Transactional and marketing e-mail has become critical to driving revenue in many industries today. Because of this, many businesses no longer consider outsourced e-mail practical, cost-effective or, in many cases, secure.
As a result, many are turning to internally managed systems as the de facto method for deploying and maintaining e-mail marketing campaigns.
The following are the top three shortcomings of outsourced e-mail systems that are driving the trend toward internally managed platforms.
Increased cost and decreased productivity is a shortcoming, as organizations ramp up their automated messaging activities. The economics of outsourcing becomes less justifiable, especially since many service providers charge per campaign or even per message.
For companies with geographically dispersed offices, the cost, both in dollars and productivity, and resources needed to maintain disparate systems, becomes burdensome.
Organizations that deploy an internally managed, centralized platform can standardize e-mail backbones and gateway systems, providing a new strategic approach to managing e-mail operations and eliminating bottlenecks and points of failure.
Minimal customization capabilities and sub-par features make l arge, complex organizations typically require more functionality, such as intelligent routing and advance policy control, in order to meet their unique needs.
However, providers of outsourced e-mail are very limited in their ability to support custom systems because outsourced services become brittle and unwieldy as they are customized.
A unified, internally managed platform allows for a robust, feature-rich infrastructure capable of reliable delivery as well as the enhanced functions mentioned above. In addition, by standardizing e-mail marketing practices, businesses can maintain a strong sender reputation.
Fraud prevention compliance is top-of-mind for many organizations, particularly those that rely heavily on e-mail for direct marketing and customer contact automation.
Disparate business units within today’s large enterprises frequently implement individual applications for e-mail automation, creating a patchwork of programs with different compliance standards and practices.
These enterprises lack centralized capabilities for the governance of e-mail programs, leaving gaps in compliance with corporate policies and government regulations and increasing vulnerability to fraud and spoofing.
A centralized infrastructure provides support for all lines of business and all types of automated e-mail and allows organizations to enforce policies and monitor activities, thus safeguarding themselves against non-compliance.
