Given economic conditions, most organizations are looking to save IT-related costs wherever possible. Although the value of e-mail systems is indisputable, the cost to operate them is the subject of much controversy. Ascertaining costs is a crucial aspect of any cost-saving exercise: a granular and accurate breakdown of system expenses is mandatory for identifying potential savings. Several countervailing trends affect e-mail economics. Rapidly rising e-mail volume, which means more e-mail, larger messages, and more messages with attachments, requires more system resources while rapidly improving server scalability enables organizations to save money by consolidating servers.
We believe the total cost of ownership (TCO), including capital and operational costs, of mail systems for large corporations will remain steady at about $11-$15/user/month (excluding help-desk costs) for the next several years. That dynamic represents greater efficiencies in mail ownership costs because we expect mail volume (number of messages multiplied by the average size of messages) to increase about 10 percent annually during the next five years. These efficiencies will develop primarily through server consolidation, better management tools, and increased storage management efficiencies. Specifically, we expect hardware costs to drop 15 -20 percent during the next three years as companies consolidate servers, somewhat offset by the addition of server redundancy via clusters (up to 4-way) based on the Windows .Net server operating system. However, we expect overall collaboration budgets to increase 20 - 30 percent during the next three years due to the addition of new collaboration tools such as instant messaging, Web conferencing, and teamware.
The cost model presented here is based on survey work done by META Group. Because mail costs can vary widely depending on numerous factors, such as centralized vs. decentralized workforces, we have created a hypothetical company that we believe represents an average 10,000-person organization to demonstrate the model. Our TCO model should be customized for each organization; all variables can be changed (that is, 26 e-mail servers, rather than 16 mail servers, one hardware support person for every 15 servers, not 10 servers). The model is based on a three-year ownership model, whereby all capital costs such as hardware and one-time charges like planning, deployment, and training are amortized over three years. That yearly cost is then combined with annual operational costs to deliver a one-year figure that combines capital, one-time, and operational costs.
Our hypothetical organization has 7,000 people working in one campus setting, plus 10 sites of 50 people using WAN links to access mail servers at headquarters. There are five 100-person sites, each with their own mail servers, two 500-person sites (with its own mail servers), and one 1,000-person site (with its own mail server). This model is based on Exchange 2000, but with appropriate customization it can be applied to IBM/Lotus Domino, assuming Domino applications are excluded. Eight major components comprise mail system TCO: hardware, bandwidth, e-mail license fees, planning/deployment/training, hardware operations, Exchange operations, Exchange utilities, and help desk support. Many of the categories are broken down further (e.g., Exchange operations into Level 1 and Level 2 support, virus management, and account administration).
