According to a recent breakdown of small business owners that have been successful with new email signatures published on Suite101, "the few lines added at the bottom of every email that includes the business name and contact can be the least expensive publicity campaign as there are no costs involved at all."

The report detailed how email signatures enable affiliates and customers to get an understanding of who the small businesses’ representatives are, their title with the business and future contact information to establish a consistent line of communication.

These aspects of email signatures are also beneficial as marketing tools, as email recipients are given easy information to access to important company information. Inserting a link to the company’s website within an email signature can give message recipients quick access to their website, which can potentially lead to increased business with a new customer.

Experts also advise small business owners to implement email signature software, as a common mistake to manually write-in individual email signatures can actually have a negative impact and make the business appear less legitimate.

The survey was conducted by OnePoll and salesforce.com, and investigated the email management trends of more than 1,000 employees from various industries in the UK. Unproductive email management solutions have created a work environment in which employees cannot handle the amount of information they receive on a daily basis.

"The habit of ‘blasting’ out emails to a large group of people to ensure that there is no chance of leaving anyone out of a particular message has created a situation where email is now becoming counter-productive," said Tim Barker, vice-president of EMEA strategy for salesforce.com.

The survey also found employees are receiving unnecessary emails that may hamper their efficiency. Seventy percent of respondents said they received irrelevant emails or were copied into emails that did not pertain to business operations.

Integrating an email management solution to boost efficiency in enterprise networks will become more important as new technology increases email use. A recent study found 72 percent of respondents in the U.S. and 68 percent of those in the UK reportedly check their enterprise email outside of work hours via smartphones.

The error occurred when an employee accidentally attached a school report that contained driver’s license and social security numbers pertaining to 2,484 of the school’s current and former employees. According to Arkansas State faculty member Jack Zibluk, the school’s email security solution did not provide adequate protection from the identity theft.

"[The email management system] is not in place yet," Zibluk told the news provider. "No faculty member has yet been covered by any of these protection programs."

The school’s insufficient email security measures has created the opportunity for identity thieves to share the information and exploit the mistake.

"There is always that outside chance that somebody could forward it or download it," he added.

Integrating a secure email management solution can safeguard company information from the data-leak risks associated with business email networks. As a recent study discovered email is still the leading cause for enterprise data loss, more businesses may try to reduce their risks by investing in email security solutions.

An Osterman Research study of 261 U.S. businesses with more than 1,000 employees found email to be the No. 1 source of enterprise data loss. As a result, 35 percent of respondents said they had to devote time and resources to investigate data loss during the past year, while another 20 percent actually had to terminate an employee. The study reveals the operational risks of failing to implement secure email security solutions.

"Enterprise IT professionals are faced with trying to minimize data loss risks across an ever-growing number of channels," said Keith Crosley, marketing director for the email management provider that sponsored the study. "And for every high-profile data loss event you see in the mainstream media, there are many more that you never hear about."

Businesses have also been shifting their email management investments into less-efficient techniques, as 37 percent of respondents said they hired an employee to monitor content of outbound emails for compliance with "legal, financial and regulatory" risks. Investing these funds in secure email security solutions could eliminate the need for that additional employee.

Increased access to enterprise email from different devices can also present data loss threats, as a recent study found 72 percent of U.S. employees responding said they check their business email outside of work hours from their smartphones.

The report explains how an external provider can ensure even the most disorganized email management system is streamlined through Exchange archiving. Working closely with a provider can expedite the process while preventing any migration issues.

However, businesses need to consider their individual aspects when considering a migration. While different sized businesses will have different email management needs, an agreement with an external specialist can assist with integrating the individual processes that apply to unique business environments.

"Migration looks different for a three person or 10 person company than it does for a hundred person company," said Jonathan McCormick, chief operation officer at a hosted services provider.

For example, storage needs vary depending on the size of the email management needs for each particular company. The report points out how email management providers can make sure the migration to Exchange server includes the adequate bandwidth and storage requirements for each individual organization.

More businesses may begin reaping the benefits of Exchange providers, as Microsoft was recently named the most efficient email provider in a recent Gartner report.

