It was also mentioned that there was 'internal debate' before moving in this
direction. Let's examine the fallout as is evidenced on this list.
About 200 people so far have chimed in now stating they will not use Imail
in the future.
Assuming a installed base of 3 servers per person, at a SA price of
400.00. Ipswitch has just evaporated $800,000 dollars in yearly revenues
overnight.
Ipswitch should assume that those numbers are on the low side. I would
estimate that since the overwhelming majority of people have stated that it
is overbudget for something they don't need, we can probably multiply the
number of discontinued licenses to 2,000 (easily). That is almost a million
dollars that they have cleverly evaporated from their yearly revenue stream
by this one move. But wait. There's more.
I personally will never recommend ANY of Ipswitch's products again. This
same sentiment has been echoed by many on these lists as well. So, was
Ipswitch aware that by treating it's core base so poorly, they will
undoubtedly loose revenues in ALL of their product lines as a result? How
much will that cost? Let's assume 10 percent of the number above...
Now take into account that 'the market' wants collaboration. O.k. As we
have seen on this list, when choosing between 2 collaboration products the
clear choice is going to go to the product offering with a stable track
record and integration. Having a competitor bundle existing packages by an
installer and offering it as new for 90% of the exchange fees WILL NOT be a
deciding factor to the buyer. Especially not when the companys track record
for customer service, support and loyalty is absolutely horrid. So a fair
majority of Imails new ICS sales will not come from existing customers since
they are abandoning them, lets see where it comes from.....hmmmm. I bet the
marketing geniuses didn't think of that one....
It is one thing to abandon your core, but it is totally short sighted to
think that dropping your core customers for one product will not affect all
of your products.
So what we have is a company claiming poor revenue streams and market
forces. Well, we've seen that almost a million dollars in yearly support
revenue wasn't important, and we are starting to see that the market doesn't
typically go after unproven products that don't have the same functionality
as proven, mature products.
Regards,
Jason
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