Rackspace Simplifies Communication for Chief Outsiders

Rackspace Email, SharePoint, Consultants, 10-50

Chief Outsiders' unique CMO outsourcing model provides CEOs, the #1 marketer of growth and mid-size companies, with world-class, results-oriented executives delivering
marketing leadership, expertise, and execution.

• Challenge
  Attaining a scalable, easy-to-manage email platform
• Solution
  SharePoint & business email from one provider
• Results
  Intuitive Control Panel and superior support

Maintaining Communication without Wasting Resources

For a fraction of the cost of hiring a full-time Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Outsiders provides top marketing talent to help integrate a company’s business and marketing strategies. With four other successful companies to his credit, Kirk Coburn, Co-founder and Principal of Chief Outsiders, is familiar with the strain IT maintenance can take on a business. He recalls, “When we had an on-site Exchange server there were lots of problems with server provisioning and Active Directory issues. I’ve used a host of servers running Microsoft Exchange^®, SharePoint^®, and other solutions over the years. And, I’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on IT experts, servers, and equipment. One business was sold and I was left with over $100,000 in hardware I couldn’t use.”

Additionally, with employees in four cities across two states, staying connected and maintaining communication is key to the success of Chief Outsiders. He used SharePoint with another company and knew it was the ideal solution. But, due to the cost of implementation, SharePoint was on the backburner.

Based on his prior experiences, Kirk says, “We didn’t want to host our own servers due to the maintenance costs and the capital cost to acquire the servers. Ownership means that we are always one step behind on technology.” Making the decision to use hosted email for his new company was a no-brainer. Initially, Chief Outsiders used Fusemail for their email hosting needs. However, says Kirk, “It was too complicated for such a simple solution, and there were problems with bounced emails and not being able to get email on my mobile.” Frustrated with the level of service, he went looking for a new email provider. “I knew we needed a platform that will scale as we grow. We wanted a system that worked and wasn’t time consuming, so easy that even I could manage it,” jokes Kirk.

Solves Two Needs in One Place

His search began and ended with Rackspace. “I’ve been a fan of Rackspace for a while because of their reputation,” he states. They selected Rackspace Email to accommodate their multi-platform environment and SharePoint for collaboration.

From any internet connection, users can securely login and manage messages, calendars, contacts, tasks, and notes. Smartphone users, can access Rackspace Email from their web browser or install the free Rackspace Sync add-on for BlackBerry^®, iPhone^®, or Windows^® Mobile to have email delivered directly to their phone. In addition, to ease access from multiple devices, Rackspace Email’s webmail client includes all the bells and whistles of pricey email programs without software downloads or the expense of ongoing maintenance.

Due to the cost and maintenance of deploying SharePoint in-house, Kirk hadn’t included SharePoint in their IT landscape; however, hosted SharePoint service with Rackspace eliminates the high cost of implementation and ongoing management. “I don’t have to buy it all and then hire a consultant for customization and provisioning. I signed up for SharePoint and was set up in five minutes. We use it to collaborate on documents and for managing tasks,” says Kirk. He used SharePoint heavily with one of his previous businesses and was familiar with its powerful functionality. “We don’t have the time or energy for miscommunication. SharePoint reduces confusion and is a great place to put documentation, information about how we do business, and who owns which tasks, so that everyone has access to updated information,” says Kirk.

Freedom to Grow Backed by Fanatical Support^®

The biggest benefit of hosting with Rackspace for Kirk is the easy-to-use Control Panel. “It’s so easy, I can do it. Setting up new users and other tasks is so incredibly simple and logical, I do it while I’m on a phone call or doing other stuff,” Kirk says. He can log in to the intuitive, web-based Control Panel and manage mailboxes, applications, and account data. By using Rackspace’s hosting services, they’ve also increased the speed to get up and running. “In the past, I would’ve built the capital expense of equipment and ongoing costs of labor into my startup financial model, but with Rackspace I don’t have to,” says Kirk.

Kirk identifies scaling as a major hurdle in the past. “Our business could not scale and grow without Rackspace. We now happily depend upon Rackspace for our current and future growth needs, including email, collaboration, and communication services,” says Kirk. As he looks forward, he can see a need for Microsoft Exchange in the near future. With Rackspace, he can easily migrate all of his current users to our Exchange platform or combine Rackspace Email and Exchange with the Exchange Hybrid option. In the past, Exchange was a troublesome proposition. “We’ve already started migrating to your hosted Exchange solution as we add new team members. Having Exchange with Rackspace won’t keep me up at night like it did when we ran it on-premises,” Kirk shares.

Kirk refers to Rackspace as his IT Department and identifies Fanatical Support® as a major driver of his satisfaction with Rackspace. Many businesses cling to keeping their IT infrastructure in-house because they believe an in-house IT team is more responsive. However, according to Kirk, “Fanatical Support is faster and better than any of my past in-house IT teams or previous email providers. Rackspace simply gets it done!”