Schrock Media & Blog

Outsourcing Email Archiving?

There is something to be said about controlling everything yourself when conducting business. When competing in busy marketplaces, it’s hard to control anything. Maintaining a hold on your own email archive is a viable pastime for many, but the reasons many companies insist on doing it are a little outmoded.

Like many technologies, Software as a Service had a shaky start. The architecture was in its infancy, the companies were learning as they went along and it wasn’t without it’s notable failures.

However, also like other technologies, it soon developed, improved and advanced into a mature and viable industry. It has learned as it grew, determined not to make the same mistakes as before, and to offer clients a real alternative to hosting their own email archives.

So many of the fears that companies had back then over system stability, vendor trust and overall security no longer apply. However, as any marketer will tell you, first impressions last. Those first impressions of flaky companies, insecure networks, buggy software and downtime remain, and mar the opinion of many company who tried it first time around.

Email archiving is an extremely important aspect of working in business in the United States. It’s mandated by a raft of legislation, and makes real sense in business terms. Ignoring the law for the moment, a coherent email archive is vital for any business to survive a disaster situation. Business continuity is vital to remain productive in tough times. An email archive plays an important role in that continuity.

You don’t need us to tell you how much business is done over email. If you’re an employee or company owner, you’ll already know how important it is. Hundreds of millions of emails are sent globally each day. That means hundreds of millions of pieces of business information flowing through the ether from one place to another.

The overhead of managing such a communications medium is too much for many companies to manage. Which is where SaaS comes in. Having a vendor manage your email infrastructure, including email archiving just makes sense.

The old days are long gone. SaaS is a mature, developing technology that is light years away from its former self. The companies in the industry are also mature, many of them being offshoots of very respectable organizations, others founded by former employees of said organizations. There are of course the black sheep, as there are in any industry, but overall the quality of provider is very good.

Holding on to outdated opinions formed when a technology was in its infancy isn’t a good way to conduct business. Industries change, they grow, develop, grow up and generally improve. It’s sensible to revisit these sorts of things once in a while to see if it’s yet something you want to do business with. Email archiving and SaaS is one such industry.

Much like a vine, you have to check regularly to make sure it is maturing in the way you like. Once ripe, you pick it up and use it the way you want to use it.