Tau Beta Pi

We asked Tau Beta Pi, an Engineering Honor Society that serves Universities and Colleges, about their experience with IMail 8.0:

What business and technical challenges are you trying to overcome with IMail Server?

Our challenge was not so much a business challenge, but a technical challenge. We were using a competing product that was satisfying our simple needs. But in an effort to keep our costs low, we discovered a significant flaw in the competing product.

What led the company to seek out a (new) solution?

We had upgraded all of our servers to a dual processor configuration and additional memory. This was to allow the life of the servers to be extended for at least three more years. It was a cost effective approach and was much cheaper than replacing our very reliable servers.

When we finally upgraded the mail server we discovered to our surprise that our current mail switching software would no longer work. There were no messages, no indications, just no response. It was discovered through much effort that the software was only licensed for a single CPU. We had to disable the second CPU to get the software operational.

A call to the vendor to get an upgraded key was fruitless. They would not provide a new multi-CPU key for our current software and would only sell us an upgrade to the next version. The cost for the upgrade was in excess of $4000.00. This was simply out of the question.

Why did you select IMail Server?

Recommendation of a friend and price were the two contributing factors. We were able to download the 30-day trial version and try the product out. We looked at the configuration interface, capabilities, and company reputation. All were more than acceptable.

What are the strengths of IMail Server?

The biggest strength for us was the cost, ease of installation, and the configuration interface.

Another significant strength of the product was the ease of installation. Our systems administrator had never installed a mail server product before. Yet within two hours the software was installed and working. Most of that time was spent reentering the aliases from the prior mail product. The actual install and first test mail consumed less than 5 minutes.

How will IMail Server contribute to your company’s overall business?

Because we do maintain a presence on the web, deal primarily with universities and colleges, we receive many emails with viruses and spam. With spam option we are able to eliminate many spam messages. Although we do enjoy reading the Nigerian ones with millions to offer!

Email is the transport mechanism of choice for most viruses. It was important to be able scan for viruses before they reach the desktop. Our prior software didn't scan for viruses and it was a constant battle to keep anti-virus signatures updated on multiple machines. With the anti-virus capability of one IMail update, the protection is current for all machines.

The prior product also had some documented security holes. There was no repair available; The only option was to upgrade at a significant cost.

Who are the users, how many and where are they located?

We are a small organization with only 10 users. All of our users are located in our central office. Our prior product was designed for much larger organizations and was priced as such. We found the IMail product well suited to the needs of our smaller organization.

What are the significant benefits from implementing of IMail Server?

The major benefit to us is the reduced cost of the product with more capabilities than we had with our prior high-priced product. We have no need for Web mail. Remote administration is a plus as the administrator can make most changes from the desktop.

While not quantifiable, the speed of delivery and reception of messages with IMail seems to be much faster than our prior product. Outbound delivery is almost immediate where with the prior product there was sometimes a several minute delay.

We have also found that like a certain product advertised on an infomercial we “just set it and forget it.” After the initial install we have not had to touch the product. It just plain works.

What are the most important benefits you’re getting from IMail Server?

First is cost. We found the product to be a very good value for the money. Second is reliability as the product worked flawlessly out of the box. Third is support. The upgrade to the newest version was mailed to us (CD and Book) at no cost. This is much better than other products where you can only download the upgrades.

What are the financial advantages of using IMail Server?

Spending $800.00 for IMail versus $4000.00 for our prior product is a no-brainer. We are a non-profit organization that relies on donations to fund the operations. Spending money responsibly is important to us and our donors. We feel that IMail allowed us to continue to use our existing servers (which our prior product did not) and provided more bang for the buck in the process. The anti-spam and anti-virus capabilities make IMail a significant value.