Online email management services -- pro and con

Dear Webnet Folk,

Part of my work involves sending out a variety of group messages using
several different email addresses. The information in these messages is
drawn from our own website or from other (publicly accessible) sites.
None of these mailings involve financial information/transactions,
student records, or any personal information -- other than the
recipients' email addresses.

Some time ago, my son told me about an online email management website
that his company uses to send out its group messages/newsletters. I did
some checking and discovered that there were a number of sites that
provide such services. The one that particularly interested me was
Intellicontact Pro (http://www.intellicontact.com/).

Several issues and questions have come to mind around this service and I
was hoping that someone in the "Webnet world" might be able to offer
some insight or suggestions.

Briefly, here are the features IntelliContact offers that I found
particularly compelling:

    * I can assign attributes to a name/address pair and then target
      mailings to list members with specific attributes (e.g., "Berkeley
      faculty members of the Center who are interested in health
      information technology")
    * I can create messages that will be sent at a future date (without
      my having to have a local program open at the time)
    * My student assistant can send messages for me
    * I can automatically track conference RSVPs, bounce messages,
      "click throughs," and how many messages have been forwarded
    * The automatically created RSVP lists can then be used to send
      follow-up information
    * Recipients of my messages would continue to see
      "yada.yada@berkeley.edu" in the "From:" line

Has anyone had experience with an online service like this? How do I
guarantee that the proper information security practices are in place?
Are there any comparable "in house" alternatives? Lastly, are there
other considerations that I'm overlooking and should be thinking/worried
about?

My apologies for the lengthy note and my thanks for any ideas/comments.

Peg

-- 
Peg Hardaway Farrell, PhD
Program Manager
Center for Health Research
University of California
423 Warren Hall #7360
Berkeley CA 94720-7360
V 510-643-7211
F 510-643-6981
W HealthResearch.Berkeley.edu
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