There's no doing without an efficient spam and virus filter. The question is, which way is best? Basically, you have two options for solving the problem: a) do it yourself, or b) outsource it.

Naturally, you can invest in hardware and software, as well as skilled IT professionals, who ensure that your company is always working with the latest spam and virus filters. Unfortunately, that doesn't solve the problem. First, it doesn't end with the initial investment - and maintenance costs you plenty of money. You also need to configure your email system to handle 90% of spam and viruses - costing the same amount of money again. And you'll be tying up resources in an unproductive area, since having your IT people occupied with spam and viruses leaves them little time for their real work. And if the specialist responsible for spam and virus filtering falls ill, goes on vacation, or leaves the company, the problem gets serious. Above all, you're investing without the prospect of a return. From this perspective, you can't solve the problem itself without taking on further problems.

Much more sensible (and a lot cheaper!) is delegating the problem to a company like Spamchek, whose core competency is filtering email. For us, it pays to invest in high-performance servers and up-to-date filters: The return is customer satisfaction and growth. What that means for you: By outsourcing, you increase the capacity of your IT infrastructure, because the email volume on your mail server is dramatically reduced. Your IT staff have time for productive tasks, rather than worrying about spam and virus filters. Above all, you save good money, because with Spamchek you get a much better product for far less money than if you solve the problem internally.