It is desirable to ensure that any electronic mail design is based on protocols and applications that maximize service component interoperability. A design that strives to maximize component interoperability will necessarily also provide for a large degree of vendor independence, due to inter-vendor product interoperability. Without this strategy, it is necessary to draw products from a consolidated single vendor, since inter-vendor interoperability utilizing non-proprietary protocols is problematic. To achieve application interoperability, applications should utilize OSI protocols running over TCP/IP or native TCP/IP protocols.