Thanks for your comments regarding the pricing of Post.Office. When we
first introduced the product nobody knew how the industry was going to
develop. We set the unlimited server pricing model that just about every
other Internet software company has followed.
We've found, however, that selling 20,000 or 50,000 mailbox mail servers at
$500 a copy to large ISPs just doesn't make good business sense.
And by the way, I don't know if you've noticed that other server companies
are raising their prices as well...this *is* a competitive market, but it's
impossible to stay in business building and supporting servers for 20,000
users at $500 a copy.
I understand that you've got some concerns about the changes we've made in
our pricing, but this industry is changing quickly and we've all got to be
able to change along with it. How many of you have changed *your* pricing
in the past 2 years? How many of you were in this business 2 years ago?
We do believe that our product is one of the best out there...and I haven't
seen anyone disagree with that. We also have the second largest installed
base of servers out there, just behind Netscape (and you know where they
got their server, right? <g>)
In addition, our technical support continues to receive lots of positive
comments from people like you...and we believe that our tech support
department is unbeatable.
I understand that you'd like us to keep our product priced low. If we did,
though, we couldn't afford to continually improve and enhance Post.Office
and provide the level of support you've gotten over the past several years.
So what do you think is fair? Where do we draw the line between small ISPs,
for whom cash is tight, and larger ISPs, for whom cash is also tight...but
they've got a bit more of it...? Should we give our product away to one
group, but not to another? Help me with the rationale here...
I do appreciate your input and feedback...we want to continue to build
world class products and work with high quality ISPs such as yourselves...
Further constructive comments appreciated, either on the list or
private...flames ignored...
Thanks,
Lee
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Lee Levitt, Director, Business Development
Lee.Levitt@software.com
Software.com - The Internet Infrastructure Company (tm)
Publishers of Post.Office and InterMail
91 Hartwell Avenue http://www.software.com
Lexington, MA 02173
Phone: 617-274-7000 x 229 Fax: 617-674-1080
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