Reseller Program Makes Selling Email Easy for 4Penny.net

Microsoft Exchange, Rackspace Email, Exchange Hybrid, Reseller Program, Technology, 10-50

4Penny.net serves clients nationwide with database creation, financial reporting, enterprise resource planning (ERP), CRM-to-web solutions, networking, and web hosting services.

• Challenge
  Reduce spam and eliminate the ongoing cost of internal email management and support
• Solution
  Rackspace Reseller Program with Microsoft Exchange or Rackspace Email mailboxes
• Results
  Dramatic reduction in spam and Fanatical Support^® to handle email issues

Spam Causes Email Misery

4Penny.net offers a broad range of IT services to clients nationwide, including networking services, software development, web development, and website hosting. Their offerings have evolved to include email hosting. “We focused on networking support and then branched into web hosting. As a web host, we’d eventually wind up with clients’ email too.”

Over his years of experience in IT, Steve Gray, Vice President of 4penny.net, employed different strategies to handle email. “We used Squirrel Mail, Linux-based systems, and Microsoft boxes but always ran into the same issues.” They encountered so many issues that he had full-time IT support dedicated to resolving email issues and general email maintenance.

For Steve, the most worrisome aspect of in-house email maintenance was spam. Spam can be annoying, but it can also carry dangerous elements, like viruses that can damage entire systems. “Spam was miserable. We spent hours dealing with it, and most of our customer complaints about email had to do with spam,” says Steve.

After looking at the over $4,000 in server replacement costs, software expenses, and employee hours he was dumping into email maintenance, “I threw my hands up and said ‘Enough,’” recalls Steve. He decided that outsourcing email maintenance was the most efficient avenue for his business model.

Rackspace Reseller Program Saves the Day

Steve searched for an email provider that he could trust. Not only did he need the benefits of a reliable email solution, but he also had clients who were counting on him to provide flawless email service. So, if service were interrupted, not only would his email be dead in the water but he’d lose the confidence of his clients.

He viewed our service online and was so compelled by our offer that he called to speak to one of our sales representatives. Our triple layer spam protection appealed to his frustrations battling spam on their internal servers. The Fanatical Support^® pledge assured him he could rely on Rackspace to troubleshoot issues and keep him and his clients up and running. Upon engaging with our sales representative, he got his first dose of Fanatical Support and signed up right away. “I had about 500 mailboxes and was able to call and get a volume price. I got the quote document immediately.”

4Penny.net signed up with our Reseller Program. The program allows businesses to rebrand and sell our email products directly to their customers at volume rates with no long-term commitments. As a reseller, Steve can access and manage all of his accounts from a dedicated, Reseller Control Panel and offer a branded customer-level control panel to his clients.

Though he has the choice of offering hosted Microsoft Exchange or Rackspace Email, he primarily implements Rackspace Email with his clients and also uses it for their own internal email. At $1 per mailbox, per month, he and his clients enjoy a feature-rich, web-based email client with more features and flexibility than most desktop clients. “Rackspace Email is the main focus of our email business. For most of my clients, Exchange is way more than they really need.”

Transitioning his mailboxes to Rackspace was easy. Steven says, “It was beautiful thing. I was surprised at how uneventful the transition and implementation were.”

4Penny.net Gives Rackspace Five Stars

The strength of Rackspace’s spam and virus filters reduced the number of customer calls and the need for dedicated email support. “Since day one, spam handling has been perfect,” Steven says. With Rackspace handling his email needs, he never has to worry about buying more servers and software. Our solid infrastructure makes all of those concerns a thing of the past. With the Reseller Program’s low minimums, Steve can serve smaller clients without demanding the cost-prohibitive limits that many other providers impose.

Backed by Fanatical Support, Steve can contact us with questions or troubleshooting assistance related to his email and count on a fast, accurate reply. “I prefer to send emails for support. Usually if I have a question, I know it’s going to take some time to research and get an answer. Usually, I get the answer I need in a few minutes.” Steve can also reach us using live chat and by phone 24×7x365.

“The Control Panel is as good as I’ve seen. The continuing development gives me a warm feeling that the service is constantly growing to meet new needs,” says Steve. During the last year, over a dozen updates have been applied to the Control Panel as a result of customer feedback and general functionality enhancements.

Now that Rackspace takes care of 4Penny.net’s email needs, the full-time IT resource can be re-allocated to more revenue-generating tasks and Steve can focus on building the business. In Steve’s words, “Rackspace’s product and service gets five stars.”