Home

Nov 15 2002

Are you Ready for Outsourced Messaging Services?

Written by Vikram Parihar

Friday, 15 November 2002

Are you ready to turn over your Exchange Server deployment to an ISP? Many ISPs and application service providers (ASPs) are providing or are gearing up to provide outsourced messaging services to corporations. What would it take for your company to relinquish its Exchange Server deployment to a third party? This might be a taboo subject with an audience who makes a living based on the belief that outsourced messaging won’t cut it for your company. However, discussing this topic is important in the light of recent developments around Exchange Server outsourcing and the groundswell of companies rushing into the hosted-messaging business.

The idea behind hosted-messaging services is that companies will choose to let an ISP or ASP manage their email systems by hosting the applications at the ISP or ASP site. The ISP or ASP would commit to service level agreements (SLAs) that meet the organization’s business needs. In return, the organization would pay a monthly per-seat or per-mailbox charge (usually from Rs.100/- to Rs. 1250/- per month) for the service. The benefit is reduced cost of ownership for an organization’s messaging infrastructure.

Many big names are already in the hosted-messaging business, and many others are preparing to join them. For ISPs and ASPs, this opportunity is a must win if they are to survive and offer services beyond the traditional consumer Internet accounts at Rs. 2000.00 a month.

There are several barriers in most organizations that will dampen the excitement for outsourced messaging. The first barrier is obvious: Can an organization trust a third party with such a mission-critical piece of its IT infrastucture?.

Many messaging system managers are also concerned that an ISP or ASP can’t provide the same level of service and functionality that a company-owned system can. Security is another big concern. Most organizations aren’t sensitive data into the hands of My Favourite ISP, Inc!. The final concern is cost. Although Rs.250.00 per seat for a company of 100,000 people might not be a bill anyone wants to pay.

Now that many of these outsourced messaging providers are offering their services based on Exchange Server, it might be worth a look-especially if you’re a small-or medium-sized business. With Exchange 2000 Server on the horizon, that’s outsourced messaging based on Exchange Server will be a compelling story. Put some thought into how this approach would fit into your organization. What are the barriers that would prevent outsourcing your Exchange deployment? The exercise is worth the effort, even if it only prepares you better to justify the reasons not to outsource when your CIO asks.

Outsourced Internet fax solutions integrate fax with e-mail, eliminating the need for companies to deploy and manage their own fax infrastructure such as fax machines and servers, and the costly analog telecommunications lines that go with them. Outsourced messaging solution comprehensive set includes Internet fax services such as IP-based e-mail-to-fax and fax-to-e-mail, enterprise high-volume broadcast services, EDI-to-fax and production fax services, serving enterprise environments ranging from Microsoft Windows CE handhelds, desktop PC’s Web servers, SAP installations and mainframes.

For Eample: You are a small or medium sized business and your biggest, most lucrative customer drops a bombshell-no more paper, faxes, phones, or snail mail transactions. Instead they mandate that you send and receive EDI or XML documents. Perhaps you have done a little research on EDI or XML. You’ve read the horror stories: massive upfront hardware and software investment, an excruciatingly long and complex implementation cycle, the need to hire a small army of well paid EDI coordinators, a steep learning curve, and a river of red ink. There has got be a better way!

Thanks to Ecbridges, now there is, Introducing Transaction Connect SME Ramp for Small and Medium Enterprises. It is an easy outsourced EDI service you access over the internet.

If you have an internet connection and know how to use a web browser, you’ve already mastered SME Ramp. Using simple and intuitive browser screens and fields, you can send and receive purchase orders, shipping notices, invoices and other EDI and XML documents.

In no time, your small or medium sized company can have Ecbridges build a ramp to the e-Commerce highway. By outsourcing your EDI and XML needs to Transaction Connect, your company will save considerable money, endure fewer hassles, and use fewer internal resources.

Benefits include:

1. Connect to all of your business partners

2. Meet all EDI, XML, and e-commerce mandates of existing partners.

3. Go after the big fish. No longer hindered by EDI/XML inability, unleash your sales force to pursue the dominant players in the industry.

Send and receive electronic data

1. Reduce or eliminate manual paper processing

2. Reduce phone, fax and snail mail orders and invoices and save time and costly man hours.

3. Establish a slick web presence. Non-EDI customers can place orders and get invoiced. Non-EDI suppliers can pick up order and present invoices.

4. Reduce errors, cut cost, gain efficiency and watch profits skyrocket.

Leverage you existing systems

1. Whether your back-end system is an Oracle ERP, Peachtree Accounting, or Excel spreadsheets, automatically feed it clean data.

2. There is no additional hardware or software to buy and no chance to your existing infrastructure. Plus, as you grow, Transaction connect can easily scale up to meet your most demanding needs.

Outsource the management of EDI Relationships

1. You’ll have access to our proven expertise in working with the EDI needs of businesses like yours, allowing you to do business with anyone.

2. Let Transaction connect be your EDI department and easily take care of the complex day-to-day management of these relationships.

3. Safe, secure, stable, and reliable

So, you need to ask…. ARE YOU READY for the Outsourced Messaging Solutions? If it has all the benefits… you are looking for, seriously why not?

(The article was contributed by Vikram Parihar of EasyLink, one of India’s largest outsourced messaging solutions provider. Feedback can be mailed to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )