Why Would I Fear the Move to Hosted Exchange?

I can see you wondering why I, the guy who is always 'for' the use of a Hosted Exchange solution, would ask such a question. You would be right to wonder but, like with any new venture you undertake; be it in business or in your personal life, cloud computing and Hosted Exchange is something that has to be considered carefully. But not necessarily just on a technical level - sometimes on a personal level.

Personally speaking, my only fear when it comes to adopting such a solution is that my employees would become e-mail addicted - especially when they are using smartphones to check their e-mails. I've been through it: I've been a blackberry user, then I moved to an Android smartphone and gosh - how easy it is to forward everything to your e-mail: professional e-mails, R.S.S feeds, e-mail notifications from multiple social network pages, personal e-mail, and so on and so forth.

I've even been in a situation where I wake up at night to pay a visit to the little boy's room and I can't help but check if there's an interesting e-mail that has arrived. I know first hand how it can become quite addictive so it's no wonder that some people make a business from helping people disconnect from e-mail and the internet.

This addiction has nothing to do with a Hosted Exchange solution as such. The fact that professional e-mails are at your smartphone's reach can also be very convenient for the employer. After all, the employer believes they're empowering their employees by setting up a cloud-based, streamline business email solution - and this is definitely true. However, experience has also shown that some employers will automatically assume that, since their employees have this 24/7 access, they also have a much bigger obligation when it comes to e-mail reaction time. This has the potential to create frustration between colleagues who feel they would be under more and more pressure. This is something that needs to be properly addressed.

You have to remember though, within corporations that have already been using 24/7 e-mail systems similar to that of a Hosted Exchange solution (and bear in mind that this issue isn't specific to Hosted Exchange), people already have the power to easily send an e-mail at 1am on a Wednesday morning, then call at noon to get feedback. This scenario happens with corporations who give out corporate phones to their employees. When 24/7 e-mail wasn't yet available, the 1am e-mail could still be sent in the form of a 1am S.M.S.

So what's my point? Let's go back to the title of my article "Why Would I Fear the Move to Hosted Exchange?" My concern is simple: if not properly planned and agreed, there's a chance that there will be some issues between employers and employees when it comes to the response time. But there's a simple solution to it, and it isn't technological: people didn't have access to their e-mails 24/7 before and they could still get the basics done; so it's important for employees to understand that it's okay to wait until office working hours before dealing with every single professional e-mail.

Even when you receive e-mails outside of working hours, you don't necessarily have to deal with it right away; even though you have access to it on a permanent basis. It's there if you need it. Plus, it's not just about working every hour God sends - access to your tasks, to do list and calendar gives you the opportunity to organise your time better - even while you're on the train home - which might even give you the chance to book some spare time into your calendar. And if business really can't wait, in an emergency case, you have the reassurance of having your data to hand.

So, as you can see, the answer to the question I initially asked has nothing to do with the overall business or technical implications of moving to hosted email, nor specific to Hosted Exchange, 2010. Yes, in my view, moving to a hosted solution is definitely the way to go (and most certainly a must to keep your business moving forward) but it's good to cast a personal eye over it and anticipate issues that may happen - after all, it will no doubt bring some aspects of your business and personal lives together. Of course the extent of this and making sure it doesn't get out of hand will be down to the individual.

Hosted Exchange 2010 is a business grade email service available from Giacom. For more information, visit www.giacom.com.