The Future of Email

Move from GroupWise to Gmail

For many years, the firm used Novell GroupWise for its email and calendaring system.  About two years ago, we switched to what is today called Google for Work as our email system.  In making this change, we lost some features, had to go through the difficulties associated with migrating all of our existing data to the new system, and had to relearn how to work with email the Google way.  Many have expressed to me their unhappiness with the change, so I thought I would spend today's post explaining why we made the change.

The change was not made lightly.  I have  had a personal Gmail account since early 2005, when the Gmail was still in beta testing.  I created a test domain with Google back 2008.  For several years, I judged Gmail not ready for the enterprise environment, but kept watching it improve.  We eventually created a test group that worked with the test system for many months and eventually made the decision in early 2013 to move the firm and its domain to manage Gmail.  The data and user migration itself took nearly a year to complete.

Reasons for the Change

There were many reasons for the change, including the following:

• Mobility: Gmail offers a much easier way to connect to iPhone and Android devices, as well as other access outside the office.  By removing the need for a client, you can check email on any computer with Internet access from anywhere in the world.  Although GroupWise had a web component, it was limited in its ability and difficult to use for many functions.
  
• Disaster Recovery: because Gmail is available from anywhere at any time, a disaster event that shuts down an office does not put us out of business.  We had two snow related events that caused an office to be shut down for several days while using GroupWise.  Attorneys could not access mail because the server containing their mailbox could nto get power.  Should such an event happen today, attorneys can still access email from home or a coffee shop without having to worry that the mail server is sitting in a powerless building.
  
• Better Mail Management: GroupWise tended to slow down the more mail you kept stored in your mailbox.  Gmail is designed so that even if you have tens of thousands of emails in your inbox, it does not get slowed down trying to sort and present them to you every time you open your account.
  
• Spam Filtering: Our spam filtering service went out of business in 2013.  A new service was going to cost as much per user as all of Gmail, which includes spam filtering.
  
• Server Proliferation: maintaining GroupWise required the maintenance of a mail server, a second server to connect phones to the mail system, a third server to handle web and internet interface issues, as well as space on six servers in various satellite offices.  Maintaining all that at a time when IT staff was shrinking was becoming too difficult.
  
• Remote Access Complaints: When using GroupWise remotely or from offices that did not have a local server, there were quite valid complaints about how slowly GroupWise operated.  By contrast, Gmail is designed to operate over low bandwidth Internet connections and works much better under such circumstances.
  
• Extra Features: In addition to mail, contacts and calendars, Google for Work offers a wide range of other features and add-ons, including Google Drive, video conferencing, instant chat, etc.  It also offers additional benefits behind the scenes benefits such as encrypted communications for clients who demand it, and management of cell phone devices to protect the security of email content.
  
• Elimination of several bugs: GroupWise had been giving us problems with corruption of archived mail, as well as issues related to addressing sent mail properly.  These are issues we were able to leave behind by moving to Google.
  
• Better Backup and Recovery: Use of Google Vault allows us to search for and recover any emails sent to or from the firm.  This makes tracking disputes over whether an email was sent much easier.  It also allows us to find content a user might have accidentally deleted but now needs.

Despite the difficulty of any transition and despite the loss of a few features we may have like in GroupWise, I think the switch was a major improvement for the firm.

Alternative Solutions:

Some have asked why the firm did not switch to a Microsoft Exchange system.  For me, this would have been worse choice than staying with GroupWise.  The problems of server proliferation and staff time spent fixing data problems or hardware and software glitches would have become worse.  Exchange would not only be more expensive and time consuming to run, but would probably result in increased down time.  It would increased IT staffing needs, resulting in increased costs.  Also, because Exchange must be updated every few years, the costs and inconveniences of upgrade would have made things worse.

Another option would have been to have a hosted Exchange server.  This essentially would shift the hassles of running the exchange server to a third party.  We looked at this option.  In addition to being more expensive, we would be reliant on the quality of services of whomever was managing our server.  Service and support might not live up to promises.  We also found greatly increased costs for various options that might need to be added later, such as encryption for clients would add extra costs.

A third alternative would have been to go with a competing cloud solution, such as Microsoft Office 365.  Microsoft did not start this service until mid-2011, after we were well into testing Google.  In its infancy, Microsoft had a great many bugs to work out.  It also offered few extras and was charging a great deal more and offering less features.  In addition, the web client was rather weak and limited, and using a new mail client would reduce our ability to access mail from outside the office and create additional expenses.  Google's solution made much more sense.

There were a number of other mail services that we considered.  But I was attracted to the security of having a large established multinational corporation that that could back up its data all over the world, and unlikely to go bankrupt to be a strong selling point for Google over many smaller companies offering similar services. 

Using a New Interface.

Of course, no solution is perfect, and I know people have complaints about Gmail.  One of the most commonly expressed is frustration with the user interface, i.e. the web page that shows the inbox.  Many people more familiar with other mail clients have found it difficult to get used to this.  

For a time, we considered adding a mail client to work with Gmail.  We tested Mozilla Thunderbird extensively, but were not satisfied with how it worked and decided not to send to a test group.

We are still evaluating whether to use MS Outlook as a mail client that can connect to Gmail.  This will give users the ability to do their mail in Outlook without having to use the Gmail web interface.

I have concerns about this option, not the least of which is that it is another point of failure.  It is another program that the help desk would need to learn and support.  There is the cost of getting Outlook for many users not using MS Office.  There are configuration issues related to keeping Outlook in sync with Gmail.  There will inevitably be difficulties with users who use Outlook sometimes and the web interface other times, with different features available depending on how it is accessed.  Obviously, Outlook would not be available on every device you might access your mail account, meaning there would inevitably be some back and forth.  I also don't put it past Microsoft to create bugs when connecting Outlook to Gmail, or eventually cutting off Google's ability to use its patented ActiveSync technology in order to force users to drop Gmail for Microsoft's solution.

These concerns aside, we have been evaluating Outlook as an option and have been testing its benefits and limits.

Gmail Will Remain for the Foreseeable Future

Some have asked if we might switch our Email to Office 365 or another provider.  I am still convinced that Gmail provides the best option for the firm.  Even if I were to be convinced there is something better, it would take several years to plan and execute a conversion of all of our data.  I am unlikely to put the firm through such a disruptive event again unless there was a marked benefit to the change.  At present, I do not see that with any other service or system.

What are your thoughts?

I have  tried to express my view in this article.  But you the users have a say in where we may move in the future.  If there are good reasons to change, we are always open to looking at other solutions.  You can make your opinions known by taking the poll below.  Click on the link below to take the firm's poll on email systems:

Take the Poll

See the Results

The results will update as more people take the poll, so feel free to check back.