Cloud computing E-mail systems: Analysis of the current situation in SMEs in Portugal

SMEs represent a large proportion of businesses operating in Portugal. The e-mail is one of the information systems most frequently used by this organizational segment. Given the relevance of these two realities and considering the lack of studies in this area, the main objective of this research project is to analyze the current situation of SMEs in Portugal, in order to determine the factors that lead to the adoption of Computing Cloud as well as Cloud Computing based e-mail services and to identify the organizational impacts of these systems after their adoption and usage. To achieve these goals six organizational decision makers were interviewed to allow the development and refining of an online survey. The results show that the Cloud Computing adoption factors are the scalability and cost savings, while the factors for the adoption of Cloud Computing based e-mail services are the costs reduction and improvements in supporting business processes. The organizational impacts checked after the adoption of Cloud Computing based e-mail services are an effective reduction of incidents and greater satisfaction of the users.