Re: E-mail suggestions for a small law office (long)

From: Jim Watt (jimwatt_at_aol.no_way)
Date: 12/19/03 

Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2003 09:30:30 +0100

On Fri, 19 Dec 2003 02:05:25 GMT, not_real@nospam.xyz (Beachcomber)
wrote:

>A small law office startup partnership I am working with is in need of
>an e-mail system for a staff of 5-6 persons. I'm wondering if it
>would be best to install an on site dedicated mail server, or contract
>with an offsite 3rd party to provide e-mail. They have a dedicated
>static IP broadband connection, Linksys 24 port router/hub, VPN
>capabilities, but no full time IT person to deal with updates, spam,
>security, and virus disinfection issues. This work is contracted out
>to part-time consultants.
>
>Here is the list of features the principal partners would like to
>see...
>
>1. User administration of the entire e-mail domain account with a
>master admin login and password so that employees can have e-mail
>monitored, and accounts created, deleted, etc. without the delay of
>calling a consultant or outside 3rd party to do this work.
>
>2. In spite of Microsoft security and periodic virus problems, they
>like Outlook and the ability to VPN from home to office and have the
>Outlook interface come up (with Calender, Contacts, and all that other
>good stuff). They also would like to use Webmail e-mail as a backup
>method in case they are operating from a PC without VPN for some
>reason.
>
>3. Secured e-mail, preserving the confidentiality of attachments and
>the text of messages to a zone within the firewall on the premises
>would highly desirable, but not necessarily the deciding factor.
>
>The basic questions are:
>
>Should this company contract with a third party to setup a Microsoft
>Exchange server (off premises and outside the office firewall) to do
>this work? Anyone have an estimate as to the cost, licensing
>requirements of this option, etc? Is this even possible?
>
>Or...
>
>Should they install an on-site, inside the router e-mail server
>solution? Who would be the best person to do the updates, and restore
>crashes, cleanout the inevitable viruses, etc? How much daily/weekly
>maintainance does an e-mail server require? Do they need to hire a
>full time person for this?
>
>Which would be the most cost-effective and reliable solution?
>
>Any assistance or advice would be most appreciated...
>
>Beachcomber
>

Not really an a.c.s topic, but this happens to be exactly the sort of
thing I make a living at.

Before ADSL there was a great advantage in having an in-house
server - we have now mostly phased these out as they cause more
problems and delays and require administration.

Microsoft exchange is - IMHO - a crime against humanity - we have done
three of them and they were the most problematic.

Many of our users also like outlook, its not to my taste but its
not a problem.

Apart from the exchange users we have moved to an outsourced
solution which provides a web based administration system to the
client to add accounts, change passwords etc, with webmail available
which is very handy for access off premises. It also includes virus
filtering which is a must.

This solution seems to work very nicely, and the running cost is
minimal and it seems to eliminate the problems we previously had.

If you care to contact me, via the response form on my website
below, and I can tell you more and give some reference law
firms we look after.

I rather like laywers as clients, one always gets a good argument
you get to bill them, rather than the reverse, and they understand
and value services. 

--
Jim Watt          http://www.gibnet.com

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