Internal-only "mail" solution
-
Good morning all. We use software that has an internal messaging system that functions like email. The new update from the software vendor is removing that feature but we still use it daily. I set up the Openfire/Spark IM platform but I want to try something else that is more like email versus IM. My initial thoughts are to set up an email server on a VM internally such as Nethserver Mail or Zimbra, but I may be overthinking it.... Thoughts?
-
Why do you want it to be more like email?
-
Why is the feature being removed? SMTP functionality is the most basic type of functionality that most systems have.
-
What is your current email platform? Exchange, Office 365? or other system?
-
Some options are:
- Rocket chat
- Skype
- Team Speak
- Telegram
-
Current email platform is Hosted exchange with Outlook. Not all employees have company email and management feels they don't need it. They want a replacement "messaging" system that has the look and feel of email. If it were up to me, I would just give everyone a regular email like normal.
-
Clearly there is a miss between what management feels that they need, and that they are using.
If they are using an email like solution, why not continue with email?
Just sign them up for gmail accounts and tie them into thunderbird then. Problem solved and they actually have email.
-
@brandon220 said in Internal-only "mail" solution:
Current email platform is Hosted exchange with Outlook. Not all employees have company email and management feels they don't need it. They want a replacement "messaging" system that has the look and feel of email. If it were up to me, I would just give everyone a regular email like normal.
I would split the vote on this...
-1 to the PAB - for allowing 'non company email'
+1 to you for wanting to give every email.s for messaging acting like email - pretty sure that is not how it works...
Convert your Hosted Exchange to o365 and you can use SEND or Yammer
-
The logic (according to the bosses) for an email-type system is to retain messages and have the normal features. The old system forced you to check the messages as soon as you logged in to the software. Not sure how they expect to get everyone to check a new system daily and actually use it.
-
@brandon220 said in Internal-only "mail" solution:
The logic (according to the bosses) for an email-type system is to retain messages and have the normal features. The old system forced you to check the messages as soon as you logged in to the software. Not sure how they expect to get everyone to check a new system daily and actually use it.
OK so email is the answer here, you get retention and you can mandate read-receipts.
-
@dustinb3403 said in Internal-only "mail" solution:
@brandon220 said in Internal-only "mail" solution:
The logic (according to the bosses) for an email-type system is to retain messages and have the normal features. The old system forced you to check the messages as soon as you logged in to the software. Not sure how they expect to get everyone to check a new system daily and actually use it.
OK so email is the answer here, you get retention and you can mandate read-receipts.
That doesn't fit the bill though. Read receipts only show that you've read it, it doesn't force you to read it.
This is just a bad top down decision. If you're having issues with people reading messages, deal with the people. You could easily skirt the old rules by just not logging in at all.
I wish there were studies to show on average how much decisions like this cost the business vs just dealing with the problem people.
-
I feel like Rocket.Chat would work really well for this. It can do both one-to-one messaging and group messaging. Setup a few rooms for various purposes and you'd have a pretty robust solution.
-
Nothing can require someone to read a message at all.
Unless you're testing the person at the end of each question.
I get the point, but management is wanting to nail people to a wall. Read receipts do this.
-
@dustinb3403 said in Internal-only "mail" solution:
Nothing can require someone to read a message at all.
Unless you're testing the person at the end of each question.
I get the point, but management is wanting to nail people to a wall. Read receipts do this.
Yes, it feels as though management wants an IT solution for an HR problem.
-
@gjacobse said in Internal-only "mail" solution:
Some options are:
- Rocket chat
- Skype
- Team Speak
- Telegram
Those are all IM, not email though.
-
@brandon220 said in Internal-only "mail" solution:
The logic (according to the bosses) for an email-type system is to retain messages and have the normal features. The old system forced you to check the messages as soon as you logged in to the software. Not sure how they expect to get everyone to check a new system daily and actually use it.
How is this different than IM systems? Other than saying it is like email, since it's not using SMTP, it's not like email. From the description, it doesn't sound like email fits the desired bill more or less than other solutions.
