On 8/5/2014 4:01 PM, Bob Proulx wrote:
Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
What do other people do? Or are we just going to end up with an Internet in
about 10 years where every single email box is either on Microsoft 365 or
Gmail and the NSA has a wonderful interface to use to hunt through whatever
they want without bothering with a warrant?
One of my clients switched from a classic local imaps mail server over
to Gmail. The logic was the same as all of your reasoning. Even
though I have reservations and I won't be using Gmail I didn't oppose
them switching. It would be inefficient for me to work against the
massive corporations of Google and MS. It is all just as you said.
Once some technology goes to the masses it becomes a cost margin game.
The cheapest product that can be offered will win regardless of
quality. Which means that by most measures of quality it will suffer.
But it will be impossible to avoid. Gmail and MS Outlook 365 have a
different cost model. Users agree to be the product sold to
advertisers. Margins like that mean that small IT companies cannot
compete. It would stress me out to try.
Hey Bob I think you missed something in my OP. The customer leaving
ISN'T paying LESS to gmail. They are paying slightly more, in fact.
I don't have a problem flying under gmail and office 365's prices on
mailboxes.
Yes there are customers out there going to the "free" gmail. No, I
don't attempt to compete with that. But this wasn't that situation.
Instead I have turned my attention to other areas that I can provide
benefit that is not addressed by the large corporations. People still
have other needs that need system administration. Just not email.
This had a side benefit later. As in many environments there were
factions and arguments. At this place one faction liked Google and
Gmail. But another faction liked Microsoft and Outlook. A power
struggle broke about between the two factions. The splinter faction
broke off and moved half of the email accounts over to Outlook.
There were cries of foul and requests for features from all around.
Infighting. I imagine the same thing happens in reverse in many places.
If I had been the admin for their local email when the MS faction
appeared I would have been in the middle of the battle. It would have
been stressful. Since I wasn't I could honestly say that I wasn't
involved and it was a battle between Google Gmail and MS Outlook 365.
It was good not to be wearing a target around me. Instead by not
being pinned between the gorillas I could concentrate on adding value
in other places. The job mutates and is different but still
continues.
In other words, the gist of your argument is, if you can't beat them, go
elsewhere. That's fine if you want to do that. But my question wasn't
that, my question was, essentially, how are other people beating them?
Your not really even trying to answer my post.
I don't subscribe to the theory that any one company is unbeatable.
People used to think of IBM like that until Microsoft proved them wrong.
Then people used to think of Microsoft like that until iPads
and Android proved them wrong. But I can tell you this - Microsoft
tried a lot of things before hitting on the combination that worked
against IBM and Google tried a lot of things before hitting on the
combination that beat Microsoft. There is a combination out there that
will beat Gmail it is just a matter of figuring out what it is.
You can believe that email providing is a lost cause then try going into
system admin work. But there's a lot of people already operating
in the system admin workspace, so your just exchanging one set of
competition problems for another.
One other thing I will add to the narrative. I followed up with the
customer who is leaving and found some other things to add to the pot.
It turns out this customer had not upgraded any of their PC
workstations, everything they had was still on Windows XP, and Office
2003. One of their biggest reasons for going to Google Apps is the idea
that doing this would allow them to avoid the cost of buying 20 copies
of Office 2013. When I pointed out that they were still on Windows XP
that was not supported and they would have to address the cost of buying
new PC gear and operating systems for it, they said that they were
hoping to get another year out of their existing hardware. And yes,
this was straight out of the mouth of the business owner.
So in the long run, there's 2 takeaways here. The first and most
important one - one that I have to keep reminding myself - is simply
that some businesses just don't value email, or computer technology.
They regard all of that stuff as a cost-suck and drain that does not
contribute to their bottom line. So any possible way they can skimp on
that they believe is a good thing. Trying to sell technology to those
kinds of customers is, in the long run, a waste of time. Even if you
have the lowest prices in town and give them everything for it, they
will never value it - thus any amount of money you charge them will be
too much money. It is far better to find your customers who value what
you do for them and spend your time helping them.
The second and less important takeaway is that one of Google's marketing
strategies is the "all in one" In other words they produce a compelling
story that they are a one-stop-shopper. Email is just a part of what
they sell, they also sell a replacement for Microsoft Office, indeed a
replacement for all your business digital information handling. As a
technical person, I know how absolutely ridiculous this is, and my
blinder is that I assume that any customer out there would also
immediately understand how ridiculous the supposition that you can
replace a locally-running word-processor and spreadsheet with a java app
running in a web browser is. But the problem is, there are some
customers out there who are just - du-uh um! Never underestimate how
stupid some customers can be.
Ted
One other thing I
Bob
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