***** 1) Since that $3,995 number includes subscription for unlimited Symantec AV,� would it be more palatable to have two tiers for the ISP bundles � perhaps a 1,000 user level and an unlimited level?� This would substantially drop the cost of the renewal (I can�t give numbers, as I don�t have them � since at the moment this is hypothetical). 2) If we were to continue to offer a stand-alone Service Agreement for IMail, what would be a fair price for such an agreement?� Please bear in mind that the current $495 does not cover our Support costs, let alone our Development costs. *****
Thanks for jumping into the flames, Jill. I appreciate it. 1) As a smallish ISP, a smaller tier might be more palatable. However, it somewhat misses the point IMHO. From my perspective, the issue is simply that Ipswitch is bundling software that I don't necessarily want. The worst part of this is AV software. I realize that it probably makes the most sense in a lot of ways for Ipswitch to partner with a single well-known AV vendor. However, Declude is simply better. The ability to use multiple AV products at a significantly lower price with more flexibility is so much better than the Imail solution. I really wish that Ipswitch would have struck a deal to integrate Declude, but of course that didn't happen and maybe was unworkable. Still, it really irks me to be asked to spend lots more money for an inferior product. As for the collaboration stuff, there might be some possibilities there to upsell my clients. However, the way I wanted to approach this was as an add-on. I was really hoping there would be an option to add X amount of collaboration licenses for X amount, while leaving my unlimited POP, IMAP and Webmail license alone. 2) I for one would be interested in the arrangement that others previously mentioned, namely a "no support" but full upgrade option. If I bought a "no support" license but wanted or need to call support, than a Microsoftish $200-plus fee per incident is not unreasonable. I find it interesting that $495 doesn't cover your support costs. Seems hard to believe from my corner, but what do I know? I think if you said $x is what we have to charge for support or we lose money, people will respect that. They still might go elsewhere or not believe it, but they will at least feel that they weren't bait-and-switched so badly. The hostility stems from a few factors. First, people made rather large investments and/or budget decisions based on information that proved to be IMHO misleading at best. I just don't see any good faith on Ipswitch's part in selling service agreements that are supposed to include major upgrades while simultaneously knowing that there won't be any. Also, the strong impression was made that the collaboration stuff would be an add-on. Second, the number of email companies that have suddenly made this exact type of change is really staggering. My company has certainly been "burned" in these situations before. We are not just talking about a price increase, but dramatic "repositioning". The problem occurs when you are in a comfort zone, but then that zone is taken away. It is a very scary thing, because you just don't know what to do next. You can see that by all of the people running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Everybody wants their comfort zone back. Those who have been through this before are even more skittish. Bottom line: take people out of their comfort zone at your peril. Thanks for keeping the channels open. Paul Navarre 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/
