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March 13, 2000

Consolidation Is Key To Mastering Messaging
A standardized e-mail system has become a strategic asset that must be well-managed

By Scott Leibs

Illustration by Doug Ross

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ot long ago, E-mail was a logistical nightmare for MSX International Inc., a $1 billion global provider of technology-driven engineering, staffing, and business services. The company was formed in 1997 through an almost endless series of mergers, and the buying binge didn't stop. As a result, MSX wound up with a hodgepodge of E-mail systems, some so old that the vendors no longer provided support.

Today, the Auburn Hills, Mich., company has standardized on Novell GroupWise as its messaging platform, and life's gotten a lot easier for the IT team in charge of supporting its E-mail infrastructure. Once E-mail downtimes of six to eight hours were not uncommon; today, downtimes are almost nonexistent. Ram Rajagopalan, the company's global WAN manager, also says MSX is saving about 30% in administrative costs yearly. There's more. "E-mail is now so fast it's like a chat session," he says, "and users can't live without it."

MSX's case is a typical one. Mergers and acquisitions, and decentralized decision making, have left many companies with heterogeneous E-mail networks that take more money and manpower to maintain than they want to spend. Chip DeComo, network manager at the U.S. headquarters of Hellmann Worldwide Logistics Inc. in Miami, says he knows that all too well. Until a recent revamp of its E-mail infrastructure, the German cargo and logistical services company had a plethora of communications tools in use among its 6,000 employees in 300 offices worldwide. And some of those tools were quite antiquated, DeComo says. The result: Administrative costs were high and performance was sometimes compromised.

Even so, it's not a simple decision to rip out E-mail infrastructures in favor of a standardized system. Rajago-palan says MSX tested and retested GroupWise before rolling it out, to make sure the product wouldn't crack under the load. DeComo sums up why changing E-mail systems is a stressful experience, putting IT departments under enormous pressure to succeed: "You have to be brave or an idiot to roll out a new E-mail system," he says, "because it's the one piece of the IT infrastructure that touches everyone, and if it breaks, you hear from everyone."

Many IT professionals have no choice but to be brave, because E-mail communication is the lifeblood of most office operations, and downtime translates into bad news on the bottom line. The per-employee cost of downtime equals about $20 per year, according to Creative Networks Inc., but, more important, one in five companies the research firm surveyed said they had lost business because they had been unable to respond to E-mail in a timely manner. "The 60 minutes a month that an employee may be offline won't kill you," says Creative Networks analyst Mike Osterman. "But those critical E-mails that get lost or that you answer too late can have a huge impact."

As companies see the advantages of standardizing E-mail systems in terms of management costs, performance, and even customer service, the trend toward standardization is gaining momentum. A study conducted by the Radicati Group, a consulting firm, found that 94% of major companies have chosen an E-mail platform on which to standardize. "Of course, there's a big difference between designating a single system and actually getting there," says president Sarah Radicati.

She says most migrations are slow, painful affairs and relatively few companies have reached the end point. "Still, two years ago you didn't find this cited as such a priority," she says.

Though there's a profusion of E-mail products on the market, Radicati says Microsoft, which offers Exchange Server and the Outlook client, and Lotus, whose Notes client can be (and most often is) paired with a Domino server, lead among users choosing to standardize on one platform. Microsoft's solution was favored by 44% of respondents, while 29% tapped Lotus for its Notes offering and another 5% opted for Lotus' older, more basic cc:mail. Novell's GroupWise was the platform of choice for 6% of respondents.

Companies are realizing the benefits of standardizing their E-mail systems just as vendors such as Lotus, Microsoft, and Novell have realized the need to support Internet standards, such as Post Office Protocol 3, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, and Internet Message Access Protocol 4. Such support lets their customers communicate more seamlessly with parties outside their own companies. For instance, support for Internet standards means users on different messaging systems can easily trade calendar or contact information.

The trend to become more like Internet-based mail systems, such as Netscape Communicator, extends as far as delivering Web versions of established products, as Lotus does with its iNotes software. Web E-mail appeals particularly to mobile users who might rely on handheld computers while on the road, or to employees who work in "hot-desk" environments, rotating among groups depending on the projects they're working on. Novell's WebAccess capability lets GroupWise users have secure access to their E-mail via any Web browser, which appeals to MSX. "Now our employees can get their E-mail from anyplace," Rajagopalan says, "even sitting in a cyber cafe somewhere."

Also, according to Microsoft, the forthcoming Exchange 2000 will offer a range of Web-based collaborative capabilities, including scheduling and document-sharing. In fact, Snapper Inc. is moving to this new version of Exchange precisely for its expanded Web capabilities. "We've developed a sales-force automation application that can help us eliminate paper by passing all information relevant to client contacts, sales, and more across the Web," says Howard Jones, the company's CIO. "It's fundamentally an E-mail system, but with a lot of extra functionality riding on top of it."

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