Topic: Pricing plans for the home/small business user

[Josh Turiel]

With ServiceLink, SME Server sells for $595 initially, and then with a fairly pricey plan thereafter.  I appreciate that a revenue stream is needed, but it would be nice to see a service offering/plan that is priced more attractively to the very small office - perhaps tiered service plan pricing based on the number of users would be a good way to do things.

As for the base product itself, I use the base e-smith product to run my home network.  It just consists of myself and my wife, along with the mailing list for a user group I help out with and my personal website, all sitting on a DSL line.  I don't need services, and I appreciate the effort that goes into producing a nicely polished server package.  I'd be happy to pay or even donate a couple of hundred dollars for the convenience that goes into running the e-smith system, but I'm not about to pay $595 as a home user, nor do I have a home need for ServiceLink.

What I suggest is a "hobbyist edition" of e-smith, perhaps with no ServiceLink intro subscription at all, no tech support (or maybe a couple of e-mail incidents) that includes a printed package of manual and current "howtos", and maybe priority access to blades and updates.  Charge as much as $200 for it, and market it exclusively for home/noncommercial use.

[Bruce]

GREAT IDEA. I've run into some stone walls in the past, and just don't have an extra $595 sitting around doing nothing. I also have a family network with just my wife and myself, on a DSL line, and would love to have maybe 4 or 5 incidents (no time limit) that I'd use for change issues. (Upgraded and lost everything, or I really need to change a default setting that I can't find enough info on, that sort of thing).

[koolmoose]

Josh Turiel wrote:
>
> With ServiceLink, SME Server sells for $595 initially, and
> then with a fairly pricey plan thereafter.  I appreciate that
> a revenue stream is needed, but it would be nice to see a
> service offering/plan that is priced more attractively to the
> very small office - perhaps tiered service plan pricing based
> on the number of users would be a good way to do things.

In my opinion MITEL has the right focus for small business.  The culture for business is quite different than home/office culture and it would be difficult to market on both fronts.  Even Microsoft with a monopoly is just beginning to seriously address home networking.  I want MITEL to succeed and to do that I think they should try to build out their partner support network.

For home/small office users I would recommend that users involve LINUX user groups as a resource to grow local support and awareness of issues for home/business use and contributions to development.  For "early adopter" type individuals who are willing to learn and share the existing forums provide far and away the best resource I have found.  

One of the things I misunderstood for a long while is that MITEL staff truly does support open source.  There is no shame in using the e-smith product for free. There is added benefit when one participates in the forums and devinfo that is roughly proportional to your involvement.  This is a win for users and MITEL.  Users become educated and in turn educate.  MITEL benefits from user testing and word of mouth advertising.

Understandably, with Servicelink there is a charge for on demand support and services.   In my opinion the current service offering is very competitive with what is offered by IBM, LINUXCARE, HP and others for Linux support.

[Josh Turiel]

I hope to heck that they're making money on it.  But I'm thinking of it from this angle:

My accountant, for instance, runs a very small office.  He has 5 PC's, most of which are only seasonally used (he brings in help during tax season).  Mainly, he could use a central place to store files and make backup convenient.  SME Server would be ideal runing on inexpensive hardware, but it's kind of pricey for that level usage.

The other thing I think of is my use of it.  I run my homenet on it, and I'd love to give Mitel a couple of hundred dollars for the software.  Unfortunately, $600 + ServiceLink isn't what I'd give for home use, so I just use the GPL edition.  If I could buy a packaged copy minus ServiceLink for less oney, I would.  I try to support the companies that do things like this.

[koolmoose]

Josh Turiel wrote:
>
> I hope to heck that they're making money on it.  But I'm
> thinking of it from this angle:
>
> My accountant, for instance, runs a very small office.  He
> has 5 PC's, most of which are only seasonally used (he brings
> in help during tax season).  Mainly, he could use a central
> place to store files and make backup convenient.  SME Server
> would be ideal runing on inexpensive hardware, but it's kind
> of pricey for that level usage.
>
> The other thing I think of is my use of it.  I run my homenet
> on it, and I'd love to give Mitel a couple of hundred dollars
> for the software.  Unfortunately, $600 + ServiceLink isn't
> what I'd give for home use, so I just use the GPL edition.
> If I could buy a packaged copy minus ServiceLink for less
> oney, I would.  I try to support the companies that do things
> like this.

In my opinion Mitel could ruin the economics for its partner network if they sold a shrinkwrapped version with no support.  In addition, it would have to beef up online support for a host of users who have little investment and thus little commitment to the server.  This could add to user churn and perhaps negative comments by people who can be somewhat fickle.

 I don't see why anyone would seriously want to provide support for a network for next to nothing.  There are so many  issues that can surface that have nothing to do with the server.  But you never know that until you spend time troubleshooting.  That takes resources and is expensive.  

Most businesses are in it er, for the money.  So why not pay Mitel or one of its partners to provide services.  Are we spoiled by the fact that client software is fairly cheap or free?

One of the ways you CAN support Mitel is to spend a little time evangelizing the product perhaps through non-profit activities or for your friend.  Set up a server and support it for a while to get a feel for how much time and commitment good support requires.  The installation is just the beginning...

My $.02
Paul

[Marion May]

I don't know if you realise just what support really does cost.
Where I am, industry standard support contract is three hundred dollars per pc per month.

Personally, I think the money that they are asking is far too cheap and I figure they would have to have a lot of contracts out there to be able to generate sufficient revenue to continue.

Rather than look at what it is costing, you might be better off at looking at what it will save a business in terms of being offline, unavailable or just plain not having anyone savy enough to do it.

I quite like the idea of the Linux box as the gateway/server since there are not very many people around who know how to tinker so they leave it alone. This tends to leave things running and when you do have a problem, you call in the people who made it. Nice and quick, no fuss.

[Artie Copeland]

If you want a fully usable version of SME Server, for a cost effective price.  look at YES Server from youresale, located at youresale.com.  They provide a custom version of SME Server 5.5 that comes with a Full J2EE Server.  There are 4 versions of the product.  Basic - Free, Web - 1 payment 99.95, Standard - 2 payments 99.95, Deluxe - 3 payments 99.95.  the license states that an SOHO can install it on as many machines as needed with one license needed.  they have an unlimited client license.  go to youresale.com for more information.