> Thanks for the great advice... Since you have been through this before, > would you mind offering some input on what to offer as the three possible > solutions?
It depends completely on what your preferences are and your environment's requirements. After many hard lessons I've learned to no longer offer any proposals that include something that I'm unhappy with as a solution. In the past, I've thought it important to offer all possibilites and explain the pros and cons of each. I call this the Chinese Menu Proposal. It's a terrible idea. It's a terrible idea because when leadership hired us they did so (hypothetically) so that we can solve problems for them. If we give them a bad option as one of the options in a proposal we have inherently blessed that bad option as an acceptable option because, as experts, we have brought it to leadership's attention.[1] Let leadership come up with the bad ideas on their own, without our help or blessings. This is not to say that every option in a proposal must be perfect. It's part of our job to also explain the known, accepted, risks of each option so that leadership can make an informed decision. The job before you is to come up with three options that you're confident will meet the company's needs within well defined growth/time limits and the risks/benefits of each option. So, I can't give you specifics, but very likely it may look something like this: 1. Upgrade current system to XYZ configuration/ 2. Purchase outsourced hosting for some/all of Exchange needs. 3. No upgrades. Significant hardlimits on mailbox size and device access below current levels. In each case you'll need to provide the cost of the solution, the benefits, risks, impact on IT department, and impact on end users. Good luck! Gil [1] And, the bad option is inevitably the cheapest option so leadership is naturally drawn to it like a moth to the high voltage bug zapper. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
