Should You Outsource Your Email?

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According to a recent study by Symantec and Gartner, most companies consider email to be a mission critical application. In addition, the study stated, up to 75% of a company's intellectual property resides in email and other messaging applications. Likewise, 75% of fortune 500 litigation involves email related discovery, and at the time of the study, 79% of companies accepted email messages as confirmation of transactions.

As critical as email is to most companies though, it is important to remember that a company's mail servers are a part of the company's infrastructure, and are not usually directly related to the products or services that the company offers to its customers.

To be successful, it is important for a company to focus as many of its resources as possible on the business itself, and its core competencies. In any business, a portion of the company's financial and human resources are invested in establishing and maintaining the company's underlying infrastructure (such as email, telephone, electricity, etc.). In most cases, this infrastructure is necessary for doing business, but does not directly produce revenue. In essence, the infrastructure is a necessary expense.

The bottom line is that if a company can minimize the costs of doing business and maximize the focus of its resources on its core competency, then the company will be more profitable and successful. As such, it makes sense to examine infrastructure related expenses, and see if they can be reduced through outsourcing. Often times, an outsourcing company can provide a better service than what can be provided in house, but at a lower cost, and with less complexity. This not only reduces costs, but it also frees up staff to focus on the company's business objectives.

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