| Email is a company's lifeblood. Everyone from | | | | maintaining a non-strategic - albeit crucial |
| the corner office on down depends | | | | - function while critical business |
| | | | objectives are set aside to meet the urgent |
| on it and expects 100 percent availability. | | | | email needs.Meanwhile, system managers are |
| They schedule meetings, assign tasks, | | | | constantly fending off attacks from new |
| | | | viruses and worms, and trying to beat back |
| answer questions, receive product orders, | | | | the influx of spam on already overloaded |
| check progress and exchange friendly | | | | email inboxes. According to a study** |
| | | | conducted by the Pew Internet and American |
| greetings - all with the click of a mouse. | | | | Life Project, 25 percent of Internet users |
| Communication among customers, employees | | | | have had their computer infected by a virus, |
| | | | most likely from an email message. They are |
| and business partners has never been | | | | coming fast and furious, and most companies |
| easier...Until something goes wrong.An | | | | are ill-prepared. Spam and virus filters are |
| employee inadvertently opens the door to a | | | | not very good, catching a lot of false |
| virus that downs the entire system ... A | | | | positives and dumping potentially important |
| | | | email.Free Up Your PersonnelA full 60 percent |
| heavy day of email volume overwhelms the | | | | of the costs involved in maintaining a |
| allocated storage, impeding performance | | | | corporate email system come down to |
| | | | personnel, so it makes sense for midsize |
| of other mission-critical IT functions ... | | | | companies to consider outsourcing. Concerns |
| Corporate counsel has asked that you | | | | that made companies hesitant in the past - |
| | | | worries about the consistency of an external |
| turn over all emails from July of last year | | | | data center, and fears that service providers |
| to settle a patent dispute, and you're | | | | wouldn't be able to support a globally hosted |
| | | | infrastructure - are non-issues today.A |
| not even sure if you have them. All the | | | | study* by The Radicati Group, released in |
| while several of your staff members are | | | | November, finds that corporations of all |
| | | | sizes are increasingly deploying hosted email |
| spending hours trying to solve these | | | | solutions as opposed to in-house solutions. |
| problems, while the more strategic and | | | | The analysts estimate that hosted email |
| forward-thinking | | | | currently accounts for about 67 percent of |
| | | | all email accounts worldwide. This trend is |
| projects get put on hold ... again.Managing | | | | attributed to complex in-house messaging |
| corporate email systems has become a | | | | solutions, spam and virus problems, storage |
| nightmare for companies and an | | | | pressures, compliance requirements and other |
| | | | driving factors.Outsourcing management of a |
| expense that seemingly knows few bounds. | | | | corporate email system is where another |
| Email systems grow so fast that what | | | | company hosts your system and is responsible |
| | | | for complete reliability and security - can |
| should be one of the most strategic tools at | | | | be a wise decision for companies of any size |
| our disposal can quickly become | | | | that want to streamline their email |
| | | | operations and relieve their internal IT |
| an out-of-control beast that refuses to be | | | | staffs of the burden. With the right email |
| tamed.In fact, according to the Radicati | | | | management services partner, outsourcing will |
| Group, the number of mailboxes is expected | | | | save time, money and lost productivity |
| | | | by:· Freeing up your company's IT |
| to increase by 20 percent or more, and | | | | experts to focus on more strategic |
| volume per user has grown by 53 percent | | | | initiatives, furthering the company's core |
| | | | business objectives· Standardizing |
| over last year. No wonder system management | | | | the email platform across an organization, |
| is such a daunting task.There's more at stake | | | | bringing everything in sync and making the |
| than convenience. Vulnerabilities are exposed | | | | entire system more streamlined and |
| as email | | | | efficientEnsuring that your company will stay |
| | | | on top of virus and worm protection upgrades |
| volume grows, new viruses attack and | | | | and complicated government compliance issues |
| CAN-SPAM-like government regulations become | | | | |
| | | | Getting StartedIf you are considering |
| more convoluted. A downed email system | | | | outsourcing your company's email management, |
| interrupts business, slows productivity | | | | here are a few things to keep in |
| | | | mind.ScalabilityLook for an IT services |
| and disrupts potentially critical | | | | provider that can manage all the complexity |
| communication. And companies can be held | | | | behind implementing, securing, managing and |
| financially | | | | scaling your email system. Make sure the |
| | | | company provides a wide range of services |
| liable for viruses that are inadvertently | | | | from which you can customize your |
| spread by an employee, or for questionable | | | | relationship to meet your specific email |
| | | | needs - from a simple, low-cost shared MS |
| or inappropriate content transmitted from | | | | Exchange server all the way to a multi-data |
| their systems.Who's managing the Email | | | | center, load balanced service for larger |
| Store?Most larger companies still place the | | | | companies with global offices.MigrationAsk |
| responsibility of managing their email | | | | about the migration process and make sure it |
| | | | will be seamless, with minimal effort on the |
| systems on already overburdened and | | | | part of your internal IT department. To truly |
| under-budgeted IT departments, expecting | | | | get an understanding of what to expect, you |
| | | | might want to get feedback from some of the |
| them to expand systems, prevent virus | | | | company's existing and previous |
| attacks, filter spam and develop archiving | | | | clients.UptimeWhile the goal obviously is 100 |
| | | | percent up-time, ask potential service |
| solutions - all with shrinking budgets and | | | | providers what plans they have in place to |
| dwindling staffs. Most of the smaller | | | | deal with the unexpected. Find out about a |
| | | | disaster recovery plan - a procedure put into |
| companies don't even have that luxury; it's | | | | place from the beginning to help you save, |
| strictly do-it-yourself.Some companies have | | | | store and recover data in case of an |
| never investigated how much maintaining their | | | | emergency.Support ServicesAlso make sure the |
| email systems internally is costing them - in | | | | company provides fixed monthly costs, single |
| actual dollars, hardware costs, IT resources, | | | | sign-on capabilities, spam and virus |
| personnel time and lost revenues and/or | | | | filtering, integration with other services |
| productivity when the system is not | | | | (fax, voicemail, etc.) and help-desk |
| available. The costs are high - it seems | | | | services.Email will only continue to grow, |
| there's no end to the complexity involved in | | | | with new complications at every turn. But |
| maintaining a corporate email system.Most are | | | | with an outsourcing partner, you'll secure a |
| increasingly heterogeneous, with end users | | | | complex messaging environment that will allow |
| across an organization using different | | | | you to keep up with minimal effort, along |
| versions and various email platforms - making | | | | with access to technology and expertise |
| management and maintenance time-consuming and | | | | usually on a fixed-cost basis, while reducing |
| more complicated than necessary. IT experts | | | | the demands on your IT staff. |
| are forced to spend enormous amounts of time | | | | |