Mailbag: The cons of providing e-mail to all workers

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: MICHAEL OSTERMAN ON MESSAGING
09/29/05
Today's focus: Mailbag: The cons of providing e-mail to all
workers

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Readers against universal e-mail
* Links related to Messaging
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Mailbag: The cons of providing e-mail to all
workers

By Michael Osterman

Last time, we heard from readers who were for the idea of
providing e-mail to all workers. This time we hear from those
who don't believe that all workers should have this capability.

Here are some responses:

* "I don't believe all workers should have e-mail on the
workfloor. But YES, you can provide them with e-mail at home to
provide them browser-based [e-mail] with company information.
Put the burden of anti-virus/spam at the provider. As we all
know, e-mail at the workplace/desk will consume a lot of time
with too much 'not-to-the-(business) point' communication!"

* "There are far more practical and economical means of
collaboration, including instant messaging, secure document
repositories and electronic bulletin boards. In fact, I have
found that employees collaborate far more efficiently when
e-mail is replaced by these other means of synchronous and
asynchronous collaboration. Furthermore, I find that these other
methods require far less effort to protect against all types of
computer attacks."

* "The feeling here is that if you want to e-mail your friends
and family, then go home. E-mail at work is to be used as a tool
to perform your task. If the user does not need outside e-mail
access, they will not get it. This appears on the surface to be
a bit harsh compared to other state agencies, but we have yet to
get infected with an e-mail-borne virus."

* "We maintain our own Exchange server with approximately 150
mailboxes. We debated this issue a couple of years ago and
decided to change our strategy from a default that provided all
employees with e-mail to one that did not. The decision was
triggered by several factors: a) our population is predominantly
nurses - we found that the vast majority never used their
external e-mail accounts; b) we were experiencing a huge
increase in the number of virus-infected e-mails being caught by
our virus filter agent - it had become obvious to us that many
people were ignoring our policies and guidelines regarding the
steps needed to protect our network; c) we don't monitor e-mail
routinely, but several situations made us aware that people were
not adhering to our policy regarding personal use of e-mail."

Thank you to everyone who commented on the newsletter.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. How to solve Windows system crashes in minutes
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg7719>
2. IPTV will trip up Bells, analysts say
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg7868>
3. McAfee, Omniquad top anti-spyware test
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg6958>
4. Skype: Hazardous to network health?
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg7869>
5. The rise of the IT architect
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg7324>

_______________________________________________________________
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>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Nokia
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ARCHIVE LINKS

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A resilient Active Directory deployment is critical to your
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webinar, Best Practices for Building Resilient Active Directory
Infrastructure at:
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FEATURED READER RESOURCE

The Trend Micro Threat Map

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Threat Map can be used to help determine appropriate security
policies, based on the prevalence of threats that can adversely
affect your business.

<http://www.networkworld.com/go/trendmicro/trend_frr>
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