Outsource Your Email

Final Words

2008-06-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

Hopefully, this ebook has helped you learn about the benefits and inner workings of outsourcing your company's email. Even if you ultimately decide this is not the right course for your business, or that it isn't the right way to cut costs at this juncture, you know have a much better understanding of one of the main methods of technological outsourcing and cost reduction available to businesses

Finding the Right Help for Email Processing

2008-06-12T11:59:00.000-07:00

It goes without saying that you don’t want an unqualified stranger processing your email. When it comes down to handing over your email to a third party, you want to be sure that the individual (or organization) is the right one for the job. While your goal is the hand-off relatively simple tasks, this still means that you’re going to have another set of eyes looking at your documents and making

How Will Pre-Screened Email Increase Productivity

2008-06-11T11:56:00.000-07:00

When your email is pre-screened, you can choose to have only the most important messages get to you. Think of the kinds of messages that populate your inbox. Notifications of meetings, repeats of information you already have, minutes of last week’s meetings... the list goes on and on. By having a third party filter your email, you can assign the tasks of noting schedule changes, tossing out

Why Outsource the Handling of Email

2008-06-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

In business, time, as the saying goes, is money. Today’s businesspeople are spending increasing amounts of time simply keeping up with the huge bulk of email that descends into their mailboxes each and every day. While modern spam-screening features and junkmail-jamming tools have made a big difference in the quality of material that gets to your mailbox, it’s not uncommon for an entire morning

Outsourcing Emails and Handling Responses

2008-06-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

If you’ve gotten this far through the text, you’ve read a plethora of information about effectively outsourcing your company’s email services through companies that will help you with servers, virus protection, and overall technical know-how. At the end of the day, however, this approach does not affect the amount of email you and your company will receive. In businesses where email is a main

Managing Staffing Issues

2008-06-08T11:52:00.000-07:00

If your organization is anything less than gargantuan, having an in-house email connectivity department can be impossible. You might not have enough volume to warrant a full department of specialists to keep at your beck and call. What often happens, then, is that organizations rely on a single individual to keep systems up and running. Consider, for example, how often you depend upon the storied

Lists and Backups

2008-06-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

Build Better Black/White Lists If, like many companies, you struggle with an onslaught of unwelcome email on a day-to-day basis, you know that it is important to filter out unwanted messages before they even make it to your inbox. For many companies, this can go above and beyond the filtering of spam (a services also offered by most email outsourcing companies). Instead (or additionally), you

Why Stop Now? Going One Step Beyond

2008-06-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

Additional Services and Considerations Outsourcing your company’s email represents a fairly major change in the way of managing day-to-day business. In addition to the upsides to outsourced email listed above, you’ll also want to consider how the following possibilities might add to or enhance your business. Newsletters and Updates If your company regularly provides customers or associates

Its All About Support

2008-06-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

In the end, what differentiates a good company from a bad company is the customer service and the level of customer support you receive. A great outsourced email system isn’t worth a dime if you receive no support and have to navigate through errors and problems on your own. You might as well have kept the email server in-house if that’s the case. However, a good outsourced email company will

Your Step-By-Step Transfer Guy

2008-06-04T11:48:00.000-07:00

With everything situated and prepared for the big move, it is only natural to want to know or have some sort of game plan to get through the transfer. Every company has their own unique methods of transferring data and keeping things organized, but the following should suffice as a general outline of what to expect: 1. All data is transferred from

Moving Old Emails

2008-06-03T11:46:00.000-07:00

This process can be either extremely easy or extremely difficult, depending on what your old mail server was like. If it is a fairly standard server, then the outsource company can use automated software to transfer old email messages and configurations to the new server. However, if your old email server was extremely outdated or contained something out of the ordinary, a more manual approach

Route Filtering

2008-06-02T11:46:00.000-07:00

This method of outsourcing is not quite as comprehensive as the previous one. All the external company does in this case is filter your email before routing it to your server. You will still need to have an in-house mail server for this system to work. However, this method eliminates the need to install virus protection, spam filters and content filters. This takes some of the burden off your

Managed Infrastructure

2008-06-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

This option basically involves the outsourcing of your email in its entirety. The outsourcing company will manage every aspect of your email services including security, spam protection and backup systems. The company takes care of everything that an in-house administrator would have done. You should be able to feel at ease knowing that this company is taking care of all of your email

