Global Micro
Challenge:
Differentiate Exchange product offering and provide enhanced security solution to protect managed IT service customers who use Outlook Web Access
Industry: Service-Provider
Products: OWA Suite
Application Services Provider Global Micro Partners with Messageware to Differentiate Hosted Exchange Service
Situation
South Africa-based Global Micro saw a future where businesses could concentrate on what they do best and use service companies for the rest. Global Micro’s visionary founders knew there would be a compelling value for businesses to contract their IT services, allowing them to recover time and resources and instead focus on growth.
Today, Global Micro is a leader in hosted technology with customers in 38 countries. Its clients are organizations that outsource some, or all, of their IT needs. In industries from logistics to finance, construction to professional services, Global Micro customers recognize the value of access to super-fast network services, Outlook email, internationally-recognized security solutions and line-of-business applications, at a fraction of what it would cost them to deploy in-house.
Because so many of its business customers seek “from anywhere” availability for their Microsoft Outlook email, contacts and appointment calendars, Global Micro offers Outlook Web Access (OWA) as a fundamental service. Several years ago it began looking for a way to differentiate itself from its competition, as well as increase OWA’s security and productivity features.
“The adoption of OWA continues to increase,” said JJ Milner, Founder and Managing Director of Global Micro. “Not only did we see this as an untapped market from an ASP perspective, but our users wanted more out of the application, particularly in the realm of security.” The market for hosted email services is growing rapidly. While Global Micro offers an outstanding service combining the highest levels of availability and support, they are continuously on the lookout for functionality that will secure and enhance their user’s online experience.
Solution
The solution was easily installed within hours to their satisfaction and Global Micro’s customers have found it easy to use because of the solution’s familiar desktop Outlook-like interface. Messageware functionality is a great addition to Global Micro’s webmail solution that is known for its stability and Service Level Agreement (SLA) that ensures guaranteed performance 99% of the time. By partnering with Messageware, Global Micro has quickly gained a unique product offering that is attractive to the growing number of companies who rely either exclusively or partially on OWA to stay connected, and provides a significant upgrade to what other service providers are offering.
Milner knew the combination of productivity and security would be a win/win for them and their customers. “Working with Messageware, we were able to license OWA Suite and put it under our SecureWeb Advantage product offering,” Milner stated. “We set about promoting the product to current and prospective users as our proprietary solution for significantly improving the effectiveness of Outlook Web Access.”
– JJ Milner, Founder and Managing Director of Global Micro
The combined Global Micro and Messageware solution provides our customers with a unique product offering that sets us apart from our competition.
Results
Since 2005, Global Micro has grown its business considerably. While not all of the increase can be attributed to its OWA enhancements, Milner is certain that the security technologies and productivity tools in Messageware’s OWA Suite has kept—and in some cases help land—customers for Global Micro.
“In the past we’ve lost deals because customers were concerned, for example, that they couldn’t use OWA effectively with a Mac,” he explained. “The features in OWA Suite solve that problem for Mac users as well as on PCs.”
At the time of the original install, Global Micro was using Microsoft Exchange as its OWA server product. Since then, the company has upgraded the majority of its users to Exchange. Accordingly, the company has migrated to the Messageware OWA Suite.
“Security continues to be an issue, especially with so many people accessing their personal business information on kiosks and ‘borrowed’ PCs,” said Milner. “Messageware OWA Suite also has several productivity improvements, like a calendar print capability that allows people to view and print their daily, weekly and monthly calendars and schedules.” He also noted that this new Messageware version supports access to
non-Internet Explorer browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.
Adding Messageware products is a win-win proposition for Global Micro and their clients. Clients get the benefits of award winning security and productivity improvements that Messageware software provides and Global Micro gets a demonstrable competitive advantage over their competition.
“As a managed IT solution provider, it’s critical that we continually set ourselves apart—not only from our competitors, but also from the options companies have to handle their IT needs themselves,” Milner stated. “Messageware’s technologies are one more way we can take a company’s productivity to a new level. That keeps us in the ball game.”
About Messageware
Founded in 1993, Messageware develops and markets solutions that secure, enhance, and customize Outlook Web App. A trusted Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a Global Exchange ISV for over 15 years, our applications give com-panies of all sizes a greater return on Microsoft Exchange. Messageware products are used by over 2,500 enterprises and 4 million users worldwide, from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses, in every industry including banking, education, financial services, government, healthcare, and legal services.
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