London, UK – 2nd August 2012 – Mimecast, the leading supplier of cloud-based email archiving, security and continuity for Microsoft Exchange and Office 365, has today announced that it is launching the next generation of Mimecast Email Security, bringing new functionality to users and IT departments to deliver unprecedented control and flexibility. The new features are designed to boost productivity and address a growing appetite for end user autonomy while still affording the IT department full visibility of the organisation’s email security.

Designed to combine increased flexibility with industry-leading security, the new functionality within Mimecast Email Security allows users to manage their own security settings on a per-message basis, in combination with centralised controls that allow the IT department to activate features and permissions for specific individuals or groups. This functionality includes end user controls as well as attachment and blocked sender management in compliance with enterprise security requirements.

Empowering email users:

-With employees increasingly demanding the ability to customise and tailor their workplace technology, Mimecast’s next generation email security gives users unparalleled control of their business email

-Users will no longer have to leave Microsoft Outlook to report spam or manage their blocked sender lists

-Traditional gateway workflows are integrated by exposing personal hold or moderation queues to users so that they don’t have to access another application to take the next action

-Users will gain access to message actions from within Microsoft Outlook, creating a new level of user empowerment and giving employees autonomy over a range of email functions. Message actions include:

   -User defined message encryption allows users to choose from available secure delivery options manually. These include Mimecast’s proprietary Closed Circuit Messaging (CCM), in which an email can only be viewed by the recipient through a secure online portal and cannot be forwarded

   -Intuitive document clean-up or conversion options providing users with the ability to remove unwanted or hidden metadata – such as tracked changes – or to simply convert the document to PDF

   -User activated ‘strip and link’ functionality: rather than having large attachments blocked by recipient mail servers, users can replace attachments with links to downloadable files, securely hosted by Mimecast

   -Email stationery and branding selection allowing users to decide which branding gets applied to individual messages, thus extending the flexibility of existing automated systems

Giving IT departments control:

-While Mimecast Email Security is designed to empower users, it also allows the IT department to retain full control and visibility over the organisation’s email security:

   -Granular permission controls allow system administrators to activate functions for individual employees or subsets of users as required

   -IT teams retain control over all default settings, allowing them to continue to set and manage security policies

-A new deployment tool will allow a client side installation to be effected through existing software management systems, streamlining the roll-out process for both the IT department and end users

-By allowing users greater control over their own email, through functions such as user self-service for quarantine management and the recovery of lost or deleted items, IT departments are able to reduce the time spent on basic system administration tasks, thereby freeing up resources for more strategic projects as well as reducing user frustration

“It is no secret that the trend towards the consumerisation of enterprise IT has seen end users becomingly increasingly vocal about the need for greater control and flexibility when it comes to core business technologies,” commented Grant Hodgkinson, Product Director, Unified Email Management, Mimecast. “From talking to our customers, it was clear that they wanted to find a way to empower users, without compromising on the overall security of the business. By building granular controls and permissions into Mimecast Email Security and adding functionality, we want to help IT departments find a balance between productivity, flexibility and control. This technology is designed to allow IT teams to retain visibility and control where it is needed, while giving individual users greater power over their own email in a way that makes both sides more productive.”

“Mimecast Email Security is bringing additional security features to the end-user and we see this having huge potential for IT departments,” commented Chris Balmbro, IT Services & Support for Mimecast customer Knight Frank LLP. “With ever more importance being attached to data security, it will be great for our end users to be able to choose to encrypt their emails ad hoc or even to send mail as a Closed Circuit Message. We also believe that allowing employees to check their own spam queues and release messages should they wish will mean fewer calls to our Service Desk team, helping to increase productivity both for our IT department and our end users.”