In these testing times we’re all being challenged to do more with less – both at home and in the office.

Budgets have been squeezed beyond all recognition as companies attempt to make headway in turbulent trading conditions and are forced to change the way they go about their business.

For those brands seeking to communicate effectively with customers and be successful, IT remains an essential part of this jigsaw.

At its heart, email provides the lifeblood for communications and now, more than ever, it is crucial enterprises understand the problems associated with poor management of this.

With message volumes continuing to rise and file attachments steadily increasing in mass, correctly sizing and scaling an in-house email data management system is a critical requirement for every business.

This means that IT departments require a practical strategy that is low risk, future proof and affordable. Moreover, any solution must be easily implemented and predictable in terms of the associated costs.

Unfortunately for most, the management of email has become a complex and arduous task beset with problems – more burden than business process. As such it is a time consuming effort devoid of any clear strategy and focus as IT managers find themselves ‘firefighting’ and dealing with routine administrative tasks rather than putting into practice a clear, defined strategy. Perhaps rather unsurprisingly, costs have soared leaving more questions than answers for most.