German Reseller Hosts 5000 Email Accounts with Rackspace

Reseller Program, Technology, Professional Services, 10-50

Implementing web-based software solutions, top concepts Internetmarketing GmbH, a Germany-based company, creates content management and e-commerce success. Their services allow media and applications to communicate harmoniously.

• Challenge
  Decrease support needs around email and implement an updated webmail interface
• Solution
  Rackspace Reseller Program with Safe Harbor Certification and IMAP access including SSL encryption for POP3 and SMTP
• Results
  Backed by Fanatical Support ^®, manages over 4000 email accounts as a reseller

Lost Hours and Stagnant Webmail Interface Leads to Outsourcing

In 1996, Henrik Steffen started top concepts Internetmarketing GmbH online. His early entry into the world of e-commerce laid the groundwork for the success of top concepts Internetmarketing GmbH. They focused on web design and hosting before developing a franchised e-commerce system. Now, they have dozens of franchisees who sell their packages to clients in Germany, Austria, Denmark, and Poland. Their services also include content management systems, SaaS, domain registration, online-shops, and email service.

In the beginning, they managed servers in a colocation facility. Email was running on an Xmail server using open source software. “We had to work harder and harder to stay ahead of spam and keep everything operational for thousands of mailboxes, and the phone was constantly ringing with customers needing email support,” Henrik says of their early days managing email internally. Eventually, there were four employees working on some aspect of email management.

Additionally, the webmail platform they were using wasn’t keeping up with technology. “Our webmail client was difficult to use, old-fashioned, and outdated. We couldn’t even offer features like IMAP or encryption for POP3 or SMTP, and our customers needed it,” says Henrik. In order to better serve their customers and run more efficiently, they needed to rethink their email system.

The process of evaluating their email environment led them to the decision to outsource. By outsourcing, they could leave the day-to-day management of email behind and reallocate those four IT resources to more revenue-generating tasks. They went in search of an email provider to deliver reliable service, strong spam filtering, the ability to expand quickly, and all the conveniences of modern email, like IMAP and SMTP with SSL. “We host over 10,000 websites, that’s our specialty. Email isn’t our core competency, and we were looking to find experts to take care of it.”

Rackspace Beats Out European Offerings

They wanted to find an email provider in Europe. However, Henrik couldn’t find a European provider that offered everything he needed. Through an Internet search, he found Rackspace. He was attracted to our uptime promise, “We must have high availability because email is mission-critical. I’ve seen what can happen when email goes down.” While we had all the features he needed, he needed us to go one step further.

“We had special requirements because of German regulations. Our data protection laws are so different that most German businesses wouldn’t want to host in the U.S., but you were the only ones who had everything we wanted,” recalls Henrik. He called our sales department and spoke with Trevor Winters. top concepts Internetmarketing GmbH could only sign up with us if we gained Safe Harbor Certification. This certification states that we comply with EU directives related to the protection of personal data. Trevor was able to secure Safe Harbor Certification and top concepts Internetmarketing GmbH moved all of their email mailboxes to Rackspace.

They use Rackspace Email for their internal needs and for their clients. As a member of the Rackspace Reseller Program, they can sell our email products, including mobile services and archiving, to their clients at deep volume discounts. They can even rebrand our email client interface, login pages, and Control Panel to give clients a seamless experience.

Over 5000 Hosted with Rackspace

Even on the other side of the world, Henrik can still feel the power of Fanatical Support^® in his interactions with our support team. Because the majority of his employees are not English speakers, and the majority of Rackspace employees are not German speakers, top concepts Internetmarketing GmbH relies heavily on our support ticketing system with great success. “Even with the language barrier, we’ve gotten high-quality answers to every inquiry. Trevor was great with getting us signed up. I’ve even spoken to Kirk Averett, Director of Product, a few times, and everyone in support I’ve talked to has been great.”

When he called support for advice about a client looking to host mail both on-premises and with an email hosting provider, he was pleasantly surprised to find that we not only had the advice he needed, but we were also able to set up a split domain routing configuration for him over the phone. Since moving to Rackspace, he’s been able to completely overhaul his support structure. They no longer get troubleshooting requests for email and no one calls because they need help figuring out how to use the email client. “We can completely rely on your service,” Henrik says confidently.

The Control Panel is “a lot easier to use and the API is great.” With our Control Panel API, Henrik can integrate email accounts into backend processes. He says, “It allows our franchisees to add and delete accounts without having to call us.”

He states that he’s so happy with outsourcing that he can’t put it into words, but he will try in the October issue of iX Magazine, a German IT magazine. After experiencing the benefits of outsourcing, he wanted to share his experience and show how email hosting can help larger companies.

Hosting their email with Rackspace allows top concepts Internetmarketing GmbH to host over 5000 email accounts with little or no need for additional support or worrying about email maintenance. “The email service is 100% reliable. Rackspace is the type of partner that lets you concentrate on your core.”