You should be outsourcing your email and web services

Manufacturers should be considering getting at least email and online activities off their balance sheets and into predictable, straightforward P and L line items by outsourcing all messaging and web services to a specialist. So says Neil Turner, managing director of managed message software and services company Interliant UK. Turner was formerly managing director of Pepsi’s cold bottling operations around the world, and saw the company through SAP in Hungary and beyond, so he sees the issues from both sides. His firm, which since his arrival has been through a strategic review, has dumped CRM (customer relationship management) and similar service provision and focused instead firmly on its core competence – managed messaging. Its first concentration has been on Websphere, Lotus and Domino managed services for Fortune 500 companies like BAT, Hyundai and Virgin. Turner makes the point that 80% of the big global companies are on Lotus Notes not Microsoft Exchange. He is, however now extending Iterliant to encompass Exchange, bringing both IBM and Microsoft mainstream platforms into the service. It may only be a perception issue, but he understands the importance of Microsoft in the market. Most of all he understands what makes sense. “Most companies have invested in their ERP and supply chain systems and there are reasons for them to keep them in house,” he opines. “But if you’re a large multi-national operating in say 100 countries 24/7, you need specialists to implement and manage your email and web services.” Mindful of the current caution in the market around any kind of outsourcing, he says simply that his company only promises what it knows it can deliver. Hype has no place in any business deal and it’s all about informed choice and agreed SLAs and exit clauses. Beyond that, he’s convinced that if you’ve got more than 500 email users and up to 40,000 you should be taking specific outsourcing contract seriously. He makes the point that email and the web technologies, security and the rest are fast changing – and that keeping on top of it all is a full time and expensive occupation that should be undertaken by specialists. The company says it makes it easier and cheaper for its customers to acquire, maintain and manage their IT infrastructure via selective outsourcing.