It may take only three seconds to identify a junk message and delete it, but multiply those three seconds by 10 messages per employee per hour and it quickly adds up. That's a whopping 20 minutes per employee wasted each week. For a business with 50 employees, that's 16.6 hours a week-and that doesn't account for people managing multiple inboxes or duplicate emails on smartphones. All told, junk mail management costs businesses a part-time employee at a time when companies have no manpower to spare.
Finding efficient, effective and hassle-free ways to control spam not only saves time and frustration, it also helps to filter emails that contain viruses, keeping them off your network and your expense sheet.
In the past, companies relied on basic tools built into email systems like Microsoft Outlook. The problem is Outlook requires manual updating and isn't effective. Many vendors, including Symantec, McAfee and others, sold software to integrate with Outlook and other mail clients. The software was more effective than Outlook alone, but many times it slowed Outlook to a crawl. The best solution is to eliminate junk mail before it gets to your computer, phone or tablet.
In-House Mail Server
Many businesses have in-house mail servers, such as the popular Microsoft Exchange. They handle all email functions, and most have built-in anti-spam tools offering varying degrees of protection. They allow filtering by email content (blocking email containing typical junk keywords like Click here for male enhancement!), by server (blocking all email from mail servers known to have sent junk in the past) and by pattern (blocking email using large, attention-grabbing text: LOW MORTGAGE RATES).
In-house mail servers are cheap, as anti-spam tools are often included with the server. But this solution is usually the least effective because it requires regular updates and tends to result in more false positives (marking good email as junk email).
Software Filtering
Many software vendors sell packages that integrate directly with your in-house mail server. Cloudmark, McAfee, Symantec and Kaspersky offer popular and effective packages. Once set up, these packages generally require little maintenance. They are often priced by the number of mailboxes and vary by vendor. You can expect to pay around $1,000 a year for 25-plus users.
Cloud-Based Mail Server Solutions
Nearly identical to the in-house mail server, the outsourced, or cloud-based, option is a complete mail server hosted by another company and located offsite. You basically lease space on someone else's server for your e-mail. Microsoft has Office 365, which includes Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Forefront. Look to Microsoft, Symantec, McAfee, Kaspersky and Google, among others, to offer cloud-based solutions. Once set up, they require little IT support and there is no hardware to maintain. It costs about $6 per user per month, or $1,800 a year for 25 users.
Internet Gateway Spam Filter
Your gateway is basically your Internet connection. You manage traffic over the gateway with a firewall protecting your internal network. If you have a decent one (and you should), you can likely use it to filter junk email. Many models from Barracuda, SonicWALL, Cisco and others let you turn your firewall into a spam filtering system.
These appliances automatically update and require little or no maintenance once properly configured. Costs vary depending on the vendor. Expect to pay $200 to $400 per year for a typical small business. You'll pay triple or more for a mid-sized business.
Outsourced Junk Mail Filtering
Whether you have your own in-house mail server or firewall, you can filter your email through a clearinghouse that filters out the junk and sends you the good email. One of the most popular is Postini, which is owned by Google. Setup is minimal and requires next to no configuration. It's effective and updating is automatic. Postini charges $12 per user per year.
Many companies use a combination of two or more methods. Still, even the best filters will, at some point, mark a good email as junk. Different industries can generate higher rates of false positives. For example, those in the banking and mortgage industries often trigger spam filters looking for key phrases such as low mortgage rates.
Fortunately, all of the above choices use different methods. Microsoft Exchange, when used with a third-party software solution, often adds a Junk folder to Outlook so you can retrieve good email. Postini and other services email you reports and let you redirect false positives to your inbox. Most methods can learn what you consider junk and over time they become more accurate. With careful planning, execution and basic monitoring, all these methods can dramatically cut down on junk email management.
Kurt Simione is president of Technology Seed in Londonderry, a premier IT support services company. He can be reached at 603-537-2700 or ksimione@tseed.com. For more information, visit www.TSeed.com.
Current Issue - May 2024