Computer Experts News and Events

Recently, several of our clients and friends have endured the pain of 'E-Mail Divorce.'  They left their prior company and moved to a new one.  One of the key issues in this transition was e-mail.  It isn't pretty.

Your e-mail address is the principal means by which your friends, contacts and colleagues stay in touch.  Unlike a twitter handle or Facebook/Linkedin presence, your professional e-mail address almost alway includes your company's domain name.  What happens when you move?  Where does the e-mail go?

Domain names have become 'property' are are fought over and negotiated about like children in a divorce.  How, and if, your e-mail gets forwarded, the wording of the auto-responder and the status of the contents in your e-mail box are all subject to dispute.

In the case of one client, the status of e-mail was the subject of lengthy, expensive negotiation.  In another, the acquiring company insisted on every employee converting to a new e-mail system - that didn't work!  In another, messages sent to the former address were redirected to another employee for processing.  How would you like someone else reading your e-mail?  In an e-mail divorce, it is just one of the optons!

Our advice is to think long and hard about how the e-mail assets of your company are managed, protected and may be potentially divided in the event of a break up.  The digital age may have brought change to much that we do, but it hasn't changed our desire to fight over valuable assets be they virtual or physical.