October 5, 2007

FEATURE EDITORIAL

Adoption of Mobile Devices

A recent survey by Osterman Research shows that 15 percent of the workforces at mid-sized and large organizations in North America use employer-supplied mobile phones. According to the survey, decision makers at these companies anticipate that the number will grow by more than 40 percent in 2008 and by more than 30 percent in 2009.

In anticipation of this expected adoption, PostPath this week announced PostPath Server 3.0 to support both Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) and Microsoft ActiveSync, the push technologies used by the vast majority of mobile devices for full enablement of email, calendaring, and other mobile services. In addition, PostPath Server 3.0 incorporates performance upgrades that, according to the announcement, enable it to deliver three to five times the performance of Exchange for Outlook and mobile clients alike. "It makes perfect sense for PostPath to integrate support for push email technologies into its email and collaboration server, and now is the perfect time to do it," said Michael Osterman, principal of Osterman Research. "Companies want these capabilities, and integration plays into PostPath's vision of an open-systems future. Finding a way to improve email server performance will be a high priority for mid-sized and large companies, given the burden that mobile devices place on them today."

PostPath says that companies today are no longer relying on Outlook alone to access their data but are adopting a mix of access methods including handheld devices, Web-browser-based clients, and remote access. Existing corporate infrastructure is struggling to cope with the widespread rollout of this varied set of access methods. With PostPath 3.0, organizations can broadly deploy mobile access alongside their Outlook desktops, and to use Web browser-based access to supplement or displace traditional desktop systems, while solving performance, data management, and interoperability issues. PostPath cite benefits such as offering every employee large mailboxes, without running out of server or storage bandwidth and lowering infrastructure costs by enabling more users per server and more data per server.

With native support for BES and ActiveSync, PostPath 3.0 supports the vast majority of handheld devices on the market today. BES support enables feature-rich high performance for Blackberry devices including Pearl and Curve. ActiveSync support enables users of Palm/Treo, Motorola Q, Symbian, Nokia, Windows Mobile, Helios, Blackjack, and High Tech Computer (HTC) devices -- and ultimately Apple iPhone users -- to access email, calendar, and other information on the PostPath server.

Messaging Newsmakers Webinar Debut

Last month Messaging NewsMakers Webinar debuted with the topic of Email Archiving and e-Discovery. The Webinar, presented in interview format, offered information on the definition of email archiving, the latest information on Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) amendments, compliance challenges, email management best practices and more. My personal thanks go to Russell Sachs, co-founder and vice president of Legal Solutions for MessageOne, and Nick VanBuskirk, director of Legal and e-Discovery Solutions, also for MessageOne for participating. If you missed the Webinar, you can still access it online. The Messaging NewsMakers Webinar will be offered from time to time. I hope you will join us as we talk about the important messaging issues of the day. The Webinars are free, as is the online replay. Stay tuned for the next installment.

Three Innocent Words Not To Use In Email Subject Lines

This week, MailChimp announced the results of a study that analyzed over 200 million emails, which reviewed open rates and subject lines. The company says that because of bulging inboxes and an endless torrent of spam, readers treat new emails as guilty until proven innocent. The study concluded that if an email marketer wants their emails to be read, both by friends and business contacts, there are a few words to avoid in the subject line.

1. Help

The study reveals that most readers may have reached their respective capacity to "help" and do not respond to this word. The reluctance to open "help" messages may also stem from well-known scams asking for assistance.

2. Percentage (%) Off

While it may be counterintuitive, the stronger the commercial pitch in the subject line, the less likely it's going to be read. Consumers have become savvy in navigating their email inbox - as soon as an email smells like a sleazy offer, it's deleted.

3. Reminder

The study results warn senders to avoid using the word "reminder" in the subject line. MailChimp recommends communicating in the subject line that there is useful information inside that the reader is going to want. Analogous to "reminder" is repeating the same subject line for a particular event and sending out several emails in advance. The first email may get read, but others may not.

To read more about the study, as well as MailChimp's secret formula for writing the best email subject line, visit the MailChimp.com Resource Center.

MESSAGING NEWS CASE STUDY BRIEF:

Critical Path, Inc. and Le Réseau santé social

Critical Path, Inc. a provider of messaging software and services, announced this week that Le Réseau santé social, the first Internet service provider dedicated to France's healthcare industry, is expanding and upgrading its Memova Messaging platform.

Le Réseau santé social uses Critical Path's Memova Messaging platform to provide email services to physicians, specialists and other healthcare industry professionals. Due to the critical nature of its business sector, Le Réseau santé social requires a messaging platform that ensures peak performance, scalability and reliability. Based on the dependable performance provided by Memova Messaging over the last five years, Le Réseau santé social is increasing capacity to accommodate more email users and is upgrading to the latest version - Memova Messaging 8.0. "We are very pleased with the performance of Critical Path's Memova Messaging platform," says Christophe Rouquette, CTO of Le Réseau santé social. "All healthcare professionals use email for patient services and critical medical data exchange to engage in mission-critical communication. As such, they require highly reliable services and Memova Messaging is one of the few solutions in the industry that meets our high standards, while ensuring a reasonable cost of ownership. We look forward to expanding our platform and continuing to work with Critical Path as our business grows."

In addition to powering highly reliable and scalable email services for Le Réseau santé social, Memova Messaging delivers a number of new features in version 8.0, including a dynamic Web 2.0 interface, community-based multimedia file-sharing services, network-based address book services, integrated VoIP solutions and more.

We welcome your ideas and your news for Messaging Newswire’s News & Trends in Email Security. Let us know what you think by sending your comments to editorial@messagingnews.com. Written or compiled by Stephanie Jordan. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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