New Mirapoint Program Touts MSP Tricks

Mirapoint's Managed e-mail and e-mail Security Services Partner Program, unveiled Tuesday, is an effort to raise awareness among VARs that Mirapoint appliances can be used to offer secure, remotely managed e-mail services to customers, said Craig Carpenter, director of corporate marketing and global channels for Mirapoint, Sunnyvale, Calif.

"These boxes have been ripe to run managed services for many years," said Carpenter. "And we want to see more partners do that."

Mirapoint&'s Message Server and RazorGate appliances are resold by more than 100 VAR partners in the United States, but only about 10 of them use the appliances as MSPs, said Carpenter. With the new program Mirapoint aims to change that, and is offering free technical certification and sales training to VARs that purchase an appliance with the intention of offering managed e-mail services, he said.

Additionally, for smaller VARs less inclined to make the initial $10,000 or so investment in a Mirapoint appliance, the vendor is offering up its existing MSP VAR partners as wholesalers, he said.

"Our entry-level box starts at about $10,000, so smaller resellers who prefer not to make that investment can resell the services being provided by another MSP of ours," explained Carpenter.

If a VAR chooses not to buy a Mirapoint appliance but wants to resell managed e-mail services to customers, Mirapoint will direct the VAR to its larger MSPs. Then, the MSP, acting as a wholesaler, could charge, for example, $5 per managed e-mail account, which the reseller can mark up to $9 per account, explained Carpenter.

The Mirapoint appliances work in MSP fashion by redirecting messaging traffic from the customer site to the appliances, which can scale to support tens of thousands of users, said Carpenter. The system can be designed to where VARs reselling the managed e-mails services of a wholesaler can appear to be hosting the service themselves, he said.

For VARs willing to purchase their own appliance, Mirapoint, under the new program, will provide free certification -- a process that takes about one day on site with the VAR, said Carpenter. Free sales training is also provided, along with MSP marketing strategies and other sales assistance, he said. Emphasis on rapid return on investment is key to the new program, he said.