Moving Day

2008-05-31T11:43:00.000-07:00

Okay. The time has come to move your current email system over to the outsourced company and you don’t know where to begin. Luckily for you, these companies typically take care of all of the transferring and you won’t have to lift a digital finger. This doesn’t mean you should be clueless about the process. That’s why this section is devoted to showing you just how the company you’ve chosen

Cutting the Necessary Corners

2008-05-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

If you’re preparing to make a switch in your email system based on the above information, chances are good that one of your main goals is to cut down on overall operating costs. You’re looking to outsource your email in order to find a more cost-effective way of doing business. What often happens, however, is that businesses enact a cost-cutting measure—and then fail to follow through with the

Set Up a Temporary Service

2008-05-29T11:39:00.000-07:00

Before you venture into transferring all of your email accounts over to an external service, you should set up backup accounts in the meantime. While this is not a necessary step, it can be useful in case there is any sort of delay between setup and full use. For instance, if you find that you’ll be transferring your email networks over the course of a week, you will need a backup account or

Back Up Everything

2008-05-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

Whenever you’re using anything involving computers, it is always a good idea to back up important files. Whether you use an external hard drive, Zip disks or any of the other radically changing and expanding backup media available today, it is absolutely vital to make backup copies of all important emails, attachments and even your mailbox. In some cases, you will not be able to transfer your

Preparing for the Move

2008-05-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

Before you even consider moving your email network over to an outside company, be sure that you have everything within your office in order. Here are some tips to make the move smooth and easy and to ensure nothing goes terribly wrong after the fact: Brief Your Employees It is never a good idea to surprise your employees with anything. That’s why it is so vital to communicate to your employees

Once You've Decided to Outsource

2008-05-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

It may not seem simple or feel right to outsource right away. That’s okay. It’s normal to feel out of place with something new and different, particularly when it comes to something that can affect the productivity and bottom line of your business. But keep in mind that outsourcing really is the new paradigm in business processes, which is why beginning with email can help so much. The shift of

Top Outsourcing Companies

2008-05-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

If you’re serious about transferring from an in-house server or email system to an outsourced one, you should definitely check out the following companies. They are a great place to start looking for the right contractor for your business. Mail2World - mail2world.net This company serves some very large businesses, including ICQ and iVillage.com. You can view their services as well as detailed

Look for the Lock

2008-05-24T10:49:00.000-07:00

Security You know that little padlock that appears somewhere on your browser when the website you’re visiting has become encrypted? You should see this symbol whenever you are asked to input personal information. If you do not see this symbol when doing so, do not submit a single thing. Your personal and corporate security are worth much more than taking a risk on a company that failed to

More Tips for Spotting a Good Website

2008-05-23T10:48:00.000-07:00

Consumer Information. This can be anything from notes from satisfied customers, to reviews or even a standing with the BBB. Generally, you just need to see some reassurance from others like you that this company is, in fact, authentic. If you can’t find anything like this on their site, feel free to search the Web for any information on the company itself, the owners or even those who have used

Tips for Spotting a Good Company Website

2008-05-22T10:44:00.000-07:00

The appearance of a company’s website can provide a good idea of whether or not they are worth your time and money. However, don’t get caught up in fancy graphics or elegant designs. While these are signs of professionalism, they are not always the signs of a truly successful company. If you’re looking for a way to spot a decent and up-front company through their website, look for the following:

The Latest and Greatest

2008-05-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

The Newest Software Any company you deal with should boast the newest, cutting edge software. Whether it is security, messaging, or other software aspects of email management, do a little research to be sure that the outsourcing company is not cutting corners, particularly in the realm of software that will keep your email data safe. Going one step beyond, is the company flexible when it comes

Bandwidth and Storage Space

2008-05-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

High Bandwidth As stated before, bandwidth is much like a pipe through which information flows. The smaller the pipe, the less information can flow in a given period of time. Much of the time, in-house servers do not have a wide bandwidth and are forced to dramatically limit the size of files that can be sent or received as attachments. While this may be reasonable for some offices that only

Response Time and Constant Support

2008-05-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

Fast Response Time Outsourcing would be worth nothing to you if you have to wait a week to hear back from the company on how to fix a small problem that your old IT department could have fixed in an afternoon. Nor is it acceptable to have to badger your provider until they do something about it. A company that is worth your money is one that will take your problems and questions seriously and

Support, Access and Features

2008-05-17T10:39:00.000-07:00

Comprehensive Support With any service you buy, you should be able to expect a high level of customer support. The same goes for an outsource email company. You should be able to expect customer support for every facet of your email operations. This should include continuous availability and a willingness to assist with many different situations, even if it’s just explaining how something works.

