one thing I don't see on smartermail is an odbc hook? We only have one
client that actually uses this so it won't pose a problem.
Bill
Jeffery Rehm wrote:
I've switched to SmarterMail and
have been happy with the switch. I get quick, accurate answers to my
inquiries, it's inexpensive and it works.
-----
Original Message -----
Sent:
Tuesday, April 05, 2005 17:51
Subject:
[IMail Forum] Some thoughts on Ipswitch
While 8.2 seems to finally start addressing some functional
improvements that are commonly sought after by IMail's users, I'm far
from accepting of the company's new direction.
My last service agreement expired earlier this year. For that service
agreement I got squat, in fact I got burned. The only releases that
came out were minor version releases that are generally available
without the service agreement. I never contacted support during that
year. Then to top things off, Ipswitch violated the terms of my
service agreement by killing IMail as a product, and introducing IMail
as a part of a much, much more expensive bundling of existing products
that I never asked for or desired. While the company somewhat
backtracked from this decision to completely shelve IMail as a
stand-alone product, they still refuse to sell IMail to the public and
one can't build a business counting on them to deliver what is clearly
within their means. So we were all faced with an increase in a service
agreement by some 40% over what it was previously increased to, and a
product that you couldn't count on buying or upgrading in the future.
They even had the gall to state that they were not sure as to whether
or not a new Web messaging client would be provided to us plebes that
had service agreements but weren't using ICS. It's clear as day that
Ipswitch is only selling service agreements because they saw the
opportunity to extract money from their existing customer base, yet
when those decisions were made, it was also clear as day that they had
no intention of abandoning their desires to become a major player in
the collaborative software sector and migrating not just those of us
that were willing, but giving us a choice or being willing and staying
by migrating to ICS and the expenses that go along with it, or leaving.
If Ipswitch wants to turn this boat around they need to do four things
from my perspective:
1) Fire those that forced the abandonment of their
IMail customer base in favor of the pipe dream of becoming a major
collaborative player. If not for the fact that these people are creeps
that have very little regard for their customers, then for the fact
that they are ruining the business.
2) Sell IMail publically as a stand-alone, unbundled product as was the
case before.
3) Reorganize so that they can produce quality software for less money,
and therefore compete at the pricing points that the rest of the
industry is following ($695 for a service agreement is absolutely
ridiculous, and probably breaks the elasticity of demand in addition to
costing them a ton of goodwill).
4) Continue improving the core product so that it can compete more
readily with other solutions on the market. Following multiple notable
improvements in 8.2 this will include scrapping their outdated and very
problematic Web mail interface for a modern solution that utilizes IIS.
Others around here might be more diplomatic, but I'm quite sure that at
least in part, this is what the majority of us are thinking. Ipswitch
might make some inroads by attempting some or parts of these things,
but they will never earn back the goodwill that existed before the
changes were made last year.
Matt
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