Surprisingly, over 8% of my newsletter subscribers still use an email address where the domain name doesn’t match their website address. These subscribers use email addresses such as hometownwater@gmail.com or townofhometown@bellsouth.net.
While this certainly works for sending and receiving email and is a cost-effective solution, it presents the appearance of a mom-and-pop outfit, rather than a professional utility.
Did you know you can have business email for your domain, for example you@yourutility.com, for as little as $5.00/user per month?
For $5.00/user per month, $10.00/user per month if you need to archive emails (for example, if you are a public utility subject to Freedom of Information Act requests), you can subscribe to Google’s G Suite. G Suite, formerly known as Google Apps, includes Gmail, Calendar, Google Docs, and Google Drive.
Cloud solutions
The advantages of G Suite over a single email address include the ability to coordinate calendars, collaborate on spreadsheets or documents, and access shared documents without the need for a server in your office.
With more and more utilities choosing to host their utility billing software in the cloud, why not host your email, calendar, and shared documents the same way?
In addition to eliminating the need to purchase, maintain, and upgrade internal servers, a cloud-based email and calendar solution provides access to enterprise email without the need for a virtual private network (VPN).
