My colleagues Pete Lindstrom and Karen Hobert at the Collaborative Strategy Guild (CSG) have a new research paper that helps companies understand how to quantify the value of their email by going beyond the traditional total cost of ownership (TCO) metric.

In this paper, CSG introduces a new way to quantify the real cost and benefit of a solution by using total value investment (TVI) calculations.

Many Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) are considering a move to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model for their e-mail environment. The base subscription price on a move like this can be intoxicatingly low; however, a move of this magnitude and impact is best supported through a complete quantitative analysis of the corresponding costs and benefits.

On the cost side of the equation, it is important to identify and assess total cost of ownership (TCO) over the lifetime of the e-mail solution and not just the subscription price. This includes costs associated with continued administration, integration with line of business applications, migration, and training. But a simple TCO estimate is inadequate in the face of evaluating alternatives that have significantly different functionality.

For the complete report, please visit the Research page at CSG.

Karen Hobert, our colleague at Collaborative Strategy Guild, just published a White Paper on Mitigating Risk and Finding Opportunity in Software as a Service (SaaS) E-mail for Small and Medium Businesses.

Software as a Service (SaaS) e-mail offerings provide some operational productivity benefits at lower prices, although it is not a silver bullet, and should not be considered a compromise to existing solutions. SaaS e-mail service bundles can provide capabilities not previously available with existing e-mail solutions especially with operational aspects of managing an e-mail infrastructure. Although total cost of ownership (TCO) is a leading driver for choosing SaaS e-mail, customers should approach SaaS e-mail options based on how the solution will improve the e-mail experience and increase user and operational productivity as well as mitigate risks.

Karen Hobert, one of the co-founders of the Collaborative Strategy Guild, and I recently teamed up to write a Messaging Security Buyer’s eGuide for Information Security.

In the eGuide we cover:

• Messaging Security Components
• On-Premise vs. SaaS/Cloud
• Logging, Archiving, Reporting, and Compliance Considerations