Messaging Predictions

December 31, 2005

Here's what Ferris Research thinks will be the main projects/issues that messaging managers will be concerned with in 2006. They are in rough order of priority for the typical organization. Ferris Research is an analyst firm specializing in messaging and collaboration--see www.ferris.com for details. This is a summary of the report, "Key Messaging & Collaboration Issues, 2006"

Implementing Email Archiving & Retention. The main issues are determining regulatory requirements, defining policies to implement, product selection, ensuring compliance, records management and disaster

recovery.

Dealing With Email Overload. Many people are out of control of their mix of tasks, and are frustrated. We haven't worked out how to live well with email, and the tools from vendors are still poor

Mobile Messaging Deployment. Implementing a cost-effective, secure method of doing this, while controlling support efforts

"Zero Hour" Virus Control. Viruses that arrive before their corresponding signatures have been developed and deployed will become a larger problem

Spam Control. This continues to be a problem, and organizations will continue to move to different spam control solutions

Phishing Control. These are fraudulent attempts to get you to part with sensitive information, often via a website but also through email and instant messages. Messaging staff will have to find hardware and software solutions

Instant Messaging Implementation. Enterprises will need to decide whether to use secure, in-house, IM deployments or continue to use free, public instant messaging services. Common concerns will be containing the growth of public solutions, capturing content for regulatory compliance, and protection from viruses and spam

Teamspaces: Learning and Planning. SharePoint is stimulating a lot of interest in this area as an

alternative to simple file servers. 2006 will be an important year in that many people will experiment with the technology, and get familiar with the concepts

Consumer Messaging Functionality & Cost. CIOs are asking why their "enterprise" collaboration systems seem so much more restrictive, cost so much more to operate and seem to be so much less reliable than "consumer" collaboration systems. This is a question that messaging managers will need to begin answering in 2006.

Upgrades & Migrations. Migrating between email systems takes a lot of resources. So do upgrades to major new versions of an email system

Other Major Issues

There are other topics they felt are likely to be important issues for messaging managers in 2006, but which didn't quite make it into the Top Ten. Here they are:

Email management

Search

Handling Larger Attachments

VoIP

Wikis

RSS/Atom