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Johnson: How does MessageLabs Australia cope with the challenge of implementing changes and enhancements initiated from clients and partners swiftly and flexibly?
Hawkins: We are constantly rolling out new services and enhancements to our infrastructure that have resulted from close relationships with our partners and customers. Our managed e-mail encryption service is one example where we developed a solution specifically to meet one customer's needs and subsequently plan to roll it out to the market as a new service. Another example of implementing an enhancement to meet a market need is our spam quarantine. This allows e-mail we classify as spam to be stored off a client's network and allows the individual users, if desired, to manage their spam via a Web console.
Hawkins: As an Australian company, how do you go about meeting service expectations from large global businesses?
Johnson: MailGuard still has many opportunities within Australia as we expand via our three offices (Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane). Additionally, our initiatives in working with Australian Business Limited (ABL) have revealed that there are many businesses in regional Australia eager to adopt a service such as ours.
Interestingly, the service expectations of our clients tend to relate directly to how critical e-mail is to their business -- rather than the organisation's size or global presence. For example, many of our shipping and freight-forwarding customers, who may only have a handful of staff, stand to lose between AU$70K and AU$100K for every hour that a ships sits waiting to be loaded, whilst waiting for an e-mail to arrive.
Many of our clients opt for the MailGuard solution, as they can't afford to have the single point of failure of an internal server. We need to offer 24x7 support for a growing number of customers due to the service being implemented globally -- eg, Quicksilver MailGuard users are located in Australia and the USA, Multiplex has users in Australia and the UK, while Bakers Delight has Australian and Canadian users protected by MailGuard.
Our first- and second-level help desk operates from our Brisbane offices, with additional second- and third-level support available from Sydney and Melbourne. Support outside Australian business hours is currently managed by MailGuard staff in Europe, with second level on call in Australia.
Johnson: What would you say is the differentiator that MessageLabs takes to the market?
Hawkins: Our unique (patented and patent pending) heuristic e-mail threat detection technology, plus the company's global infrastructure which delivers worldwide protection mechanisms to organisations in Australia and elsewhere.
Hawkins: If you had to define what sets MailGuard apart from other managed e-mail security service providers, what would it be?
Johnson: MailGuard has been developed locally from the ground up. I would say that our key differentiator is quality customer service, teamed with the ability to continually enhance our service offering based on customer feedback. Our technology allows us to adapt our systems to meet and extend on the current and future needs of our clients and partners.
MailGuard today is the result of the input and feedback from our customers and partners. We exist because they have a need, and we as a team have the same focused vision, passion, and drive to provide the best available technology and service to match their needs.
Johnson: Why is MessageLabs still in the old mindset of having fixed-term (six- and 12-month) contracts and pay-up-front commitment?
Hawkins: We do not have a pay-up-front commitment, we provide our customers with options that suit their requirements. In line with service agreements, and in order to enable customers to minimise their administrative overheads, we have opted for a minimum 12-month agreement, with opt-out clauses.
Hawkins: The e-mail landscape has changed from filtering to compliance. What is MailGuard doing with its product roadmap to keep with the compliance challenges faced by customers?
Johnson: We see that our customers have ongoing needs in both of these areas. Filtering challenges will only increase, while other challenges such as compliance requirements add to daily business pressures. Filtering provides the ability to stop unwanted e-mails and viruses out at the Internet, before they are sent to our clients' networks. Filtering in terms of e-mail, and Web browsing [WebGuard], combined with e-mail archiving and data life cycle management [SafeGuard] are the base tools that many of our clients are using to meet regulatory compliance and reporting requirements.
MailGuard has also worked under the guidance of the Australian Retailers Association and the Privacy Commissions Office to provide tools for businesses to manage their compliance with the e-mail requirements for the amendments to the Australian Privacy Act 2000 (introduced in December 2001).
Johnson: Customer configuration changes in the MessageLabs service take up to 24 hours to propagate and take effect, which can prevent customers from responding to emerging threats quickly. What is the reason for such long latencies, and how do you address this problem?
Hawkins: This is incorrect. We have four automated change rollouts in each 24-hour window, with the ability to make custom adjustments to individual pieces of our infrastructure as needed. This configuration management schedule is not part of the company's threat management process, which is handled by two 24x7 teams (GTS, Global Tech Support and NOC, Network Operations Centre) in New York and the UK. MessageLabs' clients e-mail security is managed primarily by the 24x7 team in the UK.
Hawkins: What is MailGuard's most successful sector and why?
Johnson: Typically, we can define our customers into two categories: (1) dynamic small organisations focused on delivering their core business by outsourcing their e-mail security; and (2) focused, busy (and usually small) IT teams in larger organisations that have realised they can be more efficient and effective with their time than spending hours daily managing spam, virus, and e-mail security issues.
Johnson: Your Web site shows only one office in Sydney. Do you have plans to develop offices in other states of Australia?
Hawkins: We have direct sales people in Queensland (Brisbane) and Victoria (Melbourne), but MessageLabs' main route to market is via our strategic partners who have extensive regional coverage. Both Global Alliance partners and local partners contribute significant business to MessageLabs Australasia. We use smaller local Australian partners to address specific market segments in all states and territories.
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