One company's pitch to ISPs looking to offer collaboration products to small business is simple: all the features, minus the hassle.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [November 8, 2004]

Lexington, Mass.-based Ipswitch released its Ipswitch Collaboration Suite. The suite combines a wide variety of features, focusing on ease of use, stability, and convergence.

Features include:

• Scalable e-mail provided by IMail Server
• Anti-spam
• Virus detection (BitDefender or Symantec available, with most ISPs preferring Symantec because it is more fully automated)
• Secure instant messaging
• Shared calendaring including meeting setup functions
• Shared and personal contact list

David Karp, senior marketing manager for Ispswitch, says that it's intuitive to end users and liked by administrators. "SMB users want 'their Outlook' but administrators don't want 'their Exchange'," he notes.

He adds that the product is more sophisticated. "ISPs are still here, but they're changing," says Karp. "Business customers of ISPs and even direct sales customers want more." More is what this suite delivers.

For example, the instant messaging feature comes with the ability to log messages and the ability to leave an IM for a buddy who's not logged on. Alex Niehaus, vice president of marketing for Ipswitch, says that the ability to send IM to people who are not online erodes the difference between IM and e-mail. He says this was brought home to him when, after presenting at a conference, Karp said to him, "I need to log on. I think I may have missed some IM."

The e-mail, Karp says, has been tested in ISP installations where it has served as many as 100,000 users.

The anti-spam combines a connection filter (disconnecting spammy connections), blacklist, whitelist, content filter, and Bayesian filter.

A key value for resellers will be the ability to delegate administration functions, allowing ISPs to give their business customers some control over the product while retaining full control of its delivery to other customers.

"We're doing things that people think you can only do with Outlook attached to an Exchange server," says Karp.

But for most ISPs, the key selling point will be the availability of an unlimited user license. Niehaus notes that this is very unusual.

Pricing and availability
The product is available now. There are three unlimited user editions available:

The ISP edition, which has no client side technology, but includes anti-virus from Symantec, is $5,995.

The Standard edition, which includes all features and uses BitDefender for anti-virus, is $8,995.

The Premium edition, which includes all features plus Symantec anti-virus, is $9,995.

Note: Ipswitch no longer offers Ipswitch IMail Server and Ipswitch Instant Messaging as stand-alone products, although they will be supported for one year.

—End