1.1 Introduction
An email system is a critical business tool and an essential part of organizational communication. Many organizations have experienced negative impacts from email and have responded by electronically monitoring and restricting email system use. However, electronic monitoring of email can be contentious. Staff can react to these controls by dissent, protest and potentially transformative action. Mobile email access also increases the pressure on the organization to maintain and improve the reliability of the core email system infrastructure (Graff and Grey, 2002). The more organizations rely on email, the more reliable it must be, because the risk of business interruption increases dramatically (Graff and Grey, 2002). Organizations must secure, expand and manage this communication medium effectively to meet new challenges (Graff and Grey, 2002; Weber, 2004). E-mail systems are some of the most admired Internet-based applications today. They enable users to send and receive E-mail messages between each other both from inside and outside the local area network. The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is a transportation protocol used to transfer E- mail messages over the Internet.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
E-mails are widely used communication tool with their convenience and efficiency. In spite of their usefulness, they are difficult to control in that e-mails are easily used as outflow path of confidential documents in an organization. In order to detect and prevent the outflow, the e-mail monitoring is widely used. We propose a system that detects in real time the outflow of the documents to be protected. It is based on the automatic text categorization and machine learning technique. The experimental result shows the high accuracy and efficiency of the method.
Email is an essential component in all implementations of electronic business platforms. However, as electronic business activity increases, ad-hoc implementation, prolonged management neglect and user abuse generate negative effects. Organizations have responded by electronically monitoring email activities. Email systems have become a primary utility resource and the foundation for most other applications in Web and Internet computing. Moreover, email systems have become an essential component in all implementations of electronic business platforms (Graff and Grey, 2001).
Email systems introduce a new set of threats and legal issues (Attaran, 2000) and email borne viruses and deliberate abuse of email have become major concerns for organizations (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2002). There is also a growing realization that most information systems security breaches are caused by individuals internal to the organization (Schulman, 2001). Jackson et al., (2000) suggest that the primary driver of email monitoring is the ability to monitor its progress by capturing communication metrics which can then be used to formulate an email policy, provide education to try and reduce system abuses, improve employee productivity, and generally improve communication practices.
Email marketing has grown in popularity because it produces results. While in the late 90’s and into 2000 email marketing was new, the accessibility of email now means that marketers must work hard to cut through the clutter. In the past, permission was a nice to have. Now permission Business owners since the inception of email marketing and newsletter sign up can now captures prospects that may not be ready to take other actions. By creating a newsletter or other communication for this audience, you can begin to build a relationship with them that can lead to sales or other desired action in the future. Without this regular communication, the contact could easily forget about your organization the minute they exit the website. Customer retention is very key for businesses to succeed, implementing a newsletter application and Email Monitoring System will increase the desired action of customers, and the process can include a welcome email that invites them to stay in touch with your company.
1.3 Statement of Problem
Investigation revealed that Email systems introduce a new set of threats and legal issues (Attaran, 2000) and email borne viruses and deliberate abuse of email have become major concerns for organizations (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2002). There is also a growing realization that most information systems security breaches are caused by individuals internal to the organization (Schulman, 2001).
Big companies and brands before now do have a comprehensive list of customers without ways to send all the email list probably in large numbers emails for new products, awareness or promo which they are business are offering, which reduces the relationship between business owners and customers, and drop in sales and most times customers tend to forget the businesses exist, with a mailing and newsletter system, companies can send thousands of emails to existing customers and prospective customers with just a click.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to Design and Implement an Email Monitoring System in the Telecommunication Industries. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to design and develop an application software that will:
- Detects in real time the outflow of the documents through email to be protected.
- Provide more efficient tools which enable the monitoring of the E-mail system protocols in real-working environment.
- Identify the problems related to mailing protocols.
- Utilize and monitor the transaction protocols to send and retrieve E-mail messages over the local network and the Internet networks.
1.5 Significance of Study
The proposed system will ensure the efficient and effective set-up of a functioning system that can send thousands of mails remotely to thousands of customers at once, without remotely sending the emails conventionally. This study will be of immense benefit to Small and Medium Scale Enterprise (SME) and academic researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.6 Scope of the Study
The study focuses on the Design and Implementation of an Email Monitoring System in the Telecommunication Industries.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
1.8 Definition of Terms
Internet: The Internet is a global wide area network that connects computer systems across the world.
Business: A business is defined as an organization or enterprising entity engaged in commercial, industrial, or professional activities.
