Final Words

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 today.

If someday you do opt to incorporate outsourcing, let this ebook be your guide through the process. While the email service provider you choose should ultimately help you with the transition, you are at a much greater advantage if you go into the process with knowledge of your own. Knowing what specific services and functions you need ahead of time can save you a lot of grief later in the process. Knowledge isn't just power—it's also the ability to increase efficiency and effectiveness in your business environment.

When dealing with outsourcing companies and the changes that are coming for your organization, always remember first and foremost that the goal of this endeavor is to improve your company and make things easier in the long run. If anything seems to be working against you rather than for you, remember that you are free to change course. Don't let the momentum of a situation keep you on a path that is anything less than the best path for your company.

In the world of 21^st-century business, the specialization and division of business processes has the potential to streamline even the most difficult and stubborn element of technology. Be informed, be wise, and proceed down this new course, into this new paradigm with knowledge and forethought. If you do, the rewards are great, and the potential is unlimited.

Finding the Right Help for Email Processing

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 decisions about what stays and what goes—or, at the very least, what gets immediately deleted and what gets passed on to you.

It makes sense, then, to take the necessary time to find the right individual or organization to help you with email processing. There are a number of ways to approach the problem—and the right solution is going to be different for every company or organization. The most important thing is that you choose something that makes you and your employees feel comfortable and that the solution matches your needs in terms of size and scope. For personal email pre-filtering, for example, you might find it easy (and economical) to hire a single freelancer who can work specifically with you to set up ground rules and criteria for the perusal of email. For a larger operation, you might want to choose a company or organization that has the manpower and resources necessary to screen emails on a larger scale.

Whatever solution you choose, be sure that you are clear about your expectations and needs right from the start. Remember that you’re handing over a vital part of your business’ line of communication, so it’s important that your method for screening out unnecessary emails has to match your company’s level of maturity and professionalism. Additionally, it can be important to consider to what extent an outside email processor should be allowed to participate in operations. It might be possible for this person to actually answer some of your emails (especially if they are repetitive or form-oriented) or take it upon him or herself to forward messages to more appropriate recipients. The way you use additional email screening is up to you.

How Will Pre-Screened Email Increase Productivity

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 repeated information, or doing away with non-essentials to someone else—and reserve your valuable time for essential tasks only.

If you’re unsure about how this choice might affect your work life, take a few days to chart the purpose and utility of each email you receive. How many are unnecessary (meaning you wasted time simply in reading them)? How many contain basic information that could be compiled into a more-easily-read digest format? How many are restatements of information you already have? Chances are pretty good that no more than five or ten percent of the email you receive needs to be immediately read and taken action upon by you personally. The right email service could group these essential emails together for your immediate perusal.

Why Outsource the Handling of Email

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 to pass in which you feel like you completed no work: you simply spent all of your time answering email.

No matter how important some of the messages are, answering email can be a major drain on your time and can effectively take you way from other office activities and functions. Sifting through the long list of emails in your inbox can eat up hours—and attempting to stem the onrushing tide by handling emails the moment they “ding” into your mailbox can mean that you never have more than two or three minutes of uninterrupted time to devote to “real” work projects and problems.

Outsourcing Emails and Handling Responses

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 source of communication, the pile of untouched and unread messages can grow sky-high (meaning it’s a good thing we’re keeping such missals in electronic form if only to cut down on actual, physical stacks of correspondence). Outsourcing the technical handling of your email processes is a great way to make it easier to handle the overall function of your email—but the next step can be to actually outsource the handling of your email.

Managing Staffing Issues

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 “IT Guy.” While it’s definitely smart to have someone on your staff who is well versed in computers and networks, you might not want to have your entire email operation ensconced in the knowledge of just one individual. If you were for some reason to lose that individual suddenly, would someone else be able to step right in? Probably not. Most systems rely as much on anecdotal on-the-job knowledge as book-learning—meaning that single individual is incredibly important to keeping things up and running. In the case of a sophisticated email system, it might be wise to keep functions outsourced to an external organization where there are many specialists ready to step in and take over should the need arise.

Lists and Backups

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 can build a complete list of accepted and unaccepted addresses to keep unwanted messages from attacking your inbox. Again, the right company will work with you to determine your needs and set you up with the right service for your organization.