Uptime and Access

2008-05-16T10:38:00.000-07:00

Consistent Uptime On the topic of SLAs, uptime is an essential element of a good service provider. Guarantees may seem cheap or unrealistic at times, but they really do matter when it comes to choosing an outsource company. You will need to find a company that has consistent uptime and guarantees that they do. Anything less than that is unacceptable and insufficient for a business such as yours

The Biggest and Best Hosting Services

2008-05-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

What Defines a Good Outsourcing Company? In order to take care of a large company’s email needs, the outsourcing company you select needs to be at the top of its game, with large servers and comprehensive customer support in order to really take the lead in this market. A company you select should have/include: A General Level of Competence This may seem obvious, but the fact is, many

Where to Look for a Hosting Service

2008-05-14T10:35:00.000-07:00

You can find a hosting and email service provider just about anywhere. However, quite fittingly, the best place to look is online. It all really depends on the level of service your company will need. For instance, you can usually purchase email hosting for a business at a bulk rate with a maximum number of users (your employees). If you run a smaller business, however—those with fewer than 100

Transitioning to Outsourcing

2008-05-13T10:34:00.000-07:00

So now that you’re thoroughly convinced you need to outsource your email for the financial benefit and overall security of your company, it’s time to select a business that can handle your specific communications needs without making you spend more resources than you would on an in-house system. One way that some outsourcing companies keep their costs down is by locating themselves outside of

Domain Names and Privacy Issues

2008-05-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

I Want to Keep My Domain Name One reason that is often given for avoiding any changes to outsourced email is that companies want to keep email addresses along the lines of firstnamelastname@yourcompany.com. Having email addresses that use your own company name as the domain name is smart. It means that email addresses at your organization will be easily recognizable and memorable. When you

A Loss of Hands-On Control

2008-05-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

With the migration of your email systems to an outside provider, the feeling of control you might have had with an in-house system will vanish. While you will still be in control to a certain degree, the processes will be physically moved—in some cases to providers in foreign countries. To put it another way, no company is an island. There is often a temptation to keep as much work as

Common Fears

2008-05-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

No matter how nimble you consider your company to be, chances are quite good that your organization fears massive change as much as the next. It’s always hard to implement a new system or method of organization. In this section, you will find a listing of some of the fear and apprehension-related issues that can keep businesses from making the email change. The Potential for Unforeseen Costs

Another Look at Analyzing Your Needs

2008-05-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

By reading this far in this book, you have certainly learned a great deal of information about the process of outsourcing your company’s email. You’ve learned to consider the specific needs of your company and have probably made note of some important services you’ll want to consider using from a freelancer or outside agency. It is likely that this process has gotten you thinking about your

Professional Expertise, Fixed Costs and Technology

2008-05-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

Increased Professional Expertise Outsourcing will give your company access to a large, dedicated technology staff that has experience in email and messaging management. This kind of access is prohibitively expensive and certainly inefficient in the case of in-house email, but when contracting out to a dedicated service provider, your money will pool with other companies' to allow access to a

Reliability, Technology and Reduced Management

2008-05-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

Reliability Issues Have you noticed any particular lack of reliability in relation to your email servers? If you haven't, it's probably only because you haven't had the experience of truly reliable email infrastructure. Even if this doesn't apply to you, and you have a remarkably streamlined and effective system, as with all technology, it can fail. And when it does, you will be saddled with the

Clarifying the Factors you should Consider

2008-05-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

Here is a brief discussion of a number of elements of an informed decision on email outsourcing. These are not all of the elements you should consider, but it's an excellent place to start, and will place you in a much better position when it comes time to make the final determination on the necessity or cost effectiveness of outsourcing. Efficient Human Resource Deployment How many IT staff do

Expenditure, Advantages and Disadvantages

2008-05-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

Despite the prior discussions in this book as to the cost of email handling in-house, many companies are simply not aware of the total expenditures on email and messaging. When determining whether to outsource your email, all advantages and disadvantages of the move should be considered, not only the cost and savings. There are factors involved in email outsourcing that are completely unrelated

