RE: [cobalt-users] Webbased Email

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 03:55 AM 1/14/00  Rob Rivas wrote:

> We went to the services page and then BENEFITS
>
> and then we just clicked the signup and signed up, check out a screen shot 
> at http://www.www-hosting.net/images/webmail.gif

Maybe that was enough information for you.  It' sno where's near enough 
information for me.  For example:  how does webmail interface with your 
POP3 mail?  Does it read and write folders and subfolders on your system, 
or does it download email from your system to theirs?  When the user logs 
on, or continuously, or on some schedule?

What's their business plan?  This is more important than you may 
realize:  how long will they stay in business; I'd hate to take these 
features away from my customers once they got used to them.  I'm 
responsible for my customer's email, so I'd like to know how they store it, 
what kind of third-party arrangements they've made in case of financial or 
other difficulty, how many people are involved, etc.

How do they plan on making money?  There's really no such thing as a free 
lunch; once a few ISPs sign on they've got bandwidth and storage 
expenses.  Do they intend to advertise to my customers while they're logged 
on?  In which case, what kind of products.  No porn of course, but how 
about competing products.  We offer a lot of products.  Will they guarantee 
us not to advertise companies offering the same products?  What steps do 
they take to protect my users' names, email address, personal information, 
and all the other stuff in the database?  What's their policy (written, I'd 
sure expect) on dealing with suspected or actual security breaches?

and ...

> You can send them your own logo, which we are making right now, so that 
> your users see your company name and stuff


There's a lot more to branding than a logo.  Colors.  Type 
faces.  Layouts.  Contracts.  etc.

> Pretty nifty and easy!


Is that your only qualification?  While I was at Jatek Corp. we spent 
months dealing with QCN on a portal page they were doing for us.  We 
finally came to terms.  The next week they went out of business <frown>.

Jeff

--
Jeff Lasman, nobaloney.net
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