This paper examines how a manufacturing company should address the failure of its internal email and instant messaging (IM) applications to meet user expectations while operating costs continue to rise. After reviewing three options — retaining in-house management, full outsourcing to a third party, and cloud-based hosting — the paper argues that complete outsourcing is the most appropriate solution. It discusses the benefits of outsourcing, including reduced operating costs, improved business focus, and enhanced application performance through service-level agreements. The paper also outlines key assumptions underlying the recommendation and addresses associated risks, such as project failure rates and corporate security vulnerabilities.
The paper demonstrates solution-framing analysis: rather than simply describing a problem, it explicitly enumerates competing options before arguing for one. It then reinforces that argument with layered support — cost evidence, performance guarantees via service-level agreements, and scalability benefits — while pre-emptively addressing counterarguments through the assumptions and risks sections.
The paper opens with a problem statement in the introduction, then contextualizes email and IM hosting in the manufacturing industry. It presents three possible solutions before advocating for full outsourcing. Three benefit categories — cost reduction, business focus, and performance — are each given their own section. The paper then addresses assumptions and risks before closing with a concise conclusion, following a classic problem–solution–evaluation format common in business and technology writing.
For a manufacturing company, one of the most important aspects of organizational success is the effective management of information. This process essentially entails delivering email and instant messaging (IM) applications to internal users. The process is considered effective when the performance of these applications meets user expectations at suitable operating costs. However, a manufacturing company is forced to reexamine its approach to delivering these applications when performance does not meet user expectations while operating costs continue to increase. The evaluation of delivery approaches is further driven by the fact that email and its associated operational costs account for a significant portion of the company's financial performance.
In the modern world, and particularly in the manufacturing industry, email and IM hosting plays a crucial role in business operations. This necessity is brought about by the increased use of technology in manufacturing processes and the need to avoid the disruption caused when office email goes down (Pruitt, n.d.). When these applications fail to meet user expectations and operating costs continue to escalate, many business owners face a difficult situation.
This scenario is likely to arise because workers become frustrated when awaiting emailed documents from colleagues and clients. Such disruptions can have significant impacts on a manufacturing company's success by damaging the manufacturing process. The situation also burdens the organization's technical staff, who are constantly questioned about when the system will be restored.
Similarly, instant messaging has become one of the most rapidly growing means of communication in modern business. The growth of IM applications is attributed to the increasing importance of collaboration in business operations through the convergence of several communication technologies (Hsu, 2004). For internal users, IM applications are often integrated with other services such as email to enhance communication within the company. Because they function as enterprise applications, integrating IM with other services requires the use of commercially available enterprise IM solutions (Hsu, 2004).
IM applications play a critical role in enterprise communication because IM protocols are integrated with other technology protocols, making IM an important part of organizational communications. Poor performance of IM applications therefore has critical impacts on organizational processes and effectiveness. Much like poor email performance, failing IM systems in a manufacturing company are likely to cause damaging effects on manufacturing processes.
For an organization whose email and IM applications have failed to meet user expectations despite increasing operating costs, several solutions are worth considering. These include retaining the data center and ownership of the applications in-house, completely outsourcing email and IM compute and application systems to a third party, and contracting a third party to host these applications through a cloud computing infrastructure.
The most appropriate solution for the company is to completely outsource its email and instant messaging applications to a third party. This process is also referred to as outsourcing the help desk, which carries several advantages, including the elimination of infrastructure issues and the ease of providing full-time support (Morrison, 2003, p. 232). Outsourcing email and IM applications has become a conventional part of modern business operations. It allows the company to use external experts, equipment, and personnel to carry out responsibilities that were previously handled internally (Alvarez, 2009, p. 25).
In relation to the failure of these applications to meet user expectations despite escalating costs, complete outsourcing is an important direction to consider. This approach enables the organization to engage a full-service firm that specializes in the design, production, and delivery of communications infrastructure. As a result, the organization formalizes its mail center operations into a business relationship with an external supplier. Within that relationship, the third party assumes responsibility for production, including people, processes, technology, and assets (Alvarez, 2009, p. 25).
One of the primary reasons for completely outsourcing these application systems is the need to lower costs and increase efficiency. Outsourcing supports these objectives by enabling the most appropriate and efficient use of capital, technology, labor, and resources in managing information.
Through outsourcing, the third party — typically a small or mid-sized firm — handles the setup and management of email and instant messaging systems on custom platforms. Such companies configure an organization's email, develop the domain name, and provide multiple accounts. Unlike in-house hosting, third-party hosting offers several benefits that outweigh its risks. One notable disadvantage of in-house hosting is that the company bears the extra cost of updating security software, as well as responsibility for setting up, managing, and backing up the entire system.
One of the major advantages of completely outsourcing email and IM applications is the reduction of operating costs. The primary concern for the manufacturing company is that these applications continue to drive up operating costs despite failing to meet user expectations. Major costs associated with managing these applications internally include initial hardware costs, antivirus and anti-spam software, and long-term server maintenance costs that often exceed original acquisition costs (Posey, n.d.).
By completely outsourcing these applications, the organization can avoid both initial startup costs and ongoing maintenance expenses. Operating costs will also decline because the company will not need to hire additional employees or invest in extensive training or infrastructure rebuilding to accomplish various tasks ("What is Outsourcing?" n.d.). Outsourcing also promotes cost-sharing, as maintenance and monitoring expenses can be distributed across multiple client organizations.
In general, in-house management of email and IM applications is more costly due to the range of associated expenses. While internal labor costs may appear minimal, routine administration makes internal management more expensive over time (Ou, 2006). Through complete outsourcing, the organization can obtain efficient email and IM systems for a relatively low monthly fee.
By reducing operating costs, the organization frees internal resources for other purposes. Outsourcing allows the company's employees to focus more on core business functions and customer needs, while a third party handles all operational details. The company can improve its efficiency by outsourcing email and IM applications and redirecting attention to the core aspects of its operations.
Outsourcing email and IM applications to a third party is the most appropriate solution because it will result in improved application performance. The third party promotes improved performance by ensuring that systems meet user expectations.
The ability of complete outsourcing to enhance performance is supported by the guarantee of greater system reliability through a service-level agreement (Waxer, 2008). Through this arrangement, the organization enters a formalized agreement with the third party that includes real financial penalties, unlike agreements with an internal department. Furthermore, outsourcing enhances performance because the third party provides greater flexibility and scalability (Waxer, 2008). For example, the organization can launch new services and add new inboxes in various locations at predictable costs.
Selecting the most appropriate solution to address the failure of email and IM applications to meet user expectations requires critical consideration of all available options. The decision should also be based on identifying the choice that will enhance the effectiveness of the company's operations at the lowest possible cost. Given the failure of these applications to meet user expectations alongside escalating costs, the manufacturing company needs an effective solution that will enhance its operations, promote communication, and support organizational productivity.
The effectiveness of email and instant messaging applications is an important aspect for many organizations due to their impact on overall company performance. For a manufacturing firm, the most suitable solution to address the failure of these applications to meet user expectations and the problem of escalating costs is to completely outsource these systems to a third party.
You’re 69% through this paper. Sign up to read the remaining 2 sections.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.