Event
Summary
Ensim Corporation, the leading provider of application hosting infrastructure
products, announced the availability of HP's OpenMail on Ensim AppXchange.
This agreement delivers hosted, affordable enterprise-class messaging
and collaboration to small and medium businesses. It enables service providers
to deliver capabilities beyond simple Internet e-mail and to eliminate
the complexities associated with managing hosted messaging.
Market
Impact
In the rush to achieve an application hosting messaging service, HP's
OpenMail has been largely overlooked until now. The majority of messaging
ASPs focus primarily on a UNIX based POP3 service, or from a collaborative
perspective, Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes. HP OpenMail has a global
install base of approximately 15 Million mailboxes, compared to a 50 Million-seat
install base for Lotus Notes and the same for Microsoft Exchange. Novell's
GroupWise, much like OpenMail is struggling to retain its client install
base, which has dropped to 20 Million seats.
We
do not envision a large market for OpenMail outsourcing. By becoming a
'niche' player within the OpenMail messaging market Ensim may very well
achieve moderate success, but nothing compared to the potential success
of hosting either Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange (or both). While OpenMail
isn't going away anytime in the near future, its sales are slow and more
clients continue to migrate to Exchange and Notes, further decreasing
HP's existing messaging install base.
User
Recommendations
For most companies one of the most troubling aspects of maintaining an
HP OpenMail system is the lack of available and experienced messaging
engineers. Even if a company is lucky enough to find an individual with
the correct skill set, chances are the individual's salary requirements
are sky-high, or, as is often the case, the individual is 'scooped-up'
before an offer can even be made. OpenMail is not known for being a low-maintenance
system, which translates to an IT headache. If your organization utilizes
HP OpenMail, and you are considering outsourcing, take a look at Ensim.