* Readers discuss messaging differences at different organizations
My recent article on messaging at smaller vs. larger organizations led to a couple of very interesting observations from readers of the column.
The first reader wrote:
“As someone who has worked in senior IT in small, medium and large organizations, I believe that I can shed some light on the differences [among them]. You are quite correct when you look at the messaging cost per user, particularly in terms of labor costs. For example, adding a word to an anti-spam list is a fixed time cost, but the impact will vary quite considerably depending upon the number of mailboxes affected. In the hardware and software arena this can also be true, especially when expensive hardware, back-up solutions and software are purchased. Fewer users mean that less powerful (cheaper) hardware can be used. In cases where the licensing is based on the number of users, rather than the server product, the savings to small business are so great that they can often afford to implement solutions which the larger organization cannot.
“I think that a large portion of the problem centers around the social aspects of the organization. In a large organization, the IT department is largely unapproachable and users tend to focus less on the small issues, such as spam. Certainly, complaints about spam generally do not filter upwards to management meetings on a regular basis. In a small company, however, these minor issues are frequently tabled at management meetings and the IT department is much more approachable – so approachable, in fact, that the CEOs of these companies will often ask IT managers to come into their offices and look at what is on their screen. When the CEO of a company points out a spam problem, it is difficult to ignore it or brush it off as a necessary evil.”
The second reader wrote:
“At smaller companies, such as [the one] I work at now, we’re not allowed to have a militant stance on anything that cramps upper management’s environment – users and other employees see this and want [the same thing]. So militant corporate environment versus homestyle companies is the real difference.”
The bottom line, at least for some companies, is that the corporate culture in smaller companies – much of which is dictated simply by the size of the organization – may be a key determinant in how messaging systems are managed. Smaller organizations face a similar, but meaningfully different, set of problems than do larger organizations, a fact that vendors need to take into account when designing and supporting systems aimed at smaller organizations.
The original article can be found here.
