On Wednesday, October 27, 2004, 8:17:04 AM, Mike wrote: MN> Here's another data point from someone who cannot justify the conversion:
MN> 1.) The price differential pays for the labor to switch to a competing MN> product in the initial conversion. MN> 2.) I don't know who Ipswitch surveyed, but they are surveying the MN> wrong people. The new bundled product doesn't have the features needed for MN> public mail server issues such as ISPs face - SPF , blacklists on the front MN> end, auto deny dictionary attacks, etc. MN> 3.) Ipswitch - consider adding an unbundled version of the product. The MN> only cost to Ipswitch is the difficulty of administering 3 or 5 additional MN> product numbers. Ipswitch would be able to retain all the ISP customers MN> who brought them where they are today instead of abandoning a market segment MN> and focusing only on medium businesses. Of the small - medium businesses MN> I'm aware of, none consider anything except Exchange anyway because of the MN> mindshare market controlled by Microsoft. Small businesses can get a MN> complete Microsoft SBS for less than IMail ICS - and they're going like MN> hotcakes. This raises an interesting point in my mind. If I were faced with the same final decision re: market positioning then I would have played it this way: * Move to ICS and probe make all of the staffing/overhead changes that are appropriate to that move. * Move the IMail product to a modular component that comes, essentially, unsupported at it's current pricing structure. * Offer a pay-as-you-go support model for the IMail module such that the pricing or that support does cover the costs of the required overhead (and then some). * Leverage the existing customer base and the third party tools market to provide broad, essentially free testing of the core IMail module that is so critical to ICS. --- Reasons this is a good idea: --- The existing, loyal customer base does not get abandoned. --- The IMail community will provide an entry point for new sales leads on the ICS platform. --- IMail's third party developer community will provide ongoing development that can be leveraged to enhance the ICS platform FOR FREE! --- The IMail community will provide it's own support as well as incremental income for the ICS support staff through the new IMail support policy. --- The IMail community will provide a broad base for testing and refining the core IMail features and engine thus improving the quality of the ICS product. ===== Of course, my opinion here is not useful. It's just a stab at how this could have been handled at IpSwitch. --- Since quantum uncertainty makes it possible in this universe for almost anything -- perhaps possible even for pigs to fly, perhaps this silly email will meander its way to the corporate offices at IpSwitch, get stuck to the bottom of someone's shoe, get tracked into the board room, and after a good laugh at the expense of the poor soul who unwittingly carried the article it might be read, cause a discussion, some magic light-bulb will come on, and some brilliant executive will see a way to mitigate all of the internal and external animosity, improve the new ICS offering without additional costs, generate an incremental revenue stream in support, and make it seem like this was the plan all along - thereby turning the bad situation into a good one... then some marketing guy will speak up - fresh from a Tony Robins seminar - and recognize how this leverages consistency and contrast to alter the spin in the marketplace and how that might be leveraged to turn a lot of bad press into much more positive press - thus attracting additional attention to the new ICS offering (attention is always good)... and then... and then... somewhere in South Carolina, in some back-woods barn-yard, right next to the 'stil and the 49 Chevy pickup on blocks, a small odd looking piglet will finally achieve his life-long dream, taking flight in the crisp morning air to the astonishment of the local house cat... a level of astonishment not rivaled except by the bewildered IMail users... and the purple electrons will flow, more gooey than usual from my keyboard, and I will have lunch with a Mugwump at the local mexican place - and it will be.... tasty. _M To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
