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

2. Overview
ITU’s TIES 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 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

3. 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

4. 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 services that meet their requirements
Most common usage is to forward s
72% of users rely on TIES only for ITU-related discussions

5. 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.

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

7. Analysis
ITU is maintaining TIES 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 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

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

9. 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 service
And, offer any interested Members the opportunity to maintain their existing address for the purpose of forwarding messages to an alternative service

10. Thank you Comments/Questions?
ITU Membership Team