Backup Systems and Outage Protection

If your company relies heavily on email for communications both inside and outside your organization (as many currently do), even a short temporary outage or disruption in service can be devastating, resulting in lost business and productivity. When you have your email operations in-house, outages are your problem: if something goes out, it is your responsibility to find a way to deal with it. When your email is outsourced, however, you don’t have to worry about outages negatively affecting your business. An email outsourcing company will have access to its own backup servers—meaning that disruptions in service will be fewer and more far between. Consider this: if your in-house server goes down in flames, you might wait 24 hours or more to get a technician to your location and find the root of the problem. In the meantime, you’ll be effectively crippled, with employees unable to send or receive email messages (an important daily activity in many offices). With an outsourced email system, however, you should get full service backup. If a server goes down, a reputable email company will have a backup server ready to take its place. Disruptions in service are simply much less of an issue when you use an outsourced email company.

Why Stop Now? Going One Step Beyond

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 with newsletters or updates about things that are happening within your organization or news that is related to your company, it is possible for an email outsourcing company to take care of this for you. With a given format and standardized content, you can pass off the task of major communications to your email outsourcer. You’ll serve your company by getting a project off someone else’s plate—and likely increase service to customers and associates by sending out newsletters that are timely and well designed. The right email company should be able to discuss the needs of your organization with you—then offer a package of services that suits your needs.

Its All About Support

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 consider your needs and do whatever they can to correct problems or even just explain the instructions they’ve given you in greater detail.

One major way most outsource companies can help you is by the use of support tickets. Let’s say you come across an issue while using administrator functions of the email system. If you cannot correct the issue, you would open a support ticket and explain your problem, and a representative from the company would get back to you in a reasonable amount of time. If they are a company that’s worth their price, they’ll get back to you within a few hours at the very latest.

If the problem occurs down at the user level, they too are encouraged to open a support ticket. However, they will more than likely be notified by email once the problem has been solved. If the company finds that the issue reaches deeper than the user level, the system administrator, which may very well be you, will be notified.

Regardless of the difficulty of the problem you may encounter, take solace in the fact that your outsourcing company is there to help you through it. And if they don’t help you, then it’s time to find a new company. After all, you are paying money for their services. It is only right that the level of service you receive is above what you experienced with an in-house email system.

Your Step-By-Step Transfer Guy

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 the current server to the new server, if needed.

2. Mailboxes, usernames and passwords are created for all those wishing to have a unique user account. The number of mailboxes should match your subscription level with the outsource company.

3. Functionality of these mailboxes is tested via IP access.

4. Security is implemented to your specification.

5. Spam and content filters are placed and tested.

6. Specialized functions as well as routine procedures are implemented, such as a block list, a file-size limitation, back-up procedures and other functions.

7. Diagnostic tests are run to ensure the functions you’ve specified are in working order.

8. Once initiated, all current emails are redirected from your current server to the new server.

9. After a period of transfer time, all emails will go directly to the new server as the old server is taken down. This process can take up to two days to complete.

10. In ideal situations, all employees will be completely unaffected by the process taking place and functionality should not be compromised during the move.

11. You will be provided with administrator and user manuals to help you take control of the mail system. These manuals will help you change settings and such if and when you need to.

12. The company will help you sort through ways to contact them and how to best reach them for assistance.

13. Employees will be given detailed instructions on how to access their new mail accounts, though user actions usually do not require any change at all.

It sounds like a lot to digest, and it can be for those who are not acquainted with the more intricate workings of email. However, an outsource company takes care of practically everything for you. So as you look at this list of steps to take, don’t worry. All you would likely have to do is set up mailboxes for your employees. You can even let each employee set up his/her own. Not much is laid on your shoulders in this process and that’s the way it should be. After all, you are switching to an outsourced email system to try to increase your efficiency, right?

Moving Old Emails

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 may be necessary. But again, all of this will be taken care of by the outsource company.

Route Filtering

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 technicians and servers, but you will still need to have on-site support to handle email network issues and user issues. By keeping a certain amount of expertise in-house and outsourcing just those parts that bring you the most difficulty, you can save time and money and streamline your communications considerably.

