Announcing the latest CSG publication, “Mitigating Risk and Finding Opportunity in Software as a Service E-mail for Small and Medium Businesses.” You can download the white paper here or go to our Research page.
Software as a Service (SaaS) e-mail offerings provide some operational productivity benefits at lower prices, although it is not a silver bullet, and should not be considered a compromise to existing solutions. SaaS e-mail service bundles can provide capabilities not previously available with existing e-mail solutions especially with operational aspects of managing an e-mail infrastructure. Although total cost of ownership (TCO) is a leading driver for choosing SaaS e-mail, customers should approach SaaS e-mail options based on how the solution will improve the e-mail experience and increase user and operational productivity as well as mitigate risks.
Why do most people think that it’s an OR scenario and not AND? It’s either you go for hosted or in house email hosting?
For me, I agree that SaaS e-mail hosting is not the be all and end all solution for everybody, but the lower prices and the benefits would be a compelling reason to switch.
I completely agree with you. It’s not an either/or situation but somehow that’s the prevailing question, “should I stay or should I go?” There are lots of reasons for SMBs to pick a single delivery model, hosted or not hosted, just to reduce complexity. Which I understand. For enterprises, complexity is an issue but there’s more tolerance.
Your comments on the benefits are true. Personally I think the jury is out on lower prices as a wholesale benefit. Cost depends on so much more than mailbox services. Still a firm can be very creative with adopting a hybrid on-site and SaaS delivery model. Not only can a firm get creative about costs by segmenting users based on roles or segmenting services, but SaaS can help with piloting, extranets, mergers & acquisitions, and on-boarding new tools.
There’s still plenty of ground yet to be covered. If the hybrid model is what most enterprises and SMBs are eventually going to end up doing, then the providers need to have better ways of allowing customers to move from one delivery model to another. Cause you know that’s what they will want to do! On the customer side, it’s about preparedness. Many organizations are not “IT ready” to go hybrid, let alone move entirely to the cloud. Network, directory, compliance policies, desktop (e.g., browsers), and risk all play into a move to or adoption of cloud services, especially for e-mail.