How about a story on how this SCREWS Postini's channel resellers, by offering online "basic" Postini filtering for 1/10th of the former retail price & even the "regular" product (inbound\outbound\custom filtering\spooling) for LESS than the current COST to resellers ($12 vs. $15).
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Channel Update
The reseller pricing to the channel is going down also. So before you post BS on this article call your channel sales rep for more information. I guarantee the channel will NOT lose sleep over this news.
Yeah?
If a reseller sold 100 seats previously at $30/each thats $3000 with a net profit of around $1500.
With the new pricing, 100 seats is $300, so even if Google charges resellers only $1/each the net profit is now $200 - $1300 LESS for the same sale.
If its the $25 product, which not all customers will want, its still $2500 and at net of perhaps $1000 (which would have been $thousands under the prior pricing of archiving).
Sleep on that.
Check it out
Th $3 is NOT the same product .. Research it.
But its the heart of the product
$3 gets you inbound spam & virus filtering, what most people want. The "same" product as the current Postini Email Security includes outbound & content filtering & spooling, and will be $12 retail.
So 100 of THOSE is $1200 with a profit of maybe $500, as opposed to the $3000/$1500 of the Postini product.
2/3rds LESS for doing the same work selling virutally the same product - AND customers don't need you, they can buy it or the $3 version direct on the Internet.
YOU research it.
If the client wants just
If the client wants just email support and no phone support they should buy the $3.00 product. Hopefully you dont have those type of clients. I can't imagine if my email was down to open a email support ticket.
You can make the same margin if you charge for support. You should not lose any money if you sell the $12 product.
In the past - there's been
In the past - there's been NO charge for setup or support.
Re: In the past - there's been
If you did not charge for setup support, you left money on the table. Postini charged for setup, charged for premium support.
Postini also had minimum direct purchase requirements and if not met, were passed on to channel partners. This still applies to the new services for premium support.
The new program may not lower margins if packaged correctly showing value in your expertise and support knowledge.
Plenty of companies have created businesses out of consulting fees in regards to Google's AdSense and AdWords programs, the same will go for Messaging Services.
Just a thought... Doesn't
Just a thought...
Doesn't lower prices means more people can afford the service? Which means they can sell higher volume?
Existing Postini customers
Existing Postini customers are (currently) not allowed to move to this new service until their current agreement expires. We currently pay $33 per user for what Google is now charging $3 (we do not use outbound processing). We purchased directly from Postini, so there is no reseller issues involved and the agreement was a 1 year term that auto-renewed. While contractually correct, its not the best for customer appreciation.