Why should uk businesses bear the cost of spam?

The need for government action was highlighted at a recent debate, chaired by Nick Ross, presenter of the BBC’s Crimewatch UK, at Inbox/Outbox 2006.

London, UK – Junk-email has been identified as a real threat to e-commerce in a live debate, “SPAM WARS – Marketing VS the IT department”, hosted by Nick Ross, presenter of the BBC’s Crimewatch UK, at last week’s Inbox/Outbox event. Expert panellists and members of the audience agreed that lazy marketers share some of the blame with criminal gangs & serial spammers and that corporate IT departments are currently left to bear the costs. The common view is that urgent government action is the only practical way to stop spam holding back the early promise of the Internet.

“Spam is a serious crime that costs businesses millions and defrauds hundreds of thousands of individuals most of whom will be uninsured against their losses. Today the villains are mostly small-time crooks, tomorrow it will be organised gangs, and soon it may be terrorists too.” Commented Nick Ross. “The government, the police and the business community have been slow to think this through, the conmen are getting away with it, and, just as with every crime wave in the past, it looks as though the authorities won’t get their act together until there’s a palpable crisis – as there was with mobile phones. Experts at Inbox/Outbox 2006 were unanimous that this is now an urgent issue. They agreed the problem can be tackled effectively, and there was an overwhelming consensus it could be done with market forces, but clearly it needsgovernment attention and police commitment. Revolution Events and I will now lobby for action.”

Criminal spamming is only the tip of the iceberg where junk email is concerned. Analyst firm Ferris Research has recently revealed that spam is costing UK businesses a staggering £1.3bn a year in lost productivity, genuine e-mails loss and IT costs - equivalent to £22 per user per year. From a technical point of view, ISPs have been singled out by the experts as the only players that could effectively put the brakes on the junk-marketing juggernaut. But in a highly competitive, price-sensitive market, it is doubtful that ISPs could bear these costs whilst retaining the ‘free’ service enjoyed by many customers. However, Graeme Hackland, IT Manager of the Renault Formula 1 Team, stated that he would prefer to pay an ISP for this service, rather than continue to build Fort Knox-like security into his own IT infrastructure.

Lazy marketers using non-targeted and poorly managed e-mail lists have been held responsible for much of today’s less easily identifiable junk e-mail. Ruth Rowan, General Manager of CRM for BT, pointed out that response rate to e-mail marketing is declining, and, to entice action, e-mails need to be timely, relevant and personalised. However, Rowan explained that the cost of sending blanket e-mails is 15% less than conducting a targeted campaign and e-mail personalisation costs twice as much. Additionally, Rowan said that marketers should value inbound contact and make more use of it. This statement is supported by a recent BT survey that showed that over 50% of e-mails coming back to organisations do not receive a response.

As a general consensus, members of the audience would like to see more targeting in the sending of e-mails and have more and clearly identified opt-in options. ISPs should also be held legally responsible for the spam sent via their services, according to 82% of the after-debate poll respondents (prior to the debate, only 60% of respondents were in agreement with this statement).

The SPAM WARS debate was one of the complimentary keynote sessions enjoyed by 900 attendees at Inbox/Outbox this year. The event included a free programme of more than 35 seminars covered new developments in email security, storage, compliance, e-marketing, outsourcing and mobile applications. The co-located exhibition showcased solutions from many of the leading technology suppliers including ATOS Origin, BT, EMC², IBM, Mimecast and Symantec.

Notes to Editor:

A selection of photographs from Inbox/Outbox 2006 including Nick Ross’s chaired debate is available on request. Please e-mail maria@revolution-events.com.

• SPAM WARS debate panellists included:        
• Ruth Rowan, General Manager for Customer Relationships, BT
• Graeme Hackland, IT Manager, Renault F1 Team
• Richi Jennings, Lead Analyst, Email Practice, Ferris Research
• Richard Cox, CIO, Spamhaus
• Fredrick Sjostedt, Senior Manager EMEA, Product Marketing, Symantec

Conference presentations
All keynotes and sponsors’ presentations can be downloaded from www.inbox-outbox.com    

About Inbox / Outbox 2006:
Inbox / Outbox is Europe’s leading email event, dedicated entirely to the only technology application that can truly be regarded as business-critical. The event includes a free programme of more than 35 daily seminars, covering nearly every aspect of email management, security, storage, data protection, privacy and legal compliance. Keynote speakers for 2006 include senior representatives from Jupiter Research, Ferris Research, TRUSTe, MESMO Consultancy, Osterman Research and The Information Commissioner's Office.

About Revolution Events Ltd:     
Revolution Events is one of the UK’s leading organisers of focused business forums, working primarily within the technology, government and professional sectors. Since 1999, Revolution have organised more than 120 business-to-business events for senior decision-makers - both under their own brands and for major clients such as Sage Software, Microsoft, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (now the Department of Communities & Local Government) and LloydsTSB.

Press Contact:            
Maria Boxley, Marketing Manager, Revolution Events Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1732 367007  /  Email: maria@revolution-events.com