Declude Rolls Out Low-Cost Hosted E-mail Service
Called Mailprotector, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering enables solution providers to resell Declude's antispam, antivirus and messaging gateway protection tools without having to install the vendor's appliance-based software on-site, said Kristina O'Connell, vice president of marketing at Declude, Newburyport, Mass.
Targeted at small and midsize businesses, Mailprotector can deliver comprehensive e-mail management and antivirus protection for an average price of just over a dollar per mailbox per month, according to O'Connell. Its low price makes Mailprotector a high-margin proposition, with resellers able to mark up the service by as much as 80 percent, she said.
Declude has flown somewhat under the radar for a while as far as brand recognition in the market for e-mail management goes, said David McCarty, marketing director at Intelek Technologies, a VAR and Declude partner in Norman, Okla.
Until just about a year ago, Declude made its mark as software targeted at the IPSwitch IMail platform and SmarterMail from vendor SmarterTools, McCarty said. Declude then moved into the appliance game, opening itself up to practically any type of networked messaging platform, he said.
"Declude is a great product," McCarty said. "It doesn't just look at your typical virus signature. It goes a little bit deeper."
With the market for e-mail management products growing at a significant clip, Declude aims to add more VAR partners to its base of about 50, O'Connell said.
Declude's Reseller Man partner program aims to deliver margins as high as 70 percent, and by next year the company wants to have about 80 percent of its sales running through the channel, she said. That figure currently stands at about 40 percent.