A question G – I mean Email
The world of Email is changing and what are your options. In reality this is catching a lot of people by surprise, but obviously is all makes sense both business wise and for you future needs.
The only trouble is it might start costing you:
Current situation
Most email is run from POP accounts or for businesses of any reasonable size they might have Exchange. But a POP or Exchange account is your standard straightforward email account… we shan’t worry to much about the details, but these are invariably free or very low cost.
The progress
What’s happening of course is Mobile, people want email on the go, in multiple places, at work, at home, on their mobile and it all has to sync up so that you can see exactly where you left off.
The issue
Exchange and POP however were not built for this. One particular limitation is ‘sent’ email – this is invariably stored on your local device in Outlook, so that means what you see on your computer was not in sync with what you see on your iPad.
Equally filing email into folders, organisation, address books, calendars all of these things are difficult or challenging to sync up between devices.
Solutions – up to 2012
The first solution was to either use advanced features of Exchange (which can cope provided you access to your Office computers 24/7) or to switch to the likes of Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo. These often age old services have had a complete rebound as people can access them from literally anywhere they have internet access.
But – it’s not always smart and it’s not always conducive to your way of working. People are so used to Outlook then can’t understand Gmail and Hotmail/Yahoo are covered in advertising and have limited functions in other respects.
So the problem of ’email on the go’ is only partly solved.
Solutions – for 2013
We’re seeing a huge development in Gmail and in particular Google Apps for Business – a rounded product that covers all your business needs, including email, documents, spreadsheets and presentations. And in direct response Microsoft has re-branded Hotmail and given us Office365 a virtual version of their Office suite, including email.
Our experience
I’ll just share what I am seeing for a moment – last year lots of clients switched to Google Apps – it was free for 10 users and suited any small business, it hooks into Outlook and answered most needs.
This year (last 4 months) we’ve seen a notable swing to Office365, that’s not to say we like (we’re Gmail fans here), but it’s interesting to see quite so many clients switch to Office365, it’s an excellent marketing routine Microsoft have worked out with some of the major IPS’s including BT.
So what’s the difference?
Well Google was free for up to 10 users – but now they have stopped offering that product, Google costs $5/user/month or $50/user/year. So if you need 6 email addresses that’s going to cost $360 per annum (approx. £240 per year)
Office365 is marginally cheaper at $4/user/month, but you don’t get any other benefits like their range of Office products – that starts at $6/user/month or $15/user/month for the full suite of products. This can really push your prices up.
The difference therefore is largely financial, email is going to start costing you and it’s not going to be cheap.
Recommendation
It’s difficult to give a specific recommendation as everyone is so different and has such varied requirements. But certainly if you are wondering about how to handle email now and in the future, if you are anxious about Spam, mailbox sizes or any other aspect of your email, then talk to us. We’ve experience of all the systems and can advise on all of them. Plus as you are clients we hopefully already have a good idea of what your needs are.
And finally – what to avoid
Don’t just sign up to the first thing to come along… consider your needs a carefully, speak to us, get a proper idea of what you need in the future. Because the one absolute thing you can be sure of when it comes to email, is that this is going to be hard to move your account later. Talk to us.