From an economic or return on investment lawyer data point of view, the first thing we must ask ourselves is what is the current cost of our email? It is interesting to investigate this topic; the first analysis that is carried out is to calculate the cost of our current servers (hardware and licenses) and divide by the number of mailboxes.
A more realistic analysis would include the costs of personnel for system maintenance, storage and backup, antispam, antivirus and financing of the acquisition. If we want to get the real number, we will have to go further by adding other items, such as the cost of electricity or the CPD. In fact, the most realistic calculation should be made for the period of years in which we expect to amortize our system. Logically, the initial cost of start-up (infrastructure, licenses) is not the same as maintenance in the following years (personnel, backup, maintenance of hardware and software, including annoying updates). In my humble opinion, calculating our cost per email box per month (for a given amortization period) is an exercise that every Systems Director should do.
You may also be interested in: Esker in the International Year of Biodiversity: raising awareness and getting down to work
If we take into account the user experience of email, for any employee in our organization, the most important aspects are ease of use and availability. How many times have we not asked ourselves how it is possible that our personal (free) email is easier to use than our company's and is also always available when I need it? It is clear that comparing personal email with company email is not the best comparison, but in the end the user experience is vital and we must necessarily meet these expectations in something as basic (but absolutely necessary) as email.
