BBB Chapters Turn to Rackspace for Value and Reliability

Rackspace Email, Service, Non-Profit, 500+

With the core values of excellence, integrity, teamwork, trust, and respect; the Better Business Bureau of Pittsburgh serves as a mediator and source of unbiased information for consumers.

• Challenge
  Inflexible billing and sluggish email performance with previous provider
• Solution
  Rackspace Email at $1 per mailbox fits their budget and supports workflow
• Results
  Instant access to Fanatical Support^® and dependable email service

Random Outages and Rigid Billing Policies Prompt Search for Better Email

As a large company with over 100 offices across America, the Better Business Bureau (BBB), known as the guardian of consumer rights since 1912, made the decision long ago to outsource their email. However, their previous provider subjected them to extended outages during the heaviest email traffic periods.

They routinely experienced random periods in the morning when they were unable to send or receive email. “When we’d send scanned files of complaints for processing, it would take hours to send them if the system didn’t time out first,” says Patty Smith, Systems Administrator of the Better Business Bureau’s Pittsburgh chapter covering 28 counties in western Pennsylvania. Email is a vital part of her chapter’s operation. They use email to monitor information requests and memberships attached to their website and for interoffice communication.

As if the outages weren’t enough, their former provider’s volume pricing forced the regional offices to redistribute bills to the individual chapters for reimbursement. This created an administrative nightmare. When they asked that each chapter be billed directly, their rates increased significantly. The regional office gave chapters the option of finding their own email service or paying the higher rate.

Exercising that option, Patty went searching for an email solution that was easy to manage, affordable, and offered business-level features to support their internal business processes.

Rackspace Email Fits Budget, Feature, and Reliability Needs

Patty was referred to Rackspace. “We went looking for our own hosts but couldn’t find anyone who compared to you. Many of the chapters saw what I saw and went with Rackspace too.” According to Patty, “Rackspace offered the best package for the best price.” Patty uses Rackspace Email for all of the mailboxes in her chapter.

“I signed up online, and within a minute, I had billing processed and notification that the Transition Team would be in touch shortly.” When she talked to the Transition Team, “They went over my order and gave me all the steps without overwhelming me.” The Transition Team guided Patty through the process one step at a time. Within a few hours, her email was up and running on Rackspace servers.

For just $1 per mailbox, the Pittsburg chapter has a feature-rich email solution built for business. With around the clock support, Patty can rest assured that any concerns will be immediately addressed. With the Rackspace Control Panel, she has complete control over her email environment, “This is a simple process for everyone, no guessing games.”

Rackspace Email’s large 10GB mailboxes with 50MB attachment sizes allow the chapter to instantly send and receive those bulk complaints that the previous provider had such difficultly processing. And, with our solid infrastructure and constant monitoring, outages are a thing of the past.

Fanatical Support and Reliable Service Bring More BBB Chapters to Rackspace

Now that the Pittsburgh chapter and over a dozen other BBB chapters switched to Rackspace, they enjoy affordable pricing, Fanatical Support, and reliable email service. Features like custom out of office reply messages, email forwarding, shared calendars, and large mailboxes were made for business email users and facilitate their workflow. With Rackspace Webmail, employees can process emailed complaints from home or anywhere there’s Internet connection. When employees are going out of the office, they can quickly set away messages and forward their mail to a colleague who can address inquiries right away.

When Patty needs support, she can rely on our award-winning Fanatical Support team. When she needed help during the migration process, she called and spoke with Shawn. “Within seconds, he remotely accessed my system. He explained everything he was doing and showed me how easy it would be to do it myself. He even showed me features beyond the problem I called about, such as adjusting my port settings to ones that were safer from hackers.”

Our Fanatical Support team also walked her through setting up forwarding rules for an employee who monitors multiple mailboxes. Instead of logging in and out of multiple email accounts, we showed her how to send all the accounts to one account saving time and increasing productivity.

Of our support Patty states, “I’ve never been on hold for more than a minute, and I always talk to a real person. They were always interested in my concerns and how they could assist me. They never rushed me off the phone.” Patty is confident she’s made the right choice.

“You get overwhelmed when you go on the Internet. For people who don’t have a lot of IT experience, the process can be intimidating, but you made it easy.” And, we’re proud to be a part of the Better Business Bureau’s mission with chapters from Idaho to Texas to New England running on Rackspace Email.