Trend

Manage our messaging systems

That’s what India Inc. has to say, and service providers are only too happy to oblige, finds Atanu Kumar Das

Business is good for providers of corporate e-mail. According to Sify, the Indian messaging market is estimated at about Rs 100 crore with a CAGR of 20 percent. Most vendors agree that the corporate e-mail market is growing at 20 percent per year. In the last two years, enterprises have begun to vest a lot of importance in e-mail solutions, and the demand for these has risen every quarter.

Says Rahul Swarup, President, Sify Enterprise Solutions, “Sify entered this market in 1999 with POP-based e-mail. Subsequently, we developed solutions targeted at small, medium and large enterprises, depending on the number of people at each location and their mode of connectivity. Our unique selling point is single-number access at 250 locations through local dial-up.”

Across the corporate universe

Our unique selling point is single number access at 250 locations through local dial-up Rahul Swarup President Sify Enterprise Solutions	There is absolutely no doubt that the market for corporate e-mail solutions is growing across verticals Rohit Varma Vice-president, Marketing Rediff India

According to Rohit Varma, Vice-president, Marketing, Rediff India, “There is absolutely no doubt that the market for corporate e-mail solutions is growing across verticals. Our Rediffmail Pro offering is targeted at small businesses, while our Enterprise Pro offering is aimed at clients who have more than 500 mailboxes.” Rediff has seen encouraging growth in both these sectors. The company’s clientele includes the likes of McDonald’s, Videocon, Kotak Mutual Fund, Bajaj Auto, Hero Honda, Tupperware and ICICI Prudential Life.

Sify has about 650 customers using its corporate e-mail solutions. Swarup states that their clients include top banks, large business houses, MNCs, PSUs and BPO establishments.

“Instead of offering standard products, we offer integrated solutions, and bundle in products and services to offer cost-effective solutions to corporates,” Swarup explains.

Sify offers secure, scalable and reliable solutions with lower total cost of ownership. “Our strength has been in being a one-stop-shop for anything in the Internet space—applications deployment, security solutions, high-speed connectivity, Level III hosting facilities and PKI technology,” Swarup adds.

Affirms Anurag Gupta, General Manager, Indiatimes, “We launched our mail solutions about two years ago, and the response has been encouraging. Our solution is primarily meant for SMBs. Our business grew 100 percent this fiscal. The annual payment for an e-mail solution is approximately Rs 799, and as usage goes up, the price comes down to as low as Rs 200 per year.”

A time for change

Most e-mail service providers agree that paid solutions are contributing to their overall revenues in a major way. “I can undoubtedly say that in the last two years, customers became aware that there is no harm is paying money to get their e-mail solutions managed. Most paid solutions were launched in 2003. This was when vendors realised that the market for paid services in the country was poised to grow at a steep rate,” comments Varma.

Gupta feels that the response in 2004 has been encouraging as numerous companies signed up for paid messaging solutions. “We grew 100 percent in 2004, and I won’t be surprised if we see similar growth in the next couple of years.”

Beyond vanilla messaging

Vendors accept that things are looking bright for corporate e-mail. Remarks Swarup, “Indian companies are looking at messaging in isolation, and they want to enhance security against spam or viruses, and avail of remote management.”

Value-added features are helping to break the ice. Says Varma, “We have features such as pay-for-click which I guess is going to be the order of the day in the coming years for the advertising industry. We are quite bullish about both SMBs and corporate messaging growing.”

According to Gupta, messaging is a huge market, and organisations aren’t shying away from forking out significant amounts of money for managed e-mail solutions. “We have seen that customers are increasingly willing to pay for their e-mail solutions. This is true of both corporates and SMBs,” Gupta explains.

E-mail service providers are trying to add more value to their solutions to tap more customers. They agree that customers are going to demand more as the competition gets more intense. “Mailing is something that is absolutely necessary for any company today, and even SMBs are looking for mail server options. We have to introduce fresh features to retain existing customers and attract new ones,” Swarup concludes.

atanu@expresscomputeronline.com