Posted on 23 July 2008

Mimecast, the unified email management company, is launching a channel program designed to build new business revenue and attract new partners for its Software-as-a Service (SaaS) offering.  The program is launched as Gartner predicts that email will lead the charge into mainstream adoption of cloud computing and that the percentage of commercial mailboxes using a cloud-provisioned model will grow from 1% in 2007 to 20 % by 2012. 

Mimecast’s email management service connects a customer’s existing email system to in-the-cloud email security, continuity and archiving for an attractive annual fee.  The service reduces costs by as much as 75% and offers a bottomless email inbox for up to ten years, always-on-outlook continuity, plus protection from email-borne viruses, malware and spam.

According to Julian Martin, Business Development Director at Mimecast, “SaaS has often alienated the channel as they are used to a traditional software business model reliant on the upfront transaction revenue. Mimecast’s Software-as-a-Service is an annual subscription where both the partner and Mimecast are intrinsically bound to the customer for the lifetime of the email archive.”

Commenting specifically on why SaaS is the next big opportunity for the channel, he adds, “Partners are by design involved in our SaaS platform and throughout the customer lifecycle – not just the initial transaction.  As a SaaS provider, we are looking for a lifetime relationship with the customer and partner.  For example, partners are part of the on-boarding process of connecting their customer’s in-house email system to our cloud-based service”. 

Whilst other vendors are withdrawing renewal business from the channel, Mimecast has made it clear that channel partnerships will be maximised in this new model – and remunerated over the customer lifetime.  Martin added, “There are unique levels of protection on renewals – quite simply, any non-incumbent partner trying to poach renewals will have their margin reduced dramatically.  Our primary goal is to work with partners to grow the market.”

Long time channel partner ANS Group’s managing director Paul Sweeney adds, “Without a doubt, cloud-based services are going to become a common option for customers given the current economic climate. We’ve seen a rapid uptake of customers opting for Mimecast’s innovative SaaS email management offering because it delivers more value for less and they can quickly connect their existing in-house email systems to the online service.”

 

What Next?