Daily Network Monitor

If experience is the name, we use to describe our mistakes then Ipswitch and specifically the WhatsUp brand has gained lots of experience in the past 2 years. In 2005, after nearly a decade of building a brand with the name WhatsUp Gold that is still the envy of product competitors of all sizes, Ipswitch changed the product name to WhatsUp Professional. While sales increased dramatically and usage skyrocketed, the emotional attachment experienced with WhatsUp Gold name did not ring true for the name Professional.

The 17th century English Statesman George Savile wrote, “The invisible thing called a Good Name is made up of the breath of numbers that speak well of you” Our customers did in fact speak and we have listened. After two years of the Professional name, WhatsUp is being relaunched in 2007 as WhatsUp Gold and audiences from external users to internal developers to the media at large could not be more pleased.

A colleague of mine from a previous company told me the story of the Coca Cola debacle and while I am not foolish, to think our situation was as large and public as the ‘new coke’ one – the attempt at parallels is humorous.
In 1985, after 99 years, Coca-Cola decided to switch to a new sweeter and smoother coke–more like its archrival, Pepsi.

This historic decision was preceded by a top-secret $4 million survey of 190,000 people, in which the new formula beat the old by 55 percent to 45 percent. What Coca-cola apparently neglected to take into account was that many of the 45 percent who preferred old Coke did so passionately. The 55 percent who voted for new Coke might have been able to live with the old formula, but many on the other side swore that they could not stomach new Coke. Coca-Cola’s announcement change provoked outraged protests and panic stockpiling by old-Coke fans. Soon, Coca-Cola backed down and brought back old Coke as “Coke Classic

I can’t say that we have made WhatsUp any sweeter unless the term “sweet” can be used to describe “more features, more power and easier to use”. I also can’t claim that resellers and end-users were stockpiling boxes of the old WhatsUp Gold in protest. I can tell you that our customers advised, even yelled that Professional was a bad choice and we listened. Welcome back WhatsUp Gold; the product is new but the name is classic.

Ipswitch Fortifies Network Operations Services of Connected Office(TM) Solution
LEXINGTON, MA and OTTAWA, CANADA — (MARKET WIRE) — January 16, 2007 — Ipswitch, Inc., a leading IT software vendor, and The Utility Company, a leading supplier of information technology delivered as a utility service, today announced a strategic partnership aimed at the small- and medium-sized business (SMB) market. The partnership will leverage the power of Ipswitch’s WhatsUp network monitoring software within The Utility Company’s new managed services offering, Connected Office.

Connected Office is designed to provide Utility Service Provider (USP) franchisees and their end-user customers with practically everything needed for remote managed IT services through a usage-based utility computing model. Using Connected Office, USPs can easily offer SMB end-users improved network performance and reliability. At the same time, they are able to more easily leverage technology to better execute, automate and manage key business processes without having to hire an IT administrator.

This managed services approach is rapidly gaining traction in the market according to a recent study on managed services from research firm, InfoTech. The study says the market for managed services is expected to experience double-digit growth for the next five years because organizations are looking to improve network performance, increase network reliability and reduce business risk.

“Connected Office enables companies to focus on business productivity and not on technology operations. The Utility Company is partnering with Ipswitch to deliver the network monitoring requirements that underpin Connected Office,” said Mark Scott, President of The Utility Company. “We are following our own advice by partnering with a company that has an easy-to-use, off-the-shelf product that will very quickly enable our USP franchises to profitably deliver managed/utility services.”

Ipswitch’s WhatsUp Professional 2006 Premium Edition monitors and manages application and network resources to keep critical business infrastructure, like email servers and databases, up and running so companies can focus on their core business without worrying about the technology that supports it. WhatsUp is both fast to deploy and exceptionally easy to use.

“Our partnership with The Utility Company is bringing a new approach to the market that will enable end-users to drive higher levels of performance,” said Ennio Carboni, Director of Product Management, Ipswitch. “The Utility Company’s philosophy and Connected Office solution is a strong complement to our software. Together we are bringing a unique ’shrink-wrapped’ offering to the market.”

Availability

The Connected Office 2.0 service suite is currently available. For more information on the offering, see “The Utility Company™ Powers Up at Xchange ‘06″ at: http://www.theutilitycompany.com/News/2006/08-14-2006.asp.

About The Utility Company

The Utility Company™, the leader in Technology-as-a-Service™, delivers information technology as a utility to small- and medium-sized businesses providing the required hardware, software and service for a monthly fee per user. Our Connected Office™ service suite empowers people to properly leverage technology to operate, communicate and manage their business more effectively to increase productivity, performance and ultimately profit. Our customers are supported by the Utility Service Network delivering on-site service and business-technology consulting across North America; technology sales and service professionals can review the Beyond Managed Services™ franchise opportunity on our website. Learn how to make technology work for your business today at www.theutilitycompany.com.

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About Ipswitch, Inc.

Ipswitch develops and markets innovative IT software that is easy to learn and use. More than 100 million people worldwide use Ipswitch software to monitor their networks with Ipswitch WhatsUp®, transfer files over the Internet using the market leading Ipswitch WS_FTP® Professional client and Ipswitch WS_FTP Server and communicate via Ipswitch Imail™ Server. To view the Daily Network Monitor blog, visit http://www.dailynetworkmonitor.com. For product and sales information, write to info@ipswitch.com or visit http://www.ipswitch.com. Ipswitch values community involvement; visit http://icare.ipswitch.com to find out how to become involved.

WS_FTP and WhatsUp are registered trademarks of Ipswitch, Inc.

The Utility Company, Connected Office, Beyond Managed Services, and Technology-as-a-Service are trademarks of The Utility Company Ltd. All other product names are property of their respective owners.

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Media Contacts:
David Karp
Ipswitch, Inc.
781-676-5794
pr@ipswitch.com
http://www.ipswitch.com

Nancy Pieretti
Davies Murphy Group, Inc.
781-418-2424
ipswitch@daviesmurphy.com
http://www.daviesmurphy.com

Aaron Bradley
The Utility Company, Ltd.
613-591-9800 x26
abradley@theutilitycompany.com
http://www.theutilitycompany.com

You can read the original release here.

Partnership Will Support Ipswitch’s Network Monitoring, Messaging and Managed File Transfer Solutions Through SYNNEX’ Technology Solutions Division (TSD)

Ipswitch, a leading developer of network monitoring, messaging and managed file transfer solutions, announced today it has signed a strategic distribution partnership agreement with SYNNEX Corporation, a global IT supply chain services company. This partnership enables SYNNEX to sell the complete line of Ipswitch products.

Ipswitch develops and markets innovative IT software that is easy to learn and use. When network administrators need to get essential network information, they turn to Ipswitch WhatsUp for a solution that’s more robust than low-end solutions rather than the products the industry behemoths produce. When individuals and businesses need simple, cost-effective managed file transfer, Ipswitch WS_FTP is the first product they turn to. Businesses seeking a cost-effective, secure, integrated and flexible email, messaging and calendaring system look to the Ipswitch IMail Server and Ipswitch Collaboration Suite (ICS) to provide an efficient and easily managed solution.

You can read the whole story here.