan Mehlhorn, Permessa’s chief executive officer.

Before the release of Permessa Email Control! v5, companies that needed to reduce wasted storage costs and improve productivity might simply block large attachments. However, that method may also block critical time-sensitive proposals from company executives. It would also miss messages with a larger impact, such medium sized documents sent to dozens or hundreds of people using a distribution list.

Permessa Email Control! v5 finds the messages with the largest impact, recommends a policy and lists who would be impacted by the recommended policy. “What-If?” scenarios allow for fine-tuning to maximize IT impact while minimizing negative business impact. Companies can then enforce the policies they select when the message is sent.

What’s New in Permessa Email Control! v5:

• Actionable Policy Recommendations: A prioritized list of specific, suggestions based on an analysis of system-wide email behavior, and comparison against an extensive baseline for companies of various sizes and industry sectors. Permessa Email Control! v5 consistently monitors the effectiveness of enforceable policies, amending future recommendations accordingly.
• “What-If?” Scenarios: Shows exactly who would have been effected in an organization if the policy had been in effect by each proposed policy setting and how much of each person’s work would be effected.
• Automatic Policy Enforcement: Optionally blocks or quarantines messages that violate policies and sends notices to the effected parties.
• “Passive mode” Deployment: Tests policies and allows for a phase-in period before going live with new policies.
• Real-Time Dashboard: Graphically displays system status and the impact of policies.

Availability and Pricing

Permessa Email Control! 5.0 will be available in February 2008 for IBM Lotus Notes and Domino platforms, with Microsoft Exchange availability planned for later this year.

About Permessa Corporation

Permessa Corporation (formerly DYS Analytics, Inc.), founded in 1993, is a global leader in optimizing the messaging infrastructure for business. It provides enterprise-class products and services that manage today's top messaging platforms which allow corporate IT to take control of their Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Notes and Domino, IBM Lotus Sametime, IBM Lotus QuickPlace, and IBM Lotus Quickr networks for email, instant messaging, shared workspaces, and collaboration. Permessa solutions mitigate risk, increase performance and lower the costs associated with mission-critical messaging solutions. Permessa's customers are large and small, global and local, including such firms as 3M, Avon, Colgate-Palmolive, CSC, the Federal Reserve Bank, Seagate Technology, Toyota, and Zurich Financial Services. For information, visit www.permessa.com