Uforia Gains 400 Hours with Rackspace

Microsoft Exchange, Entertainment, 1-10

Founded by online gaming industry veterans, Uforia specializes in bringing multiplayer online experiences to gamers around the world.

• Challenge
  Onsite email management without onsite IT resources
• Solution
  Hosted Microsoft Exchange service from Rackspace with instant access to web-based Control Panel
• Results
  Reduction in downtime, time savings, and the ability to make immediate changes to email

Offsite IT Support Causes Delays

Uforia creates a unique online gaming experience where players play games free with the ability to enhance their experience. Using micro-transactions to purchase online enhancements, users can make characters look different or increase functionality with weapons and accessories.

Due to their corporate structure, Chris Keswani, Marketing Manager, was relying on technical resources from their offices in Korea to support their IT infrastructure. When he needed support with his email, he was up against both a 17-hour time difference and communication difficulties between Korean speaking technicians and English speaking users. If Chris needed immediate changes to his email at 2pm in the afternoon, the request could take a day or more to be fulfilled.

The lack of control over email was becoming a real challenge. Additionally, the email tasks being asked of their highly skilled IT staff took their time away from the in-depth technical projects they needed to handle.

Uforia Finds Instant Access and Fanatical Support^®

He’d heard about Rackspace from former colleagues who mentioned that our email solution worked well for them and was easy to use. After a few others in his organization evaluated us, they decided to go with Rackspace Email & Apps because of the affordable cost and the “accessibility of support for something as critical as email makes it important to deal with a vendor who can be responsive.” His sales contact was quick to respond with fast answers to his questions and rapidly followed-up on his requests.

With the easy-to-use Control Panel, Chris can access and make changes to their Microsoft Exchange mailboxes in seconds versus days. “As a marketing professional, it’s nice to not have to get involved on the technical side,” says Chris of the ability to manage email from our Control Panel with limited need for technical knowledge and Fanatical Support to address any email concerns.

Increased Efficiency and Accessibility with Rackspace

With the easy-to-use Control Panel, Chris has a new convenience factor with email. He no longer has to wait to make changes or add new mailboxes. When he had issues around using distribution lists, he sent an email to our Fanatical Support team. By the time he poured a cup of coffee and returned to his desk, he had an email with the answer he needed. “We work with lots of vendors via email or phone and it typically takes a long time to get answers back,” he says.

Since switching to Rackspace, he hasn’t experienced any downtime, “we work with offices around the world and not having to worry about downtime means a lot.” He’s happy to have email that he doesn’t have to worry about and support that’s always available and responsive when he needs help. “Hosting our email with Rackspace has resulted in significant cost savings, but more important is the opportunity for us to focus our resources on what we do best: publishing MMO games,” says Chris.

“With Rackspace, we have been able to reallocate more than 400 hours of IT resources toward projects and initiatives that support our core focus of building the world`s best MMOG gaming experience,” Chris reports. And, when colleagues express dissatisfaction with their email service, he’s happy to refer them to Rackspace and tell them how happy he is with his service.