The Cost Of Email Management

According to a survey conducted by MORI on behalf of BT, 77% of IT directors questioned at financial services firms in the USA, continental Europe and the UK do not know, or cannot calculate, the total cost of ownership (TCO) for their current message management infrastructure. This is despite the growing reliance on electronic communication channels.

The survey also shows that IT directors in the financial services industry are willing to/planning to continue increasing their budgets for secure messaging. Over the next three years, most firms expect to spend even more money protecting email and other channels against potential attacks. But the largest proportion - 65% - expect to see increases in compliance costs over the next three years.

However, firms that currently outsource their messaging infrastructure, or would consider outsourcing in the future, expect the message management costs to decrease compared to those who keep the solution in-house. The one in five who do currently outsource, or would consider outsourcing, are also more confident they will meet regulatory requests to provide a three-year audit trail within 48 hours.

Other key survey findings include:

• 86% view viruses as significant issues for their organisation
• 81% of IT respondents agree the threat of 'email anarchy' is real for those companies that do not address message management correctly
• 78% consider archiving a significant issue today. In the UK, this figure is 90%
• 64% see viruses increasing in significance over the next three years
• 65% of IT respondents expect a budget increase in compliance over the next three years
• 60% of retail finance respondents say they want to increase email interaction with clients and 72% say security is the biggest deterrent.

Technical details

MORI researchers asked 112 senior IT and risk/operations managers at retail and wholesale banks, insurers and building societies to predict how the cost and significance of major issues in message management will change in the coming years.

Respondents were located in the US, (31); UK, (30); France, (21); Germany, (20); and the Netherlands, (10). Some questions were asked of both IT and risk groups, while others were specific to one. Telephone fieldwork was conducted by MTS (MORI Telephone Surveys) from 21st September - 18th November 2004.