Essential Elements of Email Outsourcing

2008-05-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

In the case of email, however—a service you do need all the time—is it the right choice to outsource? It is such an essential business component that it may seem counterintuitive at first, but in the end, the cost/benefit analysis may very well indicate that it is an expendable in-house process, and that outsourcing will ultimately prove beneficial. Traditionally, companies have been reluctant

Cutting Expenses and Downsizing

2008-05-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

This is when outsourcing can serve a small- to medium-sized company well. With a simple contract and simple expectations, small and medium-sized companies can reap the same benefits of experience and expertise as the highest-paying multinational corporations. Companies most often consider outsourcing when they want to cut expenses and perhaps even downsize, though these aren't the only

When to think about Outsourcing

2008-05-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

The pace of modern business is relentlessly fast. Many companies are struggling to keep up, and those that can't are falling into insolvency and ruin. The companies that have managed to keep up with this speed of innovation have done so by constantly adapting to the changing character of 21st century business. It's fast, it's aggressive, and it's often ruthless, but one thing it is over

Back-Up

2008-04-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

Whether emails are resident on a central server (such as in an IMAP configuration) or resident on individual PCs, a computer crash can mean the destruction of important information and a possible loss of revenue. Backing up email content is a necessary function of managing email, and yet human flaws can still pose a threat to the security of your media. Even if you have a staff that is reliable

Bandwidth

2008-04-29T10:16:00.000-07:00

Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be "fit" through the data pipeline that is your network and its connection to the larger Internet. Bandwidth costs money. Most service providers allow a certain amount of bandwidth usage per month, followed by fees for additional usage. Depending on your traffic, a given month could prove particularly expensive just because you were using an essential

Expertise

2008-04-28T10:15:00.000-07:00

In-house system administrators are an essential element of Internet technology and email management, but is your system administrator the best at what he or she does? One should ask the question—are you even able to afford the salary for a top-notch technical wizard? The likelihood is that you and your business cannot. Your system administrators may be technically competent. They may even be

Downtime

2008-04-27T10:14:00.000-07:00

This is a major issue, particularly in regard to the subtle perceptions of customers. It creates a bad public image when email is bounced back from a down server, or lost all together. Servers that are operated in-house are more than ten times more likely to experience prolonged downtime than those operated by dedicated email outsourcing companies. This mainly has to do with a lack of dedicated

Security and Protection

2008-04-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

Viruses, trojans, and worms are often injected into unsuspecting (and unprepared) systems through spam emails. The cost of licensing and operating effective spam filters and virus protection can be a drain on your company's finances. Even if you do decide to use desktop virus protection, which can be cheaper, current updates and downloads are essential to the effectiveness of the filters. It only

System Management

2008-04-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

In-house email systems require a lot of high-tech staff hours. The investment in system administrators and IT experts required to manage the workings of an email system can be a large financial burden. Outsourcing firms dedicated to email management can manage thousands of users simultaneously. They have dedicated staff to deal with any problems that may arise (and they often will arise at the

Increasing Productivity

2008-04-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

Buying and maintaining your own computers and network systems to house an email client and network can still be preferable in some situations, particularly if there is an absolute necessity for hands-on administration, but outsourcing to a firm that specializes in email hosting will very likely increase productivity and reduce the bottom line. Consider this argument: when the assembly line

Even More Reasons to Outsource

2008-04-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

Outsourcing can be applied to nearly any facet of your business, and while it won’t work with every aspect of your company, it can be an excellent way to save money and simplify your company’s operations. Outsourcing can also help you save money by avoiding serious expenses such as copiers, fax machines and, through labor contracting, even paying for employee benefits. And with the price of

Administrating and Network Troubleshooting

2008-04-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

The first of these is what most call a Local Area Network Administrator. This is a technology professional dedicated to operating the in-house network and troubleshooting the day-to-day computer issues that arise from the cubicle to the board room. A significant percentage of this person's time will be spent dealing with email-related issues. Directory administration is a clerical,

Secondary Costs

2008-04-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

The obvious costs of in-house email systems are extensive, but the hidden or indirect costs can prove too much to result in a positive cost/benefit relationship between productivity and in-house email. Other costs can present themselves in a more indirect way, adding to the cost of not only in-house messaging, but the fixed costs of in-house IT, whether you choose to outsource your messaging

