Mimecast, a supplier of cloud-based email archiving, continuity and security for Microsoft Exchange, Hosted Exchange and Office 365 has announced that it has achieved significant market growth within the domestic Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) environment.
This announcement reinforces Mimecast’s position as South Africa’s primary provider of cloud-based email security technology, with several Value Added Resellers (VARs) praising its Unified Email Management suite as the leading offering in its class.
Furthermore, enhancements made to Mimecast’s partner programme during the course of 2012 have seen the organisation’s VARs benefit significantly throughout the year, according to Bernadine Joaquim, regional channel manager for Mimecast South Africa.
“This year, we focused on improving relations with our channel partners by enhancing our annuity revenue, sales support and tiered offerings. We also introduced a new certification programme which is designed to equip our Value Added Resellers with the knowledge required to truly understand Mimecast and the cloud environment – at no cost,” says Joaquim.
“Ultimately, this has served to strengthen our position within the SaaS space. As clients have become increasingly receptive and open to cloud-based services, we have been working more closely with our partners to broaden Mimecast’s influence.”
According to J2 Software Managing Director, John McLoughlin, local attitudes towards SaaS and the cloud are rapidly changing.
“Three years ago, clients were wary to commit to putting data in the cloud. This can be attributed to a variety of factors – primarily a lack of understanding of the technology and the high cost associated with consistent connectivity.”
“Today, businesses are far more willing to engage in a conversation around cloud services and Mimecast has stepped up to provide a reliable and innovative service offering which responds to the demand.”
As SaaS matures, so organisations have become less enthusiastic to invest in licensed software. For this reason, Mimecast is an obvious choice for clients seeking to eliminate risk and complexity from their email environment without the requirement of significant capital expenditure, says Ello Technology Chief Executive Officer, Gary Cahay.
“No one really wants to own software any more. For clients and outsourced IT support organisations such as Ello Technology, it makes perfect sense to subscribe to an integrated offering such as Mimecast’s Unified Email Management in order to avoid expensive licensing costs, the time associated with regular software updates and unnecessary complexity within the data environment.”
Furthermore, clients have found Mimecast’s off-premise, 10 year email archiving solution and uninterrupted delivery of communication particularly useful in the face of rising legislative expectations relating to the storage and retrieval of corporate information says Pathways Outsourcing spokesperson, Bradley Geere.
“Mimecast’s archiving service offers an elegant solution for clients who are concerned about the secure storage of their internal communications. The failover which underpins Mimecast’s Unified Email Management has also proven particularly attractive”.
“Internally, Mimecast has made it easier for our engineers to spend less time focusing on workarounds for our clients to send and receive email and more time on the root cause of a problem, should one arise. It’s a fantastic solution.”
Significantly, one of the primary benefits associated with including Mimecast as a value added service within the SaaS space has been a growth in reputation says Netology Managing Director, Darryl Maroun.
“Although our Mimecast partnership has been a financially lucrative one, the biggest benefit we’ve experienced is a marked growth in client trust. By equipping Netology with the tools required to swiftly expedite email related requests and overcome continuity issues, customer confidence in our ability to offer a premium level of service has never been stronger.”
Staff writer
