Is your organisation…Would you even know..?
54% of organisations we’ve reviewed in the past 12 months have been paying for hosted email unnecessarily…
The worst case equaled $4,644 per annum of wasted money…!
If your organisation is using a hosted email service, then it pays to check what operating system is on your Server, A five minute check could save you $1000’s.
It seems a vast number of companies that have Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS 2003, 2008 or 2011 standard) aren’t using Microsoft Exchange for their email even though a full email system is a part of the Small Business Server Operating System.
These organisations are using outlook on the desktop and a hosted email service for which they pay between $5 and $9.00 per mailbox per month…!
It gets worse, as at the lower end of the cost scale you are paying for an inferior email system, at the top end you are paying for a service that uses Microsoft Exchange, (which you already own)
Our own experience tells the story, of the last thirty complimentary technical reviews we have performed on networks with a user count between 10 to 50 54% or 16 had Microsoft SBS as their server operating system, however they were also paying for a hosted email service.
The unnecessary costs speak for themselves, even at the lower end of the scale in users and hosted email costs that’s $600 per annum $2,400 over the average server life-cycle (4 Years) at the top end the numbers become outrageous.
The worst case we’ve seen was a company with 43 users paying $4,644 per annum. This had been the case since a server upgrade in 2010 and the total unnecessary spend equaled $10,836.
Why are so many organisations in this situation…?
From our experience it simply comes down to the fact that someone recommended hosted email at some stage without understanding that the company already had an in house email system or the tech that installed the Server originally wasn’t able to configure exchange. From that point forward it’s a case of out of mind out of sight, email works, so it must be working.
Our advice is if you are paying for a hosed email service, and you’re not sure if you are using Microsoft Small Business Server. Take five minutes out of your day and go and check. You only need to look at the log-in screen on your server to confirm the operating system.
For example: Small Business Server 2003 looks like this.
Versions of Small Business server that come with Microsoft Exchange are:
Microsoft Small Business Server – 2003, 2008 and 2011 standard.
Note: if you have recently upgraded your server and installed SBS 2011 Essentials it doesn’t include the Microsoft exchange email system.
There are a number of reasons companies go to the added expense of hosted email services. However one of those reasons certainly shouldn’t be simply because of incorrect advice or lack of technical know how.