Software Costs, Training and Troubleshooting

2008-04-20T10:07:00.000-07:00

User licenses aren't the only software cost. Antivirus software is absolutely essential for security if you choose to operate your own email servers. Not only will this software have to be deployed on the server, it will also have to be installed on every computer that uses that server. Each of these will require a license as well, and that means more per-user fees. More major costs can be

Hardware Expenses

2008-04-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

The core of the cost of operating one's own email system is hardware. Many more machines are required to run such things as gateways, directory servers, calendar sync servers, or other applications shared between employees. As your company grows, you may need to acquire more servers to act as message switches, or systems which can network multiple email servers. As your business grows still

Necessary Computer Costs

2008-04-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Many of these costs will be incurred whether you choose to outsource your email or not. Your employees will always need their desktop computers, printers, and Internet connectivity. Each computer will require an operating system, as well as the systems running on file servers and other machines on the network. Together, these comprise the cost of running technology in a business as it

How Outsourcing Saves Money

2008-04-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

It shouldn't be difficult to see that outsourcing can give a major boost to your company's productivity and free up time for your staff, but this is just one of the many ways that email outsourcing can save you money. In this section, we will discuss the various costs and cost reductions associated with email outsourcing. The Obvious Costs The most obvious costs associated with maintaining

Back-Ups and Protection

2008-04-16T10:41:00.001-07:00

Complete Backups A company that offers anything less than complete backup and logs is not worth your time or money. What good is an outsourced mail system if you’re at risk for losing saved emails, important address books and other important files at every turn? It is simply not worth the stress and risk. That’s why an outsource company that guarantees backups and logs for your system is

A Streamlined System is Always Better

2008-04-16T10:29:00.001-07:00

Simply put, the more excess you can remove from your email systems, the better off you are likely to be. Are there too many email addresses cluttering up your company directory? Are general addresses like “info@yourcompany.com” being forwarded to the correct recipients, or are they getting lost in the shuffle? A full overhaul of your email system makes for a great opportunity to reorganize your

Security Concerns of Email

2008-04-16T10:03:00.001-07:00

Another consideration when enumerating the benefits of email outsourcing is security. Some surveys indicate that businesses devote up to 20% of their annual budgets to IT security concerns, including spam, viruses, and other breaches of security. Even with this high number, most businesses which handle their own email are ill-equipped to create an effective security plan that is still efficient.

What Email Outsourcing Does for a Company

2008-04-15T10:02:00.000-07:00

The maintenance and management of a company's email servers has become a major expense and an endeavor with major consequences and costs of failure. Something that most employees take for granted, or consider to be as simple as a telephone, is actually a major cost and potential headache. After all, email is like a telephone, but imagine moving the entire telephone company into your company's

Benefits of Outsourcing Email

2008-04-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

Email is the undisputed lifeblood of business today. Everyone in a 21st century business interfaces with email in some way during the course of a business day. Email is used for every element of the business cycle, from production to management, and everyone who uses it expects availability and reliability. To most, email seems like the most simple kind of computer system. Click "send" and magic

Deciding if Outsourcing is the Right Choice

2008-04-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

Let's begin with a few basic questions that will be answered throughout this chapter. First, will outsourcing provide your business with greater efficiency? Will the elimination of the email maintenance workload free up employees to do more valuable and productive things?Second, will an outsourcing firm provide your business with enough security? Ideally, outsourcing should be a means by

Deciding to Outsource

2008-04-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

According to current statistics, on an average working day in the United States, more than 2.8 billion emails are sent by more than 130 million workers. If we look at the question globally, there are more than 30 billion emails sent in an average 24-hour period. These numbers are rising at a steady rate of roughly 16% per year, and show no signs of slowing or leveling off. With these numbers

The Body of the Email

2008-04-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

The Body The body of an email contains raw text. This text, even when formatted, is actually just raw ASCII text until it is received by a client and any specific formatting in HTML is translated and applied. There are certain advantages to using HTML formatting in an email. The first is that many users feel the aesthetics of a fully formatted email are more appealing. Additionally, metadata

The Format of an Email

2008-04-10T09:51:00.000-07:00

Email messages contain several parts. What follows is a discussion of these components. The Header This field contains a great deal of information about the sender of an email, the intended destination, and the intended recipient. The header field contains sub-headers that can include summaries, sender, receiver, various IP addresses and server names. Emails can often be traced by using the

