Anti-Spam Software for Business
Unwanted intrusions can cost you dearly
Anti-spam software vendors now offer lower cost licensing that is faster and more effective than it has ever been before. The increasing affordability of this anti-spam software has two causes:
- open source software
- better research and resources of larger corporations
Many businesses do not think deeply enough about the viability of anti-spam software. You may have 50 employees in your company, and they may each spend 10 minutes a day (a pretty lowball estimate) sifting through spam in their inbox. That comes to over a full days work for one employee. Once you do the math, its pretty straightforward that you will need anti-spam software for your business. And if you're going to invest in anti-spam software you might as well get one that is thorough and effective. Its hard to conceive of anti-spam software that will cost you as much as one employees salary.
Anti-spam software can stop spam e-mail before it reaches your network. There are several auxiliary advantages to purchasing anti-spam software.- If spam is not filtered, it can clog up your network and fill the networks memory. There are anti-spam systems that can reduce over 80% of incoming messages.
- Less usage will extend the life of your server, too.
- Buy and administer your own spam filter. This will require on-site technical staff. For technology companies, this can be worthwhile, but for others it may not.
- Outsource your spam control to a hosted service. This is a good option for smaller companies and companies that do not specialize in technology. These are often the businesses who underestimate the need for anti-spam software, incidentally.
- Be sure that you know about secondary pricing (for updates, etc.) Be sure that you know how much your add-ons are going to cost and factor this in when you are comparing prices.
- The size of your organization will also affect your choice. Larger organizations will require a larger spam filter but paying more for more robust software will also be more worth their while. A very broad general rule: for organizations of 80 or less, outsourcing is advisable. For larger, staying in house is better.
- Anti-spam software can be built with certain e-mail programs in mind, though most will claim broad application. The most popular e-mail service is, of course, Microsoft Exchange (also one of the easiest to spam).
