Here here Ben... Just think without the Scott's, Ron's, and Len's on this list who are always the first to respond to questions on making Imail work for us there would be minimal answers.
They do this regardless of whether the question pertains only to their products or not. I'm not saying others do not answer questions, only that these quys who have products that are add-ons to Imail also do Imail support, much better than Ipswitch I might add. It's just disappointing that the Ipswitch crew does not understand and value the 3rd parties bring to their product, not only in capabilities but in support. It is interesting that the only post from an Ipswitch employee pertains to comments by another. Incredible..... They must see the value in the list they just choose not to participate... On Tuesday, November 20, 2001 5:00 PM, IMail Admin at BC Web <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >The problem with jumping into a discussion late is that I keep wanting to >stop about every third message on this topic and write some response. >Fortunately, I resisted, so I'm only going to put in my two >cents worth now. > >1. I don't think anyone needs to grieve for or wish to protect Declude >Virus, as opposed to the new IMail AV product. IMail has priced the product >so high that they are really attracting a different class of customers: the >"I'm too stupid to do any research, but I've got lots of bucks because I'm a >big corporation" sort of customer. I doubt that Scott will see much (if >any) change in his sales at all. > >2. I can certainly see why Scott would be upset. Not because of new >competition (see point 1 above), but because his company has been a good >partner and supplement to Ipswitch for some time, and they have not treated >him well. If Ipswitch had been smart, they would have tried to partner with >the Declude people. If they were dumb but honest, they should have been >forthcoming with Scott a long time ago about their plans. Instead, they >chose the sneaky and/or arrogant approach, and I can understand why that >would upset Scott. > >3. I think we (IMail customers) should be happy that Ipswitch didn't coop >Declude. It's likely the price would have gone up and the customer support >down. The only advantage would have been an integrated install >routine. > >3. From a purely practical point of view, I'm not concerned about IMail's >new AV product, I am concerned about their management mistakes. I've been >in this business a long time, and I've watched a lot of businesses shoot >themselves in the foot. I was there for WordPerfect, dBase, Lotus, Novell, >and so on. Paraniod people like to blame the failures of these companies on >Microsoft, but the truth is they each killed themselves with poor management >decisions. It is a close parallel to the kinds of management mistakes that >Ipswitch is making now. My fear is that at some point, Ipswitch is going to >go under, as well. > >My guess is that Ipswitch is trying to shift their market emphasis. This >IMail AV product would be better targeted at large corporate customers >(particularly since they've tied in the Norton name), rather that the ISPs >and small shops I see in this mailing list. I'm not sure they can make this >market shift, but if they do, they're not going to serve the rest of us very >well. > >So be aware, IMail may not be "our" product any more, and we may eventually >be forced to move to other products. I'm not making any plans for changes >yet, but I am aware of the possibilities when I make my plans. > >Ben Bednarz >BC Web > > > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "R. Scott Perry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 1:22 PM >Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] OT: Defend Declude! (was: Virus >Protection) > > >> >> >>>I think we should all stand up for Scott in his fight against this new >> >>>gorilla. >> > >> >Why? The pricing totally separates the products, no conflict or overlap >at >> >all. >> >> First, I appreciate all of the people who are supporting our >> software. And, I'll agree that some people may be overreacting a bit. >> >> I think the primary issue is that Ipswitch made a conscious decision to >> treat us as a competitor. A year ago, we were just one of a couple of >> companies selling an addon product for IMail. That's a good thing for >> IMail; it helps with their sales. In fact, a number of people contact us >> asking if we have a version of Declude for [insert name of other mail >> server here]. Some of those people end up buying a copy of IMail, because >> it's often cheaper to buy IMail+Declude than to buy one of the competing >> products. It's a win-win situation for Ipswitch and us. >> >> At some point, Ipswitch realized that if we were successful selling a >> $500/$800 anti-virus solution (when the competition charges about 10 times >> that), they could make a lot of money selling an anti-virus solution for >> IMail that was more expensive than ours, but less expensive than the >> others. I'm not sure if this was before or after we sent them a copy of >> Declude Virus for testing (at their request). They are well aware of >> Declude Virus; there are a number of people there who have a good >knowledge >> of Declude. When they decided to sell an AV solution, rather than come to >> us and ask if we wanted to work with them, or just let us know what they >> were doing, they made a decision that it would be better not to talk to >us, >> and not to let us know what they were up to. >> >> Fast forward to about 10 days ago, when I first got word of this. Not >from >> Ipswitch, but from someone who had heard from Ipswitch and assumed that we >> already knew. I contacted someone at Ipswitch who I have worked with in >> the past. When they confirmed that they were releasing an AV solution, I >> expressed my concern that they were treating us as a competitor, and asked >> for whatever information they could supply. I got a 2-sentence overview, >> and the pricing; quite a bit less information than they had already given >> out to sales partners of theirs, and quite a bit less information than was >> recently posted on here. This coming less than 2 weeks before the release >> of the product. >> >> Now, it seems that Ipswitch has an employee hiding behind a Hotmail >account >> to address concerns about the new Ipswitch product (and comparing it with >> Declude). That's just very unusual. >> >> I don't see a problem with healthy competition, and I certainly feel that >> our product is a very worthy contender, so I don't have a problem there. >I >> (as are many others) am just confused as to the way that Ipswitch is >> treating us. >> >> -Scott >> --- >> Declude: Anti-virus, Anti-spam and Anti-hijacking solutions for >> IMail. http://www.declude.com >> >> >> Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html >> to be removed from this list. >> >> An Archive of this list is available at: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ >> > > >Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html >to be removed from this list. > >An Archive of this list is available at: >http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html to be removed from this list. 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