Disease: Rising email costs
According to a Forrester Research report, in-house email generally costs between $16.59 and $28.22 per month per user (Center For College Affordability And Productivity, 2010). Of course this range will vary upon the size of the enterprise. These information technology costs simply did not exist a generation ago.
Solution: Outsource email
According to the Center For College Affordability And Productivity (2010), the use of Google Apps or Microsoft Live services cost between $4 and $11 per month per user respectively. As of October 27, 2011, Google apps is now free for students, faculty and staff of qualifying institutions (Google, n.d.) . Consequently, utilizing either of the above outsourcing vehicles would entail substantial savings for any size educational institution. The Chronicle of Higher Education writes that "More than 1,000 colleges have signed up with those two companies because, college administrators say, it makes sense to let professionals take over." (Carnevale, 2008)
CBU recently implemented a migration for student accounts and this is expected to save the institution quite a bit of money over time.
CBU recently implemented a migration for student accounts and this is expected to save the institution quite a bit of money over time.
Carnevale, D. (2008, January 11). Colleges get out of e-mail business. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com.ezproxy.cbu.edu:9000/article/Colleges-Get-Out-of-E-Mail/27870/
Center For College Affordability And Productivity (2010). 25 ways to reduce the cost of college. Washington, DC: Retrieved from http://centerforcollegeaffordability.org/uploads/25Ways_to_Reduce_the_Cost_of_College.pdf
Google (n.d.). Higher Education -- Google apps for higher education. Retrieved October 27, 2011, from http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/edu/university.html
WOW!!! I would honestly never have thought about the cost of an email account!! I guess part of this is because I have always used Google and Hotmail which are free. Why do institutions not use these "free" services? That to me actually sounds like a no brainer.
ReplyDeleteK. Schaefer-Mumiukha
Kristin,
ReplyDeleteGreat question -- why not? Some universities have privacy concerns, but if you read google's website, it appears that these concerns are appropriately addressed. Recently CBU, where I work, migrated student accounts to Google, but kept faculty and staff accounts on a local server because of privacy concerns. I should note that even with this "split decision" only migrating student accounts to Google, CBU is saving quite a bit of money, uptime is much better, and the students have larger email boxes than before!
To further answer your question, another reason why is job protection. The only reason CBU migrated at all is because the Board of Trustees demanded it. It did not come from the IT department! (Loss of departmental jobs and budget.)
Paul