The real cost of spam is hard to quantify

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: MICHAEL OSTERMAN ON MESSAGING
07/14/05
Today's focus: The real cost of spam is hard to quantify

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* The spammers have already won
* Links related to Messaging
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: The real cost of spam is hard to quantify

By Michael Osterman

We've all heard about the cost of spam - the several seconds
that individual users spend reading each spam message multiplied
by the number of junk messages they receive each day multiplied
by their hourly salary. We've heard about the cost of storage
and servers and anti-spam software and gateways and the like.
It's all very expensive and designed simply to prevent the
garbage from reaching us that spammers should have the integrity
not to send us in the first place.

However, the most expensive part of spam - and the one that is
hardest to quantify - is what I call the "threshold" costs of
spam that don't occur on a regular basis, but that can represent
a huge cost to an organization.

Osterman Research is a small company, and we outsource most of
our messaging functionality since we don't want to maintain our
facilities in-house. As a result, we have somewhat less control
over our messaging functionality than we would like. Recently,
our outsourced provider determined that we were spamming (which
we definitely were not), most likely because we sent out a
request to several hundred members of our panel at one time to
complete a survey.

The response of our provider was simply to deny us access to our
SMTP server without any warning. Because the subsequent
bounceback messages were hidden in our spam quarantine, we
didn't immediately realize what had happened. We were able to
change service providers quickly and easily to make sure the
problem doesn't happen again (one of the real benefits of
outsourcing).

So what was the cost of this incident? A client at Microsoft was
unable to receive e-mail I was sending him in response to an
inquiry. A public relations firm representing a company that
wanted to brief us on its technology could not receive my
e-mail. A reporter did not receive a file with data from a
recent survey for a story he is writing. A woman with whom I'm
working to set up a conference engagement in London this October
did not receive my e-mail.

I can't really quantify the cost of any of these problems, but
they are definitely expensive and damaging. That kind of damage
is perhaps the greatest cost of spam.
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Michael Osterman

Michael D. Osterman is the principal of Osterman Research
<http://www.ostermanresearch.com/>, a market research firm that
helps organizations understand the markets for messaging,
directory and related products and services. He can be reached
by clicking here <mailto:michael@ostermanresearch.com>
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FEATURED READER RESOURCE
THE ROI OF VOIP

When it comes to VoIP, most network managers are satisfied that
the technology works. But there are questions: What will the new
technology cost to roll out and support, and what benefits can
companies expect to reap? Check out NW's step-by-step guide on
how to determine the true cost and benefits of VoIP. Click here:
<http://www.networkworld.com/research/2005/071105-voip.html>
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