Many Firms Underestimate Email’s Full Cost
Forrester also asked about how many servers and mailboxes our respondents are supporting today.
The responses reflect the range of firms that we surveyed, and when we calculated the number of
mailboxes per server, the results were not surprising – they were all over the map.
When Forrester asked the firms what they thought their email cost them, we were surprised by the
lowball estimates and the lack of consistency. These execs think that email costs them anywhere
between $2 and $11 per user per month, with the majority guessing $10. When we spoke with these
executives, their reasons were many: “Our system is fully depreciated,” “Hardware and support are
in someone else’s budget,” “We get email for free in our enterprise client license.”
But even a rough calculation shows that the monthly cost for email hardware and software alone
is more than that. And when you add in the costs of staff, maintenance, storage, archiving, mobile
email, and financing, it can be four times higher. So while the cost to an individual budget holder
might look low, the fully loaded cost of email is surprisingly high.
