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Mirapoint, a messaging solution provider, announces a partnership program for ISPs.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Associate Editor [June 27, 2000]

Who is Mirapoint?
Mirapoint wants you to be your partner. So who are they? They build a hardware-and-software package that speeds and improves messaging services. In a previous article "Turnkey ASP Functionality for ISPs", we described their product. The basic package costs about $27,500.

Putting ISPs on the MAPP
This week, Mirapoint will announce the Mirapoint Authorized Partner Program (MAPP). Under MAPP, ISPs who buy Mirapoint servers and have two Mirapoint certified engineers on staff will be viewed as partners in a service business rather than as customers in a retail business. This means that Mirapoint will supply expertise in the form of training and sales help, as well as link exchanges and the authorized posting of the Mirapoint logo on ISP sites and on the sites of ISPs' clients. Mirapoint may even list selected partners on its site (Mirapoint, for example, is in turn listed on Cisco's links to partners' sites).

Furthermore, MAPP clients will be able to participate in beta testing and provide feedback on existing products. "That's where they go from being a customer to a partner," says Karen Howard, director of field marketing at Mirapoint. She explains that the better trained a service provider is, the more that service provider will get out of Mirapoint. "Certification is really to our benefit," she notes.

Mirapoint wants to make sure that its equipment is used at peak efficiency. Accordingly, the company will provide partners with free training, free help and marketing materials that the ISP can own-brand, as well as allowing use of the Mirapoint logo for the ISP's web site and a plaque for display at trade shows.

One British ISP was particularly pleased with Mirapoint's customer support. "Mirapoint offered round-the-clock support and will proactively notify us if there is a problem that we have not already noted. We effectively have an extra set of eyes monitoring the system," said Raza Rizvi, Technical Manager at REDNET.

The ISP Theory
Mirapoint has decided that a variety of companies could be valuable sales channels. Mirapoint sees a spectrum of companies that could use messaging servers, from Value Added Resellers (VARs) who mostly sell systems that are owned and operated by a client, to ASPs, which operate systems for a client, to ISPs, which operate their own systems and provide subscription based access to their systems. Messaging is important to all of these business models.

An ISP has clients, such a high-end residential users and SOHO business accounts, who care a great deal about messaging performance but cannot buy the best hardware for themselves. A Mirapoint solution sold through an ISP essentially follows the ASP credo: that small businesses can receive the services that previously only the big companies could afford, if the small companies share resources. Thus, an ISP can, in effect, offer each of several clients a piece of a Mirapoint solution.

Of course, as Karen Howard admitted, "the benefits of a Mirapoint solution scale with the size of our partner." ISPs with more business contacts and larger clients can gain more from Mirapoint than smaller, local ISPs with fewer business subscribers.

Wireless connection
Mirapoint is enthusiastic about mobile wireless Internet access. As we noted in a previous article (Mobile 'Net Access Dominates Japanese Market) wireless access is especially popular in workaholic, crowded Japan.

Some exciting new applications are under development for use with Mirapoint products. Firms such as Orangesoft in Japan are developing solutions that store messages that can be accessed by wireless phones or from the home office. If the message remains on the server, it can be accessed by the same user from several locations, such as home, work, and even from a hotel while on the road.

On June 7, Orangesoft Japan announced a partnership with Mirapoint to develop messaging applications. There are several wireless protocols in use in Japan. Orangesoft is working on compatibility with all: NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, the WAP, and others. Japanese wireless users will be able to use Mirapoint's Webmail Direct to access their email through PCs, web kiosks, or personal digital assistants.

Other initiatives include work with Dutch company CMG Telecommunications to develop protocol-flexible messaging solutions with advanced features such as Lightweight Directory Application Protocol (LDAP) routing and centralized virus scanning.

The ISP future
Just as new technologies, such as wireless mobile access, change the messaging business, Mirapoint foresees change in the ISP business. It does not claim to forecast how the market will change, but it hopes to change with the market. The wireless initiative and the partnership announcement are both part of Mirapoint's continuing efforts to follow change.

—End