Should all employees have e-mail?

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: MICHAEL OSTERMAN ON MESSAGING
09/15/05
Today's focus: Should all employees have e-mail?

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Why some employees will never have employer-provided e-mail
* Links related to Messaging
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Should all employees have e-mail?

By Michael Osterman

A forecast published nearly two years ago (not from Osterman
Research) showed that nearly half of workers did not have
employer-provided access to e-mail while on the job, but that
three out of four workers would have e-mail access by 2007. The
argument for the rapid uptake was that providing e-mail for all
employees is a good business practice and that other forms of
information delivery, such as paper communications, are inferior
to e-mail. While I agree with the conclusions of that study to
some extent and still expect "un-e-mailed" workers to be given
access to this medium in larger numbers than at present, I
believe there is a significant portion of the workforce in
industrialized nations that will never have access to
employer-provided e-mail.

There are two reasons.

First, a disproportionate share of un-e-mailed workers are paid
hourly. While e-mail is generally a cost of doing business, the
cost of accessing it is typically masked because a large
percentage of people who use e-mail are paid a salary, not
hourly.

If a user is making $70,000 per year regardless of how many
hours he or she works, the cost of their access to e-mail is a
sunk cost that is difficult - and more or less meaningless - to
quantify. On the other hand, if a worker is paid $20 per hour,
checking e-mail for 15 minutes each day costs his or her
employer $5 per day, or well over $1,000 annually. That cost can
be an order or magnitude or more higher than the cost of
providing e-mail itself, making the justification for providing
e-mail to an hourly worker quite difficult.

Second, for many organizations it's difficult to justify
implementing and managing an e-mail system that is designed
simply to replace memos and other information posted on a
bulletin board. Plus, e-mail creates additional liabilities and
requirements, including the need to filter for spam and viruses,
outgoing content, etc., that traditional forms of communications
do not.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on why (or why not) workers
without access to e-mail need to have it, particularly if you've
gone through the process of debating this within your
organization. Please drop me a line at
<mailto:michael@ostermanresearch.com>

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. McAfee, Omniquad top anti-spyware test
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg6958>

2. Google hacking <http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg6688>

3. Supermarket chain freezes Internet access
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg6606>

4. Cisco tackles RFID in the network
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg7092>

5. What's the best way to protect against spyware?
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg6959>

_______________________________________________________________
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 Ciena
Network World Executive Guide: Compliance can be an opportunity
for Network Improvements

Federal regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are driving
increased corporate spending on key IT areas such as security,
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advice from experts. Read about real-world tactics. Learn about
the dark side of compliance: what happens when thing wrong. And,
how mandates are affecting IT budgets.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=114103
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ARCHIVE LINKS

Archive of the Messaging newsletter:
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/gwm/index.html
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Firewalls and intrusion detection alone won't cut it

Security is no longer about putting up walls around the data
center and trying to keep the bad guys out. Tune in today to
learn about the special security requirements within the virtual
data center.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=114049
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FEATURED READER RESOURCE

IS IT THE NETWORK OR THE STORAGE THAT'S THE PROBLEM?

Midsize and larger businesses often find their IT topology has
become a complex mix of servers, networks and storage systems.
Many of these companies also route long-haul traffic over
fiber-based networks - metropolitan-area networks, WANs and
private optical networks. Who's responsible when a
storage-related problem occurs on a fiber network? For more,
click here:

<http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg7093>
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