I fondly remember a few years ago when Application Service Providers (ASP) were all the rage and when on a regular bases I and other media were touting various hosted application solutions.
These ASP’s and their solutions are now quite common place, so not even mentioned as a phenomenon any more.
ASPs such as Netledger, Salesforce.com and many other lesser known companies are still around - providing a range of “out sourced” services to their customers.
Most businesses have some form of email. Be it, a shared AOL account (aghhhhh), some email boxes provided by their internet service provider, or your own full scale email server.
The problem with email is managing it. The more users you have, the more features you want and the more complex your set up, the harder things can be.
Microsoft’s Exchanger server, a very popular email system is used by many businesses. Of course IBM’s Lotus Notes, and Novel’s Group Wise are also widely used, not to mention many lesser used solutions.
Microsoft Exchange offers a wide range of collaboration features, including shared calendaring and integration with the Microsoft Office suite of products. It can be difficult to set up even a simple email server, but managing a Microsoft Exchange solution can be a real pain for those not experienced with a MS Exchange server. Installation is only 1/2 of the battle, the other part is managing the server once installed.
This is where a hosted service solution might come into play. Companies, such as Exchange My Mail, Inc provide managed Exchange servers, accessed via the Internet for your business.
You can have the same advanced MS Exchange functionality as larger businesses with dedicated email administrators, but let an email hosting company such as Exchange My Mail, Inc do all the work.
For one monthly fee per user, you can quickly provide powerful email features to each of your employees.
I know people who have a Hotmail, Yahoo or some other email address to use when they are “away from the office”, as their company has not provided them with a way to access their email remotely.
With a hosted solution, the maintenance headaches become those of the ISP as does the hardware/software investment.
Companies can rely on POP3 mailboxes instead of MS Exchange, however, they lose the rich collaborative tools available in Exchange. (article on the differences between POP and IMAP)
If you do not want the hassle of managing an email server but wantt the professional features of a full fledged email hosting service, considering the services of a hosted email solution might be wise.
There comes a point of course where you have to decide if its economically viable to use a hosting service or manage your own technology infrastructure.
Whichever decision you make, ensure you always consult with a reliable, objective and experienced technology consultant who knows your business.
If you consider using an email (or other) hosting service provider here’s a few things to consider:
- when you call during business hours, do you get a real person?
test each vendor before you buy !
- how long have they been in business
- are they a young start up or established business
-what back up and restoration systems do they have in place
-how good is their security
-if you need to transfer your data to another server how can it be done and how much does it cost
-what level of service quality do they provide
-have you checked out independent customer references
Goodlink Hosting