The survey investigated the email management trends of employees in the U.S. and UK. In terms of email use employees in each country were similar, as 72 percent of respondents in the U.S. and 68 percent of British employees said they access their company email accounts outside of business hours and even while on vacation.

Constant access to enterprise email has seemingly created a new dimension in the American business employee’s mindset, as 37 percent of respondents in the U.S. said they are afraid to go without checking their emails because they do not want to miss anything important. Furthermore, 43 percent of U.S. respondents said they check their email accounts outside of business hours to get ahead on their workload.

The constant access to business email networks shows no sign of changing either, as a recent Forrester Research study found more companies are allowing their employees to choose the specific smartphones they use for business operations. As mobile access to email becomes more common, business leaders can prevent any issues with the sudden influx by investing in email management solutions.

The MarketScope for Email Systems study ranked the most commonly used enterprise email systems and services. While Google and VMware email services were also rated "positive," none compared with Microsoft’s email management platforms. Gartner declared Microsoft "dominates the e-mail and calendar system market" while giving the company the highest rating in the study.

Some of Microsoft’s recent updates have helped the company maintain its leader position in the market. The company has weathered competition from Google by reducing the price of its hosted Exchange email server, while also improving the Exchange archiving storage capacity to 25GB per user. When compared to email offerings from Novell, which also received a "positive" rating in the study, Gartner determined Novell’s GroupWise email service "is being slowly eroded by Microsoft Exchange."

While other technologies for email storage have been emerging lately, the study indicates the consistent presence of Microsoft Exchange as the premier enterprise email management system.

In fact, the company has also released updates to Exchange this summer, as part of its initiative to continue to keep up with enterprise email demands.

The study was conducted by PandaLabs, the research branch of Panda Security, and found the email security priorities of 10,470 smaller companies with as many as 1,000 computers did not include Exchange anti-spam technology. According to the study, email was the second most common source for viruses, accounting for 21 percent of malware targeting small- and medium-sized businesses. Also, download-based viruses were significantly less common than those from spam emails, composing just 14 percent of malware that affected SMBs.

The research reveals the email security flaws of emerging SMB trends, as firewalls were much more popular for security investments than anti-spam technology. With an increasing number of viruses coming from spam emails, SMBs can safeguard their email networks with Exchange anti-spam solutions to prevent email infiltration that could result in data loss or computer crashes.

While the study involved businesses from across the globe, the U.S. enterprise sector is particularly prone to spam threats. A study released earlier this summer found the amount of spam coming from the United States grew by 2 percent during the first quarter of 2010.

The most recent proposal marks the second-consecutive year New York lawmakers have passed legislation that creates more strict regulations forcing governors to submit emails to state archives. The bill’s proponents have stressed the historical benefits of integrating a government email archiving solution.

"Without documentation from successive governors’ administrations, the history of New York state is, and will remain, incomplete," said Camille Jobin-Davis, assistant director of the state Committee on Open Government, in a memo in support of the bill, the news provider reports.

Lawmakers have been pushing for improved documentation of state government emails for the past year in an effort to fill a current void in the state’s information management requirements. Jobin-Davis criticized the state’s current email regulations and said they provide "minimal" guidance by allowing governments to freely destroy emails.

Email archiving is becoming an important tool to ensure transparency among government agencies, considering the impact of a recent report charging the federal government with illegitimate email management processes under the Bush administration.

The report was published by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and alleges White House officials serving during George W. Bush’s presidency had declined to implement a secure email archiving solution. As a result, millions of email documents went missing, and a lengthy legal battle ensued between the Bush administration, CREW and the National Security Archive.

"Despite repeated warnings that information was being lost, Bush administration officials repeatedly and willfully turned a blind eye to the problem," said Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director.

Had the administration employed a secure email archiving solution, the officials may have avoided some of the case’s legal ramifications, as most of the allegations stem from the administration’s email management processes after its own email archiving project failed.

The case indicates the impact of email management issues upon even the largest organizations. Smaller institutions and businesses can safeguard their information and avoid legal fees for cases involving email security violations by leveraging the benefits of email archiving solutions.

Smaller businesses have already begun realizing the benefits of secure email management, as a recent report found email security was among the top three priorities for expanding small business IT budgets.