Alvaka To Resell Hosted, Secure IM Via Other MSPs

R.B. Zack's IMiN System will go live from Alvaka's servers in mid-July, said Kevin McDonald, vice president of business development at Alvaka, Huntington Beach, Calif. The IMiN System is the first secure IM offering from Alvaka, and the deal represents the first time R.B. Zack's IMiN System has been hosted for resale by a third party, he said.

As part of the deal, MSPs that approach R.B. Zack looking for a hosted, secure IM solution will be referred to Alvaka, according to McDonald.

"Instant messaging is a huge problem in security," he said. "Nonsecure IMs are not archivable, proprietary information could be leaving or coming through them and they can have file attachments that are insecure. They're not encrypted."

IMiN is built for organizations both large and small, and it can communicate securely even with less-secure consumer messaging systems such as AOL Instant Messenger, said Boyd Zack, president of Torrance, Calif.-based R.B. Zack. Features in the IMiN interface let users operating the system from handheld devices make text replies with the touch of a button. The service also integrates with Microsoft's Active Directory to maintain consistency in user names and passwords.

For 500 to 1,000 users, IMiN carries a retail price of $995 for the server module and $39 for each client access license, plus a 20 percent annual maintenance fee, according to Tim Martin, sales and business development manager at R.B. Zack.

Alvaka will offer MSPs the hosted IMiN for their clients at $9.95 per user for the basic service or $11.95 per user with short message service (SMS) and e-mail add-on, McDonald said. Alvaka aims to offer MSPs that resell its secure IM service a margin of 15 percent to 20 percent, depending on the number of users, he added.