Clearswift Announces Availability of New Guide for Managing the Rising Cost of Spam; ROI Calculator Details the Costs.

SAN RAMON, Calif. -- First graph, fourth sentence, and following subhead "Availability," Web site address should read: http://www.clearswift.com/news/whitepapers.aspx (sted http://www.clearswift.com/products/ROI/Clearswift_Anti-spam_ROI.htm).

Clearswift sponsors white paper that highlights factors in the rising cost of spam and offers tips to assessing technologies to wage the fight against spam

Clearswift, the MIMEsweeper Company, today announced the availability of a new white paper, "What You Can and Should Do About the Rising Cost of Spam." This white paper, written for mid-to-upper-level IT managers, provides an understanding of how spam works, the relative cost of spam, the impact of spam, how to assess solutions and how to wage the fight against spam. Additionally, IDC created an ROI calculator to assist organizations in estimating their firm's cost of spam. The calculator is available at: http://www.clearswift.com/news/whitepapers.aspx.

IDC notes in the paper that, "For organizations without anti-spam solutions, the average amount of time lost by email users each day due to spam is 10 minutes, including time spent reviewing emails to identify which are spam and possibly tracking down valid emails that may have been deleted by users or IT by mistake. This translates into a total of $4.1 million in lost productivity each year for firms with 5,000 email users. This takes into consideration that only a portion of the time lost would likely have been used productively."

The costs of spam go beyond time lost by users. Time is also lost when IT personnel are required to deal with spam because they lack an anti-spam solution. Storage costs also weigh into the picture and vary by organization size.

"Calculating the loss of time for both recipients of spam and those administering the e-mail system is difficult. The ROI calculator takes into account all the variables associated with spam to give organizations a realistic picture of the costs associated with spam and spam management," said Alyn Hockey, VP Product Futures at Clearswift. "Clearswift encourages organizations to calculate the costs and look at what can be saved by implementing a viable, workable anti-spam solution."

In the United States, nearly 70% of organizations had implemented an anti-spam solution in 2003 and 20% more expect to have one in place in 2004.

"While many organizations have implemented solutions, the battle with spam rages on and at a significant cost to organizations," said Hockey. "Given that spammers are increasingly sophisticated in their techniques, it is critical that organizations look at all the facets of assessing and selecting a robust anti-spam solution. This guide is an essential tool for making decisions on how to manage this problem."

"Looking at how spam works, assessing the technologies and the implementation options is a daunting task," said Brian Burke at IDC. "This white paper gives IT personnel a base of information to start from as they continually wage war against spam. It clearly defines the increasing costs of unwanted content and gives a birds-eye view into the factors involved with choosing a suitable solution."

Additionally, IDC notes that anti-spam solutions reduce the average amount of time spent on spam by e-mail users by 50% -- that translates to a cost savings of $783,000 for a 5,000-user organization. Implementing the right tools also decreases IT staff time. Reducing wasted productivity by 56% -- a total of $13,000 in productivity gains per IT staff person.

IDC recommends a multilayered approach to fighting threats on the Internet. Not only should companies include anti-spam solutions alongside anti-virus and authentication tools, but also the tools themselves should be multifaceted.

MAILsweeper Business Suite combines comprehensive e-mail content security, learning anti-spam software, and remote management functionality, which allows multiple e-mail administrators to investigate quarantined e-mails remotely via a Web-based interface.

The options for anti-spam solutions are many -- from server options to client software to server appliances and hosted services.

Hockey stated, "Look at the impact of spam. Make sure the right technology with the right approach for your organization is tested. You'll save money by taking the time to really understand what spam means to your organization."

"Secure content management is the way forward for organizations today. A comprehensive solution that combines anti-spam technologies with other tools to combat all the threats of the Net, including gateway anti-virus, lexical analysis to protect against lost productivity and legal liability and controls for large files and the like are needed both now and in the future," said Burke. "We advocate comprehensive solutions that not only stop spam but that can protect the entire e-mail system."

Availability

This IDC White Paper sponsored by Clearswift is available for download at: http://www.clearswift.com/news/whitepapers.aspx.

About Clearswift

Clearswift is the world's leading provider of software for managing and securing electronic communications. Clearswift solutions ensure business compliance through safe messaging; secure boundaries and best practice in electronic communications. Clearswift delivers the capabilities for organizations to protect themselves against e-mail and Web-based threats, meet legal and regulatory requirements, implement productivity-saving policies and manage intellectual property passing through their network.

Clearswift product portfolio includes MIMEsweeper(TM), the world's leading family of content security products for e-mail and Web, as well as a range of highly specialized security solutions for government and defense organizations. More information about Clearswift, its products and services is available at www.clearswift.com

Clearswift, MAILsweeper, MIMEsweeper, spamActive and ENTERPRISEsuite are trademarks or registered trademarks, in the United States, United Kingdom and certain other countries, of Clearswift Limited. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged.