Applications you can outsource

All companies feel a little reserved when it comes to letting others manage their critical applications. In the last few years a new type of vendors made it to the market, a class of vendors that have established reputation for reliability, security and fairness. With them out there it`s a good time to think about outsourcing. Here are some applications worth trying to move out.

1. The email
This seem to be one of the most critical applications that companies are not willing to let go. We understand that, but the times when thousands of mailboxes that were associated with hundreds accounts on a cheap machine running a basic POP3/SMTP setup are long gone. Even if basic email services are still available, vendors are offering good quality services as the email architecture has become standardized, and there is no real value in keeping the email inside our firewall.

2. CRM (customer relationship management)
This can be a tough one as CRM is where the company`s strong points are found. Yet there are no technical advantages for keeping the CRM inside your walls, as this a low bandwidth application with maintenance you don`t want. If you consider moving to a hosted CRM system you`ll have more time to spend on more important issues.

3. Web Hosting
Web hosting used to be as nasty as email hosting, unless you want to spend some money on a dedicted server. A lot of vendors offer a virtualized hosting environment, that is translated into increased uptime, lower security risks and much more open and direct access to the servers for the end user.

4. Conferencing software
In order to setup and maintain a conferencing software you need some skills, and if it goes down, it needs to be up in a hurry as  ”the conference begins immediately”. Like in the case of the email their is no real benefit to keep this application within your own firewall and for a low monthly / yearly fee you can take this weight off your shoulders.

5. Email security scanning
Even if you do not put your electronic mail with a hosted seller, you will require to look at having a third party perform your anti-spam & antivirus duties, even if it’s only as a first-line defense. If you look at how much incoming electronic mail is spam, you’ll see that you can reduce your bandwidth needs dramatically by allowing a third party to perform an preliminary scan of your electronic mail. It will also permit you to have far fewer electronic mail servers. Getting a nice spam scanner outside the network can make a night-and-day difference.