Outlook connector and license fees

[ndnalibi]

I am currently evaluating your product for deployment in my company. We will be replacing a pop/smtp hosted email service. I have experience with in-house email from previous jobs, and don't really need the support.

We are a small (35 email using) company, but we are typical in regards to software use. Everyone is on Outlook 2003 or 2007, running XP with 1 vista (not my fault). Everyone is comfortable with outlook and I want to keep using it.

I basically have it narrowed down between Exchange and Zimbra. Exchange would cost more up front, but with the yearly license fee, Zimbra will overrun that cost in less than 3 years.

Are there any plans to sell Zimbra Professional (because of the outlook connector) at a flat license fee instead of recurring yearly? How about purchase of the outlook connector as a separate add-on to the OS version?

Ultimately, I can see it being a deal breaker for many smaller companies to commit to the yearly license fees just to get 1 or 2 extra functions. I am inclined to use the Open Source version rather than dish out the $35/person/year just for outlook integration.

Bill

[jholder]

There are no plans for a flat fee. The Software as a Service (SAAS) model has been been very successful for us.

There are no plans to release the Outlook Connector for the Open Source Edition.

Zimbra Open Source version allows you to connect via pop3/imap if you want. You just won't have calendaring and addressbooks on the server.

[ndnalibi]

Thanks for the quick respose.

The Open Source version is what attracted me to Zimbra originally and would give us the functionality we currently have at a much reduced cost and reliable service.

It's something to think about.
Bill