A Brief Example of How it Works

2008-04-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

Email is not a difficult mechanism to understand. Any business owner writes numerous emails in an average day. The SEND button is clicked and the email arrives at its destination. What follows is a brief discussion of what happens in the nearly instantaneous electronic time between. Imagine composing an email and clicking send. After this, the program being used to compose the email reformats

How Email Really Works

2008-04-08T09:47:00.000-07:00

The History of Email Email is a system that was actually in existence before the "Internet" as we know it today. According to some sources that discuss the construction of the modern Internet, email was actually useful, if not essential, in the development and creation of the Internet. The first multi-user network was developed in 1961 by MIT and was called the "Compatible Time Sharing System

Trojans and Filters

2008-04-07T09:46:00.000-07:00

Trojan A trojan, or "trojan horse" is not really a virus, but it does behave like one. A trojan is a malicious piece of software that is introduced to the computer by an action of the user. It arrives as an email attachment or as part of a program, and under the guise of performing an actual function or doing something else, is introduced to the system by being installed by a user on that system

Spam and Security

2008-04-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

Spam Spam is electronic junk mail which is sent to numerous recipients in the hope that one might respond. As apposed to UCE, or "unsolicited commercial email," Spam is often illicit in nature, and has come to be a major commercial and legal issue in the world of Internet commerce today. Most email providers offer some form of spam-blocking with varying degrees of effectiveness. Antivirus

Black List, White List and Grey Listing

2008-04-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

Black List Blacklisting is a means of controlling access to a service or system, or a means of restricting those on the "blacklist" from contacting those on a particular email system. Blacklists can relate to individuals, or in the case of firewalls and access control systems, they can relate to websites or entire domains. White List A white list is the opposite of a blacklist. It is a means

Exim, Blackberry and Web Mail

2008-04-04T09:05:00.000-07:00

Exim Exim is a mail transfer agent that is license-free, and that is known for high degrees of flexibility and extensive configurability. The first version of Exim was written in 1995 and follows the design model set forth by earlier versions of Sendmail. Since the version 4 release, no security issues have been found with the Exim system. Blackberry This is the ubiquitous business sidekick

MS Exchange, Qmail and Sendmail

2008-04-03T09:02:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Exchange ServerMicrosoft Exchange Server is an email management server widely used by companies that also employ Microsoft's Enterprise Solutions. The software supports electronic mail, calendar synchronization and management, contact management and task management. It supports mobile access to this information, as well as web-based access.QmailQmail is an MTA that runs on the UNIX

MTA

2008-04-02T09:01:00.000-07:00

This is an application sometimes known as "mail transfer agent" or "mail transport agent", which can be thought of as a busy postal worker. It receives email and forwards it to outbound mail for delivery, and also manages incoming messages. Some of the more popular mail server programs—software running on a dedicated email server—are Qmail, Exim, Sendmail, and Microsoft Exchange Server.

IMAP

2008-04-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

Internet Message Access Protocol is a protocol for accessing email from a local server. It works in much the same way as POP3, but allows users to see information about the email (such as subject and sender) without downloading the mail to the local client. IMAP also allows users to create and manipulate folders on the server itself, which is useful for further customization of mail-handling

POP3

2008-03-31T08:59:00.000-07:00

The Post Office Protocol version 3, or POP3, is the newest iteration of a protocol—or set of software rules—that allows a user to receive email from the Internet. The basic functionality is such that a server receives and holds an email message that waits for a client computer to connect and download the message to a mail-reading application. This protocol is implemented in all of the most

SMTP

2008-03-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

SMTP stands for "simple mail transfer protocol" and is the standard for sending emails through the Internet. SMTP is a relatively simple piece of text-based code in which recipients of an email are specified. That email is sent from a client computer to a server, and then sent on to the recipient. An SMTP client can be found in either the server or the receiving system.According to Wikipedia's

Email Terminology

2008-03-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

EmailThe Business Encyclopedia states that email is "a method of communicating whereby an individual uses a computer or other electronic device to compose and send a message to another individual." These messages are often sent through computer systems that are linked through networks, from one system to another, using a modem and connected telephone lines, and often through a wireless

The Revolution of Email

2008-03-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

The essential nature of electronic mail cannot possibly be overstated. It has proven to be an absolute revolution in the paradigm of business communication, and as such, it deserves special attention when determining whether it qualifies as a business process that can be outsourced. To appreciate email and fully understand the discussion of email outsourcing in this book, what follows is a small

