• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, August 7, 2019

Have you ever thought much about what it takes to change email platforms?

For starters, there is the question of how to choose a new service, according to an advisory issued on Wednesday by Mission Architects.

Should you try to save a few bucks use a free one? Or should you pony up and get the best platform you can? That's a critical issue if you’re using it not only to run your office but also for sales and/or marketing.

Finally, who, if anyone, can walk you through this nightmare? A slipshod selection process can lead to loss of data and disruption to your staff and customers.   

Mission Architects advises you to ask the following seven questions before undertaking a migration. We paraphrase them here, along with one or two points of our own.   

Assuming that you outsource it, should the migration be done in the U.S. or offshore? This may depend on the sensitivity of your data and unknown content. 

How will this affect users? Will they need to log out, and will the system be unusable for periods of time?

Does the new solution allow processing of personal archive data? Will historical relevant data be recoverable post-migration? If not, the company could be at risk. 

Will all your data be migrated? This doesn’t only mean email data, but sales contacts, client information, appointments, tasks and notes? 

How do you avoid data bloat? Can you filter out messages based on date, content or message type? Can your vendor help with this?

How long will it take -- and what ‘s the real cost of maintaining, licensing and supporting separate platforms for extended periods? You can’t afford to derail other critical projects.

What’s the anticipated data loss, and will you have forensics reporting to identify non-migrated messages? This feature shows that the vendor is taking you seriously.

All these are critical issues. As Messaging Architects notes, you don’t want your CEO to miss an appointment because your calendar is out of whack, or for litigation to be held up because a date or detail is missing.

In the end, look it from the B2B salesperson’s perspective. Do you want your team to be put out of business for a day or two — or more? At the least, you may end up hearing some very bad language.