Rackspace Saves VPSI $15,000 in Email Server Upgrade

Rackspace Email, Service, Non-Profit, 100-500

By providing commuters with vanpool and carpool services, VPSI saves time and money for commuters while reducing our carbon footprint.

• Challenge
  Supporting Microsoft Exchange without spending thousands or using IT resources
• Solution
  Rackspace Email fits their needs and their budget
• Results
  Mobile access without expensive licenses and the Fanatical Support^® advantage

Upgrade or Outsource?

Many businesses are drained by the cost of deploying an in-house email environment. The equipment and manpower alone can amount to tens of thousands of dollars. Once that money is spent, they have to keep up with upgrades as they grow and manage related concerns, like mobile accessibility and spam protection.

Curt Winter, Systems Engineer for VPSI, Inc., was facing a common email management problem, “it was time to upgrade the Exchange server and we wanted to save money.” The company, originally founded in the late 70’s in response to the oil embargo, wanted to find a way to maintain reliable email without spending tens of thousands of dollars. Upgrading meant, “about $15,000 for a new Exchange server we knew would need to be upgraded in another three years.” He estimates they can get a maximum of four years out of an email server before having to upgrade for lack of support by the manufacturer or functionality issues.

Responsible for Exchange server maintenance and troubleshooting, Curt was spending up to ten hours a week maintaining email service. They use email to communicate between VPSI branches across America and to process information requests from visitors to their website. Their main goal was to find a reliable provider that could grow with them.

Finds the Perfect Match and Saves Money

Curt started searching for a hosting provider and found many companies who only offered Exchange hosting. He thought that was what he was looking for. However, when he looked into Rackspace, he was introduced to the web-based Rackspace Email product. “Rackspace Email had all the services we wanted at the price we wanted to pay,” says Curt.

When they compared the Rackspace Email offering to their Exchange environment, they found, “Exchange had lots of features we just didn’t need.” According to Curt, “Email is email; everyone has a web interface and mostly the same stuff, but you had mobile services and support for our distribution lists.”

With our straightforward pricing structure and product offerings, Curt was able to sign up online and start creating mailboxes for his 173 users. Rackspace Email includes many of the same basic features as Microsoft^® Exchange, at a more affordable monthly rate. For business email users, Rackspace Email offers shared calendars, contact lists, tasks, notes, and free sync plug-ins for BlackBerry^®, iPhone™, and Windows^® Mobile devices.

Unlike client-based email, like Outlook, Rackspace Email users don’t need to allocate hard drive space for software. As soon as the mailbox is created, users can access email and manage PIM data anywhere there’s an internet connection. Rackspace Email users can even opt to use Outlook or another POP or IMAP client to manage email.

Curt also gained access to Fanatical Support^®. With multiple ways to consume support, phone, live chat, or support documentation, he can get help or have questions answered around the clock by a staff of email experts. He has the option of using the support tool he needs for specific situations. He uses chat most often but appreciates having different avenues for help. He says, “Chat won’t solve every issue, but it’s an easy way to get in touch with someone fast. For non-emergency stuff, I’ll submit a ticket.”

No Excuses Support with Worry-free Email

Curt reports that the ten hours a week he was spending on email now amount to, “less than one to none.” With Rackspace, “when there’s a hiccup, I don’t have to troubleshoot blindly; I can check the System Status page or pick up the phone and go from there.” Since moving to Rackspace, they’ve seen a marked decrease in spam due to our triple layer spam and virus protection.

Instead of paying for expensive ActiveSync^® licenses for their iPhone users, VPSI’s iPhone users were able to download the free Rackspace Sync plug-in for iPhone. Our free sync product allows them to access personal and company contact lists from their phone. Rackspace Email supports iCal feeds so his users can also access their calendar from an iPhone. Using our support documentation, “we setup our phones with no problems.” Curt says they were attracted to the mobile capabilities, “Your service supported all of our mobile devices; we don’t have a lot of mobile users now, but we will down the road.”

Speaking about our Fanatical Support team, he states, “They’ve been great; they don’t make excuses.” He’s been able to contact us via live chat and have the answers he needed in 2-3 minutes. With the Control Panel, he can manage all email-related tasks from one “self-explanatory” web-based interface.

The biggest impact of outsourcing their email to Rackspace, according to Curt, “I don’t have to worry about the email server being up.” One of their biggest concerns around email was saving money, “We can’t afford to spend $15,000 every three years for server updates.” And with Rackspace’s email hosting services, they won’t have to worry about that either.