Whirlpool Corporation Case Study

Whirlpool Corporation

Challenge:

Whirlpool Corporation, a world leader in the home appliances industry, manufactures products in 17 countries and markets products in more than 170 countries. During the migration from Lotus cc:Mail to Lotus Notes R5 e-mail, Whirlpool mail administrators found that the quota functionality was different in a Lotus Notes R5 clustered e-mail environment. When users exceeded their quota limit, administrator intervention was required to restore messaging. Additionally, Lotus Notes R5 e-mail did not have inherent features which users were accustomed to for automatically removing old messages. With a user base of 20,000 plus users, this level of administrator intervention was not an efficient option. Thus, Whirlpool began to look for a tool that would bridge the retention gap and better manage quotas. “We needed to get a point where the users could do their own housekeeping and also insure that mail would still be received after users reached their quota limits,” said Bob Krieger, GIS Notes Mail Group.

Solution:

Whirlpool turned to Sherpa Software’s Mail Attender® application for help. A key factor was Mail Attender’s ability that allowed users who were over quota to manage their own mail accounts in order to return to compliance. Initially Mail Attender was installed for 1300 users across four servers in Mexico and was then rolled out to 11,000 users across nine servers in North America. Once the installation was completed, Whirlpool began running hard/soft quotas and document deletions. Restrictions included: a 30-day delete on trash and sent folders, a 396-day delete for all calendar entries and a 90-day delete for all drafts, inbox meetings, personal folders etc. “Throughout the process, Sherpa Software’s support group worked with me every step of the way”, said Krieger. “They were very proactive during the installation and rollout. Once the product was installed Sherpa worked with me to fine-tune the product to meet Whirlpool requirements.“

Result:

When quotas and retentions were enabled, there was an immediate reclamation of server disk space. In December 2002, Whirlpool reclaimed 60 GB of disk space across 8,000 user accounts. “Since our U.S. Notes R5 e-mail initiative began, we estimate that Mail Attender has reclaimed a total of 163 GB of disk space (last half of 2002)”, said Krieger.

Krieger added, “The fact that Mail Attender is GUI based and that we have the capability to perform searches for large attachments and messages by subject, etc., are added bonuses. I would recommend this product to anyone in any size corporation that is looking for an automated way to manage Notes mail file quotas and implement retention policies. Also, Mail Attender is not intrusive in regards to Domino and NT. Overall, Mail Attender has been a great product for Whirlpool and the support we receive is always first-rate.”

For more information on Whirlpool Corporation, visit www.whirlpool.com.