The Official Rackspace Blog » Adam Williams

The Reseller Journey

Adam Williams — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:28:00 +0000

This is a post about the growth of a company and about knowing when to invest in a partnership . . .

Over the past five and a half years, I’ve held many positions with Rackspace Email & Apps—but the reseller program has always felt like my “baby.” Looking back, we were fortunate for the success we enjoyed. Our reseller program was more “selling” than “relationship,” more “transaction” than “sales process.”

Starting last fall, this structure began to change. On one hand, it was easy to appreciate the growth of the reseller client base, and on the other it was shocking to consider the potential growth if we actually put our Fanatical resources into building a program. What started as a “revamp” soon became a “re-launch.” Resellers should be more than clients; they must be an extension of our sales force. That means early notice of new features, continuous sales training, accurate and relevant marketing material, escalated support, and an actual team standing behind them. That means that every time a reseller speaks to a potential customer, the reseller must know, beyond any doubt, that we have their back and that we’ll help them land the deal. There is no “Us” and “Them”—it’s a partnership.

While we’re well on our way with the reseller program relaunch, one vital piece is missing—face to face interaction. That’s why I’m so excited about our upcoming Reseller Conference in Atlanta March 8^th – 10^th. It’s filled with sales and technical discussions/training and it strengthens the relationship we continue to build with our resellers. We’re bringing our best and brightest so every question can be not only answered, but explained.

Resellers who attend will leave with increased knowledge of everything Rackspace Email & Apps offers, powerful tools to support and sell our services, and the confidence of being part of a real partnership. If you’re a current reseller or might be interested in becoming one, now is the time to invest. Now is the time to ramp up your services. Now is the time to get with the “Program.” Come see us in Atlanta and let’s see what we can do together.

Mailtrust in the Community

Adam Williams — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:15:00 +0000

At Mailtrust, we like to give back to the community. And we’ve been finding a variety of ways to get involved and help others . . .
For example, some Mailtrust’ers have started a Relay for Life team, which benefits the American Cancer Society. We’ve helped the team raise money through bake sales, Nacho Fridays, and even a “Pie Your Manager in the Face” day.

We’ve also turned our thirst for sodas into a way to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House. When you’re done with your drink, just drop the soda tab into the collection box. And, of course, drop the can in the recycling bin. We’re doing our part to be green, as well!

We donate food to the local food bank. And several members of our team are involved with Junior Achievement and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Whether you run a business or work at one, I encourage you to get involved in your local community. It’s a great way to help those less fortunate, and it can be a ton of fun too!

Get Your Inbox Prioritized Using Flags

Adam Williams — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:24:00 +0000

Is your inbox a disorganized mess? Mine used to be too. I would get an urgent email intending on following it up ASAP just to find days later it’s slipped under the email fold and out of memory. Or, even better, I’d get the very important email and swear I’d never received it because it didn’t stand out amidst the hundreds of messages sitting in my inbox.
This is why I’ve recently started using flags to help me out. But flags don’t really help unless you’re able to sort your inbox by those flags. When I sort by flags, even though I have over 600 messages sitting in my inbox, I can scan them quickly and at-a-glance pick out which ones I’ve determined are important, need follow up or immediate action by the colored flag.
The sort by flag is the icon between the envelope icon and the attachment paperclip icon to the left of each email message in your Noteworthy Webmail app. To add a flag, just click on the icon beside the selected message. By right-clicking on the flag, I can choose from red, green, purple, blue, or yellow flags to color code my inbox into a rainbow of organization.
For those emails that get pushed out of the inbox fold, I can hit the white flag in the blue column headings bar above the inbox and quickly pull all my flagged messages, grouped by color, to the top of the list. For me, the red flags indicate high priority, yellow means I need to handle it before the end of the week, green flags are information that needs follow up, and blue for items I’ve forwarded or replied to and need a response. I’m sure to other people the colors each mean something different than what they mean to me, but that’s why they’re so useful. With multiple color combination’s, I can create a task and reminder list right in my inbox and never forget about an important email again.

Launch: Noteworthy Webmail Beta 7.0

Adam Williams — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 10:37:00 +0000

Mailtrust is pumped to announce that our Apps team (code name the ultimate killer coding ninjas) recently released a new version of Noteworthy Webmail to our beta site. This release is the culmination of six months of hard work and represents a major leap forward for the Noteworthy Webmail product. Just a few examples of new features are:

Support for multiple personal calendars, including the ability to share and grant calendar editing access to other Noteworthy users
Calendar sharing with anyone via unique urls for each calendar (iCal feeds)
Access to Calendar, Event, Task and Email features through right mouse click
Calendar Invite enhancements
- Outlook/Exchange compatible
- Option to include comments with responses
- Setting to allow automatic delete on response
Custom Email Filters based on information found in the email header
New Notes section added to allow users to record their ideas and information

We invite you to view the video below to see a few of these features for yourself. If you are a current Noteworthy Webmail user, please try out the beta site and give us your feedback via the “feedback” link at the top of the app. We’ll use it to improve the release during the beta period. Enjoy!

Go Ahead, Delete That Email. I Dare You!

Adam Williams — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:05:00 +0000

Email is the lifeline of most businesses. So, when someone accidentally deletes an important email, it can cause instant panic.
But, before you pull your hair out, let me assure you that we are here to help!
Our Noteworthy platform supports data restores directly through the control panel. In fact, we typically store your data on our servers for 14 days, even after you have deleted it. As long as you have your email set up to leave a copy of your messages on our server (meaning you use the web interface, an email client with an IMAP connection, or a POP3 connection that’s set to leave data on the server), then you can retrieve your data for a period of up to 14 days.
The best part is that, should you accidentally delete an email, all you need to do is contact your account administrator and they can initiate a restore through the control panel—all within a few clicks. The administrator can choose to restore specific folders, or the entire email account. Once a restore is initiated, it usually takes just minutes for the email to be restored to your account.
So, you can breathe a sigh of relief. We’ve got you covered.

Use your cell phone for calendar reminders

Adam Williams — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:21:57 +0000

Like most people these days, I am addicted to my BlackBerry. You can find me walking down the street with device in hand, eating lunch with one eye on the phone, or checking my email in meetings. Ah, meetings. Most of my life is actually spent in meetings. Because of this hectic schedule, I need more reminders than ever to let me know where I need to be and when I need to be there. Luckily, Noteworthy allows for all types of reminders for calendar events. My favorite, just happens to be the text message feature.
This way, my reminder comes directly to the device that is without a doubt already in my hand. It tells me where to go and gives me ample time to be there. In fact, I can set up the text to remind me anywhere from 2 weeks before the event, up to 5 minutes before the event. This frees up my memory for other important events (such as the score of last night’s game, or the lyrics to my new favorite song). The point is, Noteworthy takes half of the hassle out of my life. Now, if we can just develop something that will actually go to the meetings for me…