You are going to spend a large chunk of money up front for hardware and deployment, you will also incur the cost of an IT service provider for maintenance. Also consider that you will have to upgrade the system within 3 - 5 years. With a hosted option you do not have the large expense of the upfront cost and will always remain up to date with the latest securities, paying minor set up fees and a monthly fee per user. I have to admit that when I hear my American friends and clients complaining about.
The price of postage I laugh. 49 cents - that is Executive List was what I paid a decade ago when I first started to dabble in direct mail. Now we are moving from 60-70 cents. That is nothing compared to Canada: $1.10 a stamp coming soon. Recently I saw an article explaining why Australia Post should be phased out. I can see where they are coming from. The decline in the profits of Australia Post is many fold.
Suspect that declining volume and rising transport costs are critical factors. This is a mixed bag for us marketers - as is any cost increase. Remember when Google clicks were 1c each? The *new* gold rush in Google is the content network. Facebook has just gotten it's advertising right and there is cheap clicks to be had. The problem with these media is that they are under priced and they will inflate - in some niches very expensive - Clicks in insurance are $54 per click on Google.