For those businesses that manage their own email server, I have the following recommendations:

1)  Transition to a hosted platform.  Companies with less than 250 employees DO NOT need their own mail server.  In fact, organizations with less than 25 employees are throwing good money into a bad situation.  Maintaining your own mail server requires constant IT Resources, Storage, Integration headaches (i.e. Blackberry), constant MS Outlook Mail issues, etc.  Removing the dedicated mail system will save your business an extensive amount of time and money.  You will see ROI within the first year - http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-much-is-faster-collaboration-worth.html.

2)  Think seriously about transitioning from Blackberry devices and go with Apple iPhones or Google Droid devices.  Why?  Apple and Google are spending an incredible amount of money on Research and Development.  You the business owner will benefit from all of this R & D spend.  Additionally, these smartphones allow for email integration WITHOUT the need for extra servers like Blackberry Enterprise Manager server.  Dell announced last week that they were moving 25,000 employee from Blackberry devices to their own Droid device.  Countless other companies are transitioning from Blackberry on a daily basis. 

3)  Start using browser based solutions for your daily workload.  Start with accessing your email using a web browser.  Web browsers do not require as much attention and upgrades as custom solutions like Microsoft Outlook does.

At the end of the day, you run a business, not an IT shop.  Do not allocate funds for a full-time employee to simply manage email server and a few PCs.  That is not a good investment.  Also, do not hire an IT Consultant to do the same.  Instead, contract with a Service Provider whose specialty is managing IT for businesses so that businesses can focus on their core competency.  Here is where I ask customers to think back to the Opportunity Cost discussion from their college Econ 101 class.

The GAD Group is a Service Provider whose core competency is managing IT Systems and processes for businesses.  We endeavor to strike a great relationship with our customers and provide a great service to them for many years.