Independent research conducted by Dynamic Markets on behalf of VERITAS Software has revealed that increasing dependency on e-mail has left many corporate users intolerant of even minimal e-mail downtime. If unplanned downtime occurs, 12 percent of Middle East e-mail users become irate immediately, 16 percent within one minute, 48 percent within half an hour and after just one hour without e-mail, a staggering 78 percent of all users are angry.
The respondents in the research were from across the USA and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), in medium to large-scale organizations employing 500+ staff. The cross industry sample covered 850 IT managers entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining the back-office e-mail environment. The findings of this research on electronic communications were presented to delegates at the VERITAS VISION event held in Dubai on June 11.
Commenting on the research, Mike Hynes, regional manager, VERITAS Middle East stated, “The results of this regional survey indicate that e-mail is now a vital component of business transactions in the Middle East, yet many companies in the region are unsure whether they can recover e-mail quickly and reliably in the event of downtime.”
With e-mail becoming business critical to Middle East-based organizations, effective mail management is essential, but often has not been implemented. For example, 54 percent of IT managers surveyed did not know how long it would take to restore their e-mail system in the event of an unplanned incident. Not surprisingly this situation is increasing the fear factor among IT staff. The majority of regional IT managers surveyed felt that e-mail downtime was detrimental to their job security.
Despite this fact across all countries surveyed, Middle East IT managers had the least understanding of how long it would take to restore e-mails following downtime, and how far back e-mails could be recovered. “Don’t know,” was the answer given by 26 percent and 54 percent, respectively, to these questions.
Even though a high skill level among IT staff appears to be growing in importance, the shortage of qualified IT personnel in the Middle East means that IT managers in the region still have one of the highest rates of job security across all countries surveyed. 42 percent stated that their e-mail system could be down for any length of time and their jobs would not be at risk. The highest rate of job security was Italy, 50 percent, and joint second with the Middle East was South Africa at 42 percent.
Arab News Compunet 17 June 2003