Administrative functions are necessary to provide support to clients. The type and amount of client support is essentially a process of managing client's expectations. It has been noted in [DS92] that the expectation of support for an institutional electronic mail service appears to be quite high amongst potential clients. This chapter is intended to identify certain administrative functions that are perceived to be necessary in order that the institutional electronic mail service meet the perceived support needs of a potentially large client base. It is beyond the scope of this document to identify any organizational structure or personnel to implement these functions.
The administrative functions have been divided up into several broad areas: provisioning, maintenance and operations.