I hate email! There i said it.

I am tired of trying to integrate our company into one unified platform. Google Apps do not work under proxy, Outlook is slow and way too expensive. ZOHO is way too slow. I decided to list the few things that i/we need and the possible options.

• We want to communicate to our current and future customers and amongst ourselves.
• We want to be able to contact anybody in our company through this medium.
• We want to receive communication from our current and future customers.
• We want to be able to use this communication to be relayed across amongst ourselves as fast and as effectively as possible.
• We want everyone to know where everyone stands on a topic at any given moment.
• We use email as a means for internal memo, so it becomes a validating/supporting document. for e.g. if an inspection report has been sent across to our customers it can be copied to everyone. We want everyone to know about it.
• It should be technology easy to adapt and inexpensive to use.
• It should be able to accommodate offline customers i.e. customers who do not yet use the internet. So if we are to send a document to them say FAX them, it should appear on our communication tool too. This way everyone will know about it.

Its clear that such a system can only be in hybrid format. There is no system in existence which would do everything stated above. Unless its a complete offline system. We could use a mix and match approach with message boards and an email client. Currently we are open to suggestions …