Review of TIES Email Service Council Working Group on Financial and Human Resources January 2017

Overview ITU’s TIES email service was created in the 1990s to facilitate the work of delegates, at a time when alternatives were not available As various alternative (mostly free) services have been introduced in the market, the number of TIES email users has dropped significantly If the service is to continue, investments are needed to bring it up to today’s security and user interface standards. This is difficult to justify given the low number of users To provide further verification of the current situation, the Secretariat conducted a survey and interviews to get direct feedback from Members

Profile of Survey Respondents Survey was sent to all TIES users: Over 2’200 responses Member States (44%) Sector members (32%) Associates (7%) Other – mostly international organizations (7%), Academia (5%), Admin Related Entities (2%) Permanent Missions (1%) Of the total, 58% of respondents were from developed countries, 36% from developing countries and 6% from least developed countries

Usage Almost all respondents knew they have a TIES email (84%) But usage is low: 47% never use, 14% use it yearly, 12% quarterly and 12% monthly Only 6% of respondents use the service daily and 9% weekly Main reason : 86% say they have other email services that meet their requirements Most common usage is to forward emails 72% of users rely on TIES email only for ITU-related discussions

Opinions – Maintain TIES Email? 51% said yes 33% had no opinion 16% said no However, less than 1% of respondents would be willing to pay for this service. The rest said that they are not willing to pay (even a nominal fee of 10 CHF or less per month) or have no opinion.

Improvements? User Interface (35%) Storage capacity (18%), Security (14%) and Customer Service (11%). Almost 40% said ITU does not need to improve TIES email (as they do not use the service)

Analysis ITU is maintaining TIES email service for the benefit of a very small number of individuals Most are either not using the service, or they use it infrequently or simply to forward to another email address And, while half say that ITU should maintain the service, almost no users would be willing to pay to maintain it Geneva-based mission interviews shows even lower usage than the statistics would imply Requires costly upgrade for security and user interface (CHF 20/user) Security issues: Briefing from IS

Options The following options are put forward for consideration: Maintain and modernize TIES email service Shift to an externally-hosted service, with ITU branding Discontinue TIES email service

Recommendation Given the: low-level of usage among ITU members, cost of upgrade and maintenance of the current service, and the fact that free/low-cost alternative services are available to members, It is recommended that ITU discontinue its TIES email service And, offer any interested Members the opportunity to maintain their existing address for the purpose of forwarding messages to an alternative service

Thank you Comments/Questions? ITU Membership Team membership@itu.int