The first day of real business in a new year is always exciting. It’s all about resolutions, hope and looking forward. Speaking for the Office 365 Nation community, we’ve used the long holiday break to recharge and move forward with ENERGY into the New Year. But one major Office 365 ISV hardly rested over the holidays, saving that for another day.
Bright and early this week (Monday, January 5, 2015) in Seattle, I spoke at length with Orlando Scott-Cowley, Director of Technology Marketing at Mimecast. He enjoyed one advantage out of the gate. His day was trending to sunset in London as I was “coffee-ing up.” The interview revealed a few interesting factoids about the $100m company with over 12,000 customers serving 3-million customers. Earlier today, to kick off the New Year, Mimecast engaged in some “rebranding” to better describe its Office 365 services. This is part of an on-going effort to build out is Office 365 branding. I’d offer this “work in progress” mentality is consistent with the entire industry, as we define the Office 365 paradigm in the early days of its service.
Pictured: The Mimecast US Headquarters in Boston, MA
I think it’s important to note that Mimecast has a self-proclaimed “cloud first” policy with its clients. This means that it will try to get its clients and their programs to the cloud before anything else. What do they exactly do, though? Well, Mimecast provides a unified email management solution, which replaces the need for point solutions. To be specific, the Mimecase solution provides archiving, continuity and security for clients.
How did this solution line come into play for the UK-based ISV? In speaking with Orlando, I learned that Mimecast built solutions based on customer feedback, specifically that of IT Consultant clients. As many of you are aware, certain verticals, such as healthcare, legal, etc. are requiring strict software policies to maintain customer privacy. Orlando explained that, in the past, these “pockets of risk” were covered by multiple solutions, which was a drain on IT Pros’ resources. Mimecast worked to develop solutions that fit a specific risk model, to better cover clients. As Orlando explained, “Customers are tethered to their networks.” Mimecast works to remove those tethers to get clients to the cloud as easily as possible, and help customers transition to a single-vendor solution.
Mimecast guarantees 100% email availability based on a per user/per year pricing model. Some add-on services are currently available, and the company plans to add a Secure Messaging Service later in 2015.
Thank you, Orlando for taking the time to chat with me this week!
