What should I know about managing email for an organization
September 19, 2008 9:01 AM   Subscribe

I made a website for a small organization and they were happy with it. Now they want me to manage their email as well (will involve about 25 mailboxes). I know technically this is pretty simple, using my host (bluehost), but I've never done it and before I say yes, wondering if anyone who's done this has any advice?

Leaving it intentionally vague because I don't know what I don't know. Just looking for observations or advicec either from a tech or administrative perspective to make this easier (or, possibly, reasons I should decline).

They use exchange, which I've never configured.

Also: How much to charge?

I'll watch the thread to answer any questions.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)
 
Depends on whether they have good in-house IT staff. If they don't, charge plenty, since you'll be doing lots of tech support for account setups on new computers, Blackberries, etc. Also, you'll be called on to answer questions about bounced messages when remote e-mail servers are down, questioned when e-mails are delayed or don't come through for reasons you can't control, and a dozen other things. If you're willing to take that on and you can get decent pay for the support, there's no reason not to do it.

I would suggest that you look into hosted spam and virus scanning - I've done it in house and it's a real timesink. We deal with a company called MX Logic, and I've been really happy - it's something like $2-$2.50 per user per month for spam/virus scanning, and if your mail server goes down they'll hold your mail until it's back up. Also, they measure users as "warm bodies", not "e-mail addresses", so aliases don't count against you. I signed up a couple of years ago, though, so shop around and see who's out there now. Make sure users can release their own messages from the spam quarantine to avoid lots of phone calls.
posted by pocams at 9:35 AM on September 19, 2008


They have exchange? They will not want to move off from Exchange.

No offense -- but you seem to be about to swim in very deep waters. I would *highly* suggest you do not host email for them, but you consult for them to configure and maintain it. If they want to ditch an inhouse exchange server for something external, great, give them some options and prices and features. Your time is billed per hour at $50-$100/h (probably closer to $50). Let someone else handle all the bullshit techsupport (my SMTP SERVER IS WHAT?).

Hosting email is BRAIN DEAD easy. Its dealing with the people that will kill you. Do not end up with a per mailbox price per month. You wont make money charging for email hosting. You will make money being paid to do tech support.
posted by SirStan at 10:57 AM on September 19, 2008


And technically speaking -- if this was my client, I would push them to keep Exchange for the features, functionality and speed it provides (vs an External host), bill them a monthly fee to keep everything updated and check backups (1h/week, 4h/m = $200/m retainer), and bill for overages. Make sure the backups are running correctly. Subscribe them to a webbased email/spam solution (Postini), but let them pay the bill directly -- dont resell it -- again, theres no money in it -- you want to make money doing the consulting.

Exchange inhouse = more $$ for you to squeeze outta em, but more functionally rich.
Hosted external email = cheaper for them, but less features.
posted by SirStan at 11:00 AM on September 19, 2008


Yes, maintaining spam filtering (ie, responding to complaints) will kill you if you don't outsource that. Nontechnical folks' expectations around spam filtering are unreasonable and you'll be debriefing managers on every false positive or negative. Postini's good.
posted by mendel at 11:08 AM on September 19, 2008


Its really not that simple in practice. Assuming you want to take them off exchange:

1. You must make the client know that shared calendaring, shared address books, etc will not work in the new systerm.

2. You must come up with a migration plan. How are you going to move all their mail? Just a PST? Migrate their calendars? What about distribution lists they have setup? What if these lists are on exchange? How will you migrate them to an exchange-free system. Will you make new outlook profiles, or keep the old ones?

3. Rights. Say someone's assistant wants exchange-like functionality like opening their bosses email and sending as their boss. How will you do this in the new system?

4. Backup plan. Do not trust your webhost to back up anything for you.

5. Support. 25 people will have a few support issues weekly. Mostly delivery and spam issues. Some of which can be difficult to handle with non-technical people.

6. Anti-spam solution. Client-side? Server-side? Who maintains it?

7. ReverseDNS/Domainkeys. Who will configure their email so it doesnt automatcally get put in everyones junk folder?

8. Change management. Who will create new users, disable old ones, and migrate old mail and contacts for new hires?

9. PDA support. If their PDAs were set for the old email system then you have to set them up for the new.

This probably isnt a good gig for someone without some exchange experience under their belt.
posted by damn dirty ape at 12:06 PM on September 19, 2008


Also, if they want you to manage their exchange then be mindful that your not just dealing with exchange, youre dealing with Active Directory, probably a domain, and the Outlook client. Its not exactly "Here are your POP3 settings. Toodles!!!"

Im sure you can figure a lot of this stuff out, but its not the same as the POP mail you've configured in the past.
posted by damn dirty ape at 12:09 PM on September 19, 2008


If you take them off exchange just use google hosted. So simple, so reliable, so spamless, so easy to remote administer, so easy to share contacts, can use IMAP/smtp if they wish, web based if they wish.
posted by TomMelee at 12:11 PM on September 19, 2008


Second Google for domains -- you can setup much of the same Exchange functionality with it. If you plan on managing their inhouse Exchange server QUICKLY learn when to call in an outside resource that knows exchange. things such as recoverys, data stores that wont mount, etc are EXTREMELY hard to deal with -- and its easy to currupt the entire Exchange database.

If you start playing with their system -- always fully stop exchange, copy the databases manually, start it back up before doing ANY sort of work on the data store (such as recovery, offlien defrag, or the such).

Mefi me if you have more questions/details regarding managing exch.
posted by SirStan at 1:09 PM on September 19, 2008


Response by poster: On reflection I don't think they're actually using exchange. I'll confirm, but I think they're just using the mail solution provided them through the hosting vendor who built their last website.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:16 PM on September 19, 2008


DONTDOITDONTDOITDONTDOIT. No matter how easy it seems. Help them pick a service. Help them migrate everything. Bill them by the hour.
posted by SirStan at 1:37 PM on September 19, 2008


I'll also recommend Google Apps for your Domain. It is very simple to set up, and will provide a lot of the functionality you get in Exchange - shared calendaring and address lists, for example.

If you get the Premier edition ($50 per user per year) there are some very nice additional features, such as Postini for spam filtering and compliance, and additional APIs. Otherwise, you can stick with the free version, which is, well, free.

If you have any questions about GAFYD, please feel free to memail me, as I do a lot of work with this.
posted by me & my monkey at 6:05 PM on September 19, 2008


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