Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG, widely recognized for its signature Ritter Sport chocolate bars, boasts a global workforce of over 1,900 employees dedicated to producing and distributing its unique, square chocolate bars.

Achieving Compliance with Email Archiving Regulations

In 2018, this renowned family-owned confectioner was faced with the challenge of finding a solution for legally compliant email archiving. This initiative was prompted by legal mandates, but the focus wasn't solely on compliance. Michael Jany, the Team Leader for IT Infrastructure and IT Security at Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG, emphasized that alongside adhering to these regulations, there were several other key requirements that the IT leadership aimed to address:

When it comes to rolling out new IT solutions, it's crucial for us that they support Single Sign-On. Additionally, seamless integration with Active Directory is a top priority, as it significantly speeds up the integration process based on our experience.

After evaluating two archiving systems, we chose the EMA solution from ARTEC IT Solutions, which also came highly recommended by our IT partner, BWG Information Systems. We managed to complete the foundational integration of EMA in just one afternoon. This process included system installation and connecting to Exchange. We also deployed ARTEC's storage systems.

Archiving of both incoming and outgoing email is a completely automated process that runs seamlessly in the background. Thanks to digital signatures and electronic timestamps, we ensure our email archive is both audit-proof and tamper-proof, keeping all records secure and legally compliant. EMA has now become an essential tool for the vast majority of our team. An intuitive EMA search portal is readily accessible through a link on our intranet, making it super convenient for everyone to use.

Significant Relief and Faster Email Search

From the perspective of the IT leaders at the chocolate manufacturer, the email archive system offers benefits far beyond just meeting legal requirements. One key advantage is the resolution of issues related to oversized mailboxes, as adhering to mailbox limits is no longer a hassle. Since emails can be accessed at any time via EMA, they can easily be deleted from the local mailbox when necessary without any worry.

Moreover, the IT department experiences significant relief since administrators are no longer burdened with restoring accidentally deleted email folders – all emails are readily available in EMA anyway. Another major advantage for Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG is the incredible speed at which emails and their attachments can be searched through EMA’s full-text search capability:

“For us, EMA is essentially the perfect blend of legal security and rapid email search capabilities”, as stated by Jany. “This also aids in my daily research tasks. I would estimate the time saved compared to the previously time-consuming searches in various email folders to be at least two-thirds. Plus, the system runs smoothly and requires minimal maintenance.”