by Real Business - Thursday, 30th August 2007

But things are starting to change. The kind of performance you can enjoy with web mail today is now becoming available for corporate email systems at a price small businesses can afford.

Zimbra Collaboration Suite is one of the most cost-effective and slickest. Initially designed to run on the Linux free operating system, it’s an alternative to Exchange Server, the Microsoft program that connects Outlook inboxes.

UK pricing varies among Zimbra’s UK partners, but starts at £14 per mailbox per year. Pricing for Exchange varies depending on how many “client” licences you buy, but it runs from around £1,000 for a five-user licence.

Zimbra was created in 2003 as an “open source” product by three former Sun Microsystems software engineers, making use of publicly available programs.

Because it’s open source, a community of online developers has evolved around it, adding features such as spam control and anti-virus software. Zimbra itself has added back-up and recovery of mailboxes.

While you’ll find anti-spam and anti-virus capability in the 2007 version of Exchange, which is just becoming available in the UK, you still have to buy a separate third-party product for back-up and recovery. 

Zimbra can connect to Outlook or other email systems, so you don’t have to change what people are already using. But its own web-based interface is the big “wow” factor.

It’s a match for anything Google offers – but, unlike web mail, it sits on your own network. And it has all the functions you’d expect: calendars, contacts, address books, tagging of familiar contacts and search facilities. 

Zimbra also makes use of modern technology, such as “mash-ups” or smart links. These read through an email and link to other programs. So, if you click on a highlighted address in a Zimbra email, a map of the area will pop up.

 There are some disadvantages. Most of Zimbra’s UK users are charities and educational institutions, so it lacks a commercial track record. Support is also an issue, as with many open-source products. 

The basic service provided with the network edition does not include telephone support.  But Zimbra is pulling in UK partners to help, and you can obtain a comprehensive hosted offering and support from Simply Mail Solutions for £39.99 per mailbox per year. 

Lastly, you will still need an email administrator to manage the email set-up, if only for security reasons. You’re more likely to see bigger cost savings from a companywide move to a cheaper operating system such as Linux than from the email itself.

By David Longworth, Webster Buchanan Research

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