Outsource IT: The Trend Continues

Traditionally, outsourcing has been seen as a way to rapidly and dramatically cut costs especially with technology. As outsourcing IT matures, companies are also realizing that the technology they outsource still must be woven into larger, end-to-end processes that's cost efficient and cost effective. For example, sales people still must roll up into an organization's CRM system, share sales report with other team members, then dispatch emails to customers efficiently and on-demand regardless of location.

As we move into the ubiquitous adoption of Software-as-a-Server (SaaS 2.0) evolution, one thing is for sure - technology must optimize business to transform how we work in a meaningful way.

From a business perspective, organizations must integrate various in-house and outsourced technology to enable seamless, reliable business process ready to scale (up or down) with minimum complexities while delivering real ROI.

This, in turn, require a whole slew of processes that includes:
- identify infrastructure, software, growth needs
- define IT goals and policies
- purchase hardware and software
- hire and/or train staff to implement infrastructure
- maintain the IT environment
- support internal and external users

Pointivity has unified all the processes above with the best-practices outsourcing resulting in a Total Outsourced Solution from Managed Services to Hosted Services delivered on a simple per user per month OPEX model. The solution enables businesses to maintain control and focus on their core competencies while shifting all IT risks and responsibilities to Pointivity.

Outsourcing can also reduce operating costs, help companies to make efficient use of technology, save on investment in hardware and software, streamline reporting to management and regulators, provide access to additional functionality, improve data security, and the list goes on!

How we do it, click to enlarge

We're now offering "Total Outsourced Solution" to selected partners who qualify to private label the entire solution to their customers.

Business Continuity and Compliance Solution from Pointivity

With business becoming more complex and interconnected, the risk and cost of disruption extends well beyond IT, to every aspect of business processes. Business continuity is vital to business success.

In addition there are many regulations that cover Business Continuity and the overall category of Electronic Media. Some of these are industry specific such as Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), SOX, SEC, FINRA and HIPAA.

Pointivity manages all client infrastructures through a state-of-the-art SAS 70 (Statement on Auditing Standards No.70) Type II compliance data center, reflecting a consistent, reliable and secure operating environment to support customers worldwide. Keep in mind that all hardware are owned, maintained, and managed completely by Pointivity.

That's the foundation of our Hosted Services and IT Outsourced Solution. We then add our Backup & Disaster Recovery Solution (BDR) and Messaging Archiving Solutions to deliver a comprehensive business continuity and compliance solution.

This cost effective solution can be tailored to individual business needs on a pay-as-you-go per user per month model while support is available via our Managed Services to provide a complete continuity program.

About the SAS 70 Type II:
SAS 70 is an internationally recognized auditing standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). SAS 70 is an acronym for ‘Statement of Auditing Standards.'

SAS 70 demonstrates that service providers have adequate controls and safeguards when they host or process data related to their customer base.

The audit includes on-boarding policies for new hires, disaster recovery and business continuity planning, IT and physical security policies, data backup and recovery procedures, provisioning of services, asset tracking and inventory management, separation of client infrastructures, decommissioning of servers and services, and other business practices.

High SaaS Adoption + SEC Mandates = Hosted Email Archiving

Email archiving continues to grow in market demand despite the downturn, in December the United States Securities and Exchange Commission sent an open letter to CEOs of SEC-registered firms imploring them to not ignore or cut short of their compliance responsibilities because of the economic downturn. Some of the SEC mandates for these firms includes proper email archiving and email compliance. The message is simple: do not cut corners just because things are getting tough, cut cost elsewhere but not email archiving.

Interesting enough, according to ZDnet last week, Forrester disclosed their Q4 SaaS research report which indicated an accelerated growth with SaaS adoption amongst companies looking to seek cost cutting alternatives.


Combine the two and you get a growing market demand for "Hosted Email Archiving" in a shrinking economy. There is no doubt that customers want the benefits of email archiving but this time they want it on a SaaS (pay-as-you-go) model.

Pointivity partners can now offers email archiving (Global Relay) along with enterprise communication (Microsoft Exchange), collaboration (SharePoint), and wireless email (BlackBerry, ActiveSync) as part of a complete hosted solution with private label capabilities. Our partner program is designed to enable partners to be more competitive and flexible while building a strong recurring revenue stream.