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Solution providers are discovering that e-mail can add up to more than just a full inbox when the right managed e-mail service is delivered.
BlueTie this week plans to introduce a creative new way to add an extra layer of recurring revenue to its hosted e-mail services platform: Featuretisements. A Featuretisement is a click-through function on BlueTie's e-mail and collaboration GUI that connects to a federated business partner to perform a secure transaction, explained David Koretz, president and CEO of BlueTie, Rochester, N.Y.
BlueTie introduced this twist on banner advertising as two rivals, Sendio, Newport Beach, Calif., and MX Logic, Englewood, Colo., make amplified bids for market share. Sendio is prepping appliance offerings for small-business customers and MSP partners, said CEO Kelly Anderson. MX Logic last week partnered with antispam vendor Cloudmark, improving the way MX Logic's hosted e-mail MSP platform provides messaging protection, said Ken Totura, vice president of channel sales at MX Logic.
With Featuretisements, BlueTie looks to offer a way to generate more revenue than the current industry average billing of between $2 and $5 per mailbox, per month for managed e-mail services. Say a BlueTie end user needs to book an airline reservation. He or she just clicks a Featuretisement icon labeled "Travel" and a back-end service provider, such as Orbitz, powers the transaction, said Koretz. BlueTie's partners are paid commissions equal to 40 percent of the between $2 and $4 per user, per month that BlueTie expects Featuretisements to generate, he said.
If that number seems small at first, that's because a highly profitable e-mail business is a volume play, said Koretz.
"I think that if you don't have a large number of mailboxes, you are going to suffer from a very small amount of per-mailbox revenue," he said.
The average number of mailboxes per business customer for BlueTie partners is 14.7, and the vendor currently hosts more than 100,000 mailboxes, charging partners about $3 per mailbox and suggesting they mark them up to at least $5 for the professional service, said Koretz. Because BlueTie offers a GUI that users can perform tasks with—instead of offering just a hidden, back-end e-mail filter—the chance that revenue will be generated from the use of Featuretisements is even greater, he said.
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