Managed Infrastructure

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 infrastructure needs. They’ll store all of your email as it is received; it will be removed from the server when it is downloaded by the user. This helps to prevent those pesky “lost” emails and unfiltered spam getting into your office. Plus, it saves you a lot of money as you don’t have to use valuable resources for storing emails and having your own bandwidth. Everything is taken care of at the outsourcing company’s offices. Everything is stored on their servers. Your only encounter with the email functions would be when you add a new user to the network or send and receive email yourself. All security issues are taken care of on the outsourced server as well, so you don’t have to worry about updating individual software on each computer—though you should do that anyway—for email security purposes.

Moving Day

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 will not only transfer your data but will also set up new accounts for all of your employees, install protective software and keep you informed every step of the way.

However, it is important to divide this section into two parts. Below, we will describe the two major types of email outsourcing: managed infrastructure and route filtering. It is important for you to choose the method that best suits your needs and your company’s needs.

Cutting the Necessary Corners

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 actual cost cuts.

Now, then, is a good time to look at the structure of your organization and take a hard look at what will change once your email is outsourced. Consider, for example, changes you might want to make in human capital. Are any of your employees currently engaged in tasks that will be taken over by the new email company? If so, carrying out the changeover without adjusting your existing status quo is a recipe for failure (and overspending). Consider rewriting job descriptions, combining positions, or moving people to different departments where they can continue to offer great things to the company. Assure your employees that you’re seeking to find the right ways to use their talents—and that you don’t want anyone’s time to be wasted on tasks that no longer need to be done or monitored.

Another sector you will want to check for new overlap is in terms of equipment and hard resources. Do you have excess computer equipment that you will no longer be using? Think about what you might be able to sell—or what space might be cleared out for extra storage or office space.

Properly handled, the switch from in-house email to outsourced email can be a great cost-cutting measure. It is important, however, that you manage things properly to guarantee that you’re getting the most money out of the changes you are making.

Set Up a Temporary Service

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 service. During this time, you may be unable to access the old service hosted on your own networks or use the new one hosted on the external networks.

Again, this is not a required step for the transfer, but it can be beneficial if you do a majority of your communication through email and expect to have a considerable gap between service stop and start times. Just remember to go over all of the particulars with the company with whom you choose to outsource. A good company will want to know your needs and do their best to meet those needs.

Back Up Everything

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 mailbox over to the new server, so you will just need to keep that saved in a separate folder or file.

An accurate record of correspondence is vital to a successful business. It is especially important to have accurate dates on your saved emails. Once you save a backup of everything, do a quick comparison to make sure the dates are the same on both copies. This is very important, especially if important documents are sent via email to external locations. If your company should ever find itself facing litigation of some sort, it will be vital to have accurate timestamps on each and every email for documentation purposes.

Preparing for the Move

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 exactly what you’re planning to do. Break down why you think it is beneficial to transfer all email functions over to an external server and hosting service. Be sure to include information from any research you may have done. Show your employees how this move will improve the function of your business and save money. While you don’t have to do any of these things and you certainly don’t have to convince your employees of the benefits of the move, it is always a good idea to get full buy-in and support from your company. This will create a sense of community, should there be any difficulty in the transfer or any other bumps in the road.

Once You've Decided to Outsource

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 the email functions of an entire company can be quite a huge undertaking, making it necessary to bring in outside help for the journey and to prepare yourself.

The best place to start is the beginning, so let’s get going.

Top Outsourcing Companies

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 case studies on past clients.

LuxSci - luxsci.com

With great customer service and tech support, LuxSci sets itself apart from its competitors. You can purchase email outsourcing services and even Web hosting packages.

The Messaging Engine - messagingengine.com

With comprehensive email services and high levels of functionality, The Messaging Engine is a natural choice for outsourcing business email.

MiraPoint - mirapoint.com

They go beyond your email outsourcing needs and offer web mail and email migration. Regardless of your needs, this company is sure to offer something to meet them.

Connectria - connectria.com

Another natural choice for your business’s outsourcing needs, Connectria offers so many services that their company could be called comprehensive. They also boast the parent company of “American Idol,” FremantleMedia, among their high-caliber clients. The list also includes 3M, A.G. Edwards and The Wharton School.

These are just a few of the many outsourcing companies out there today. By engaging in your own search, you’ll be sure to find more information than you’ll know what to do with. But a large list is beneficial and allows you to be really thorough in screening and selecting the perfect company with the right skill set and level of commitment you deserve.

Just remember to employ the tips provided in this chapter to stay safe and maintain only the highest level of quality in every single aspect of your business.