Messaging

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Business Computer Systems Guide – Part 5

Messaging, Email and the Web

I mentioned in my last post, Business Computer Systems Guide – Part 4, that a correctly constructed, configured and monitored network infrastructure will provide years of trouble free operation for you.

Once you have accomplished the network infrastructure task, it is time to consider your primary business facilitator, communications. Where would we be without Email and websites? (I removed my answer to this during the last rewrite. So, I will let you be the judge.)

Since my high school days, the way that I get things done is to have a list. I started with a spiral bound notebook, degenerated to post it notes all over the dashboard of my pickup, then returned to the notebook, a “Day Timer” I believe. Then along comes EMAIL; the ultimate list of everyone telling me what to do next. Except, I discovered that by using email, I could also tell everyone what he or she needed to do for me next, instead!

Then, I discovered COLLABORATION! Now, we can all actually work together. So, there you have it, the foundations to understand modern MESSAGING, email communications and collaboration. We have successfully compressed time and space by using collaborative messaging both at our local workplaces and across the WEB! What a world we now live in! We can spend 24 hours a day and 7 days a week working.

MESSAGING, EMAIL and WEB access are the most mission critical process we have for modern business to stay competitive and be successful. Only a few short years ago, business could get by with private networks and not be concerned with the Internet. That is no longer the case. More transactions are conducted across the Internet than are conducted using the telephone. Business can no longer afford to have third rate messaging, email or Internet communications access.

As an astute businessperson, you can leverage the systems lessons learned by Fortune 500 companies and other large corporations, because you now have access to vast amounts of systems information on the WEB. But, information overload can come quickly and you can become quite confused about your options.

So, I would advise you to remember these significant points from my business systems model:

1 – Get the notion of building and managing in-house EMAIL and MESSAGING systems out of your mind. When was the last time you constructed a car to drive around town? Probably, High School was your time to experiment and play with cars. You cannot afford to experiment and play with EMAIL and MESSAGING systems.

2 – Websites are for business. Internet access is for business. Take a business perspective to considerations relating to the WEB. Just as you would build a fence around your place of business and the property you are trying to protect, place security perimeters around everything concerning the WEB.

It is not important to plan the details and different flavors of EMAIL and MESSAGING, or discuss the fine points of Go Daddy’s Web Hosting and Email program. Your plan should coalesce around the two important issues noted above, email communications and collaboration and the fact that communications is the most mission critical component of your business.

Carefully consider messaging workflow within your organization and the allocation of resources, both in human capital and dollars, which you are willing to dedicate to EMAIL and MESSAGING systems during your planning process.

Ask yourself the difficult questions. Answers to questions like, “Is messaging important to my point of sales processes?” and “Is a Website necessary to provide product support to my customers?” will help to bring clarity to your plan.