Beyond Standard Reports: What Your Archive Should Tell You

How many users have archived data? Which active archives have not received a new item recently? How quickly is each vault store growing?

These sound like straightforward management questions. In a large Enterprise Vault estate, answering them consistently can require more than a standard dashboard.

Custom reporting is most valuable when it connects a clear question with a decision somebody needs to make.

Define the question before collecting the data

Start with the intended action. A report for a capacity review needs different information from a report for a mailbox migration or an investigation into missing archiving activity.

Specify the population, date range and meaning of each field. “Last archived date” needs a precise definition: is it the most recent item committed to an archive, the last successful task activity or another event?

Decide how inactive users, closed archives and journal archives should be treated. These choices can materially change the result.

Combine data carefully

A useful view might link archive identifiers, user information, vault stores and recent activity. Preserve the distinction between source data and derived conclusions.

For example, an archive with no recent items is a finding to investigate. It does not automatically establish a fault: the user may be inactive, the source may be excluded or there may have been no eligible content.

Use supported interfaces and approved access wherever possible. If a specific read-only database query is needed, review its design and impact before running it against production. Scheduled reports should not become another cause of performance problems.

Make the output repeatable

Document the fields and definitions. Use a format the receiving team can work with, such as a clear table or a filtered report.

For an operational report, define a threshold and an owner. For a management report, show a trend and explain changes in coverage or measurement. Protect reports that contain personal or sensitive information.

A well-designed report also reduces repeated manual work. Administrators can spend less time assembling spreadsheets and more time addressing the exceptions.

Virtech develops custom Enterprise Vault reports and scripts for customer-specific requirements, alongside troubleshooting and archive optimisation. Learn more about our Enterprise Vault archiving services.

Tell Virtech the archive question your team cannot answer today. We can scope a report around the decision it needs to support.

Email sales@virtech.ae or call +971 4 580 7555 to speak with our specialists.