Controlling messaging chaos

Maybe it’s the statistics that get me – one legal firm spends $500,000 a year combating spam. Maybe it’s that spam is threatening to ruin a prime mode of business communication. Or maybe it’s all the other resources that must be marshaled to deal with spam – bandwidth, storage and support costs, to name a few.

In Network World’s Technology Tour, “Messaging and Spam: Chaos to Control,” which kicks off March 23 in Arlington, Va., Network World columnist Mark Gibbs will offer advice on how to keep spam from spinning out of control in your organization and return e-mail to the productive business tool it should be. From the first slide of his keynote presentation, Gibbs makes clear just how tough a row IT has to hoe in fighting spam.

The good news is, help is on the way. Mature, sophisticated, really-attacks-the-problem help that could restore messaging systems to their original productivity levels. Help that could get you out of the Band-Aid business and back into the strategic, “what else can this messaging system do for us” business.

There are great collaboration tools that have been put at bay because IT is busy fighting spam. Your energy has been spent containing the spread of unsolicited e-mail, when there are developers out there adding cool features to messaging systems, such as presence awareness, which lets you link your communications tools so users can access each other’s information databases – from anywhere at anytime.

Call centers should be using the amazing advances in collaboration tools that let operators access one another’s e-mail files or connect with one another instantly. But these tools look very scary to anyone who is worried about viruses. Why connect more things if it’s just going to mean the rapid spread of a worm when an epidemic breaks out?

We’ve got to move past that mode of thinking, and the Technology Tour can help you do that. Gibbs and I will be joined on stage by leading messaging and anti-spam companies, including MailFrontier, MXLogic, NetIQ, SurfControl and Sybari Software. Also on the tour will be Barracuda Networks, Process Software and SingleFin.

Their presentations – as well as Gibbs’ morning and afternoon addresses – will help you rethink your messaging architecture. Each company will offer its approach to not only stop spam but also assist you in rebuilding your messaging strategy.

You’ll also get tips on how to safely integrate other messaging tools, such as instant messaging, without jeopardizing the safety of your network. Gibbs also offers a spam calculator that will help you figure out how to keep your costs under control.

The goal of the event is to get IT back to a place where messaging is not a hindrance but a beneficial part of the corporate tool kit. To register, visit our Technology Tour page.