Benefits and Headaches of Outsourcing

2008-03-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

With all of this complexity, a business must not make assumptions about an outsourcing contract. While outsourcing can save a great deal of money, it can also create headaches if the process is mismanaged or if a reliable and trustworthy company wasn't employed from the start. Businesses often tend to underestimate the potential costs of outsourcing, as well as the potential problems that can

Outsourcing Made Simple

2008-03-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

The term "outsourcing" is derived from "business process outsourcing", which has become increasingly popular (if controversial) in the last ten years. It is similar to contracting, though it is generally more complex and involves a separate business entity that is contracted to perform a particular business process rather than a single project. This business process is usually undertaken at a

Outsourcing and Contracting

2008-03-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

An increasingly popular model for businesses is outsourcing and contracting. These methods of production and productivity have definite benefits, and before moving into a discussion of the specifics of a particular kind of outsourcing (the outsourcing of corporate email), a more general discussion of the cost savings of outsourcing and contracting may prove to be helpful in your eventual decision

Don't Forget to Budget!

2008-03-23T08:50:00.000-07:00

A budget shouldn't just be a suggested spending plan—it should be a viable road map for the company's fiscal future. It may seem like a simple and obvious step, but it's surprising how many businesses fail to write and maintain a budget each year. A budget can give a company a sense of what can be spent and in what ways. This will help to gauge in which areas risks can be taken, and which areas

Paperless Efficiency

2008-03-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

Going paperless is part of a "green" office, but can have an even greater impact on efficiency. By eliminating paper from the office, supply costs and storage space can be significantly reduced. Instead of file folders and cabinets, electronic backups in multiple forms can eliminate the need for storage and decrease the amount of time it takes to retrieve archived documents. No more wading

Going Paperless- Going Green

2008-03-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

Become an environmentally-friendly business. It’s one of the easiest and most beneficial ways to cut costs, particularly as it will boost the company image while saving money at the same time. Essentially, the goal is to try to eliminate waste from the office space. Print documents only when it’s necessary. Use recycled printer cartridges. Even better, use refill kits to make the most of your

Cutting Service Costs

2008-03-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

Another common area in which business seek to cut costs are services. Your business may not need a lawyer year-round, but without a legal professional on retainer, a lawsuit or other litigation will suddenly present a much more damaging cost. Maintaining services, even though they might not seem essential, is a calculation that all businesses must make as they seek to streamline and increase

Reducing Overhead

2008-03-19T08:46:00.000-07:00

When it comes to cutting corporate expenses, one of the first places the savvy budget analyst will look is the infrastructure of the company. Is there anything that can be cut from the program? Are there any positions that are unnecessary? Essentially, the analysts come in and make sure the business is running at its full capacity and is using as few resources as possible. In business, efficiency

Equipment Operating Costs

2008-03-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

Equipment costs are those expenses which must be incurred simply by the operating of the company. Without the operating equipment, the company would cease to function and cease to be profitable in any way. Examples of such operating costs are not limited to manufacturing. Equipment may refer to any mechanism of the running of a business. Salaries or WagesAdvertising and

Business Operating Costs

2008-03-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

Commercial enterprises can be said to generally have two separate divisions of overhead cost. These are fixed and variable costs. The difference between these types of costs is essential to understanding what can and what cannot be reduced in the event that a company seeks to aggressively cut overhead. Fixed Cost Fixed costs are expenses that will exist independent of production or productivity

The Cost of Doing Business

2008-03-16T08:42:00.000-07:00

An Introduction to Overhead and Ways to Reduce it Overhead (also known as business process overhead or simply as operating cost) is the recurring expense which is related to the operation of a business. This comes in several forms, each instance of which can be reduced or even eliminated, but always at a cost to the production or services provided by the company. The manipulation of the overhead

Elements of a Corporation

2008-03-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

Some elements of a company's operation are essential and intractable. Electricity for production, fuel for transportation, office or manufacturing space—while each of these costs are elastic and can be negotiated or manipulated, they will remain costs at some level for the life of the business. Communication is another such cost. Telephones, internet connectivity, and electronic mail are

Introduction to Outsourcing Your Corporate Email

2008-03-14T08:38:00.000-07:00

Business Management 101: The management and operation of a large company is not a trivial task. The maintenance of the daily operations of such a company can result in huge overhead that cuts into profits. A cut in profits results in a lack of growth, stagnation, and eventual failure of a corporate entity. As foreign competitors in India and China gear up for business in the 21st century,