Let’s face it—e-mail has become almost useless due to
the growth of spam, embedded malware and a host of other problems. Simply put,
businesses can’t rely on e-mail any more for marketing or professional
communications. What’s more, spam is not only a drain on productivity, it has
now been identified as a contributor to carbon emissions, albeit in a
roundabout fashion.
Salt Lake City-based Sendside Networks
took a close look at how businesses communicate with each other and their
customers and came up with a new model, which eliminates multiple e-mails, adds
multiple communication paths to a company’s Web presence and, at the same time reduces
the need for on-site sales calls.
Originally designed for financial
markets, Sendside Networks’ new platform offers businesses measurable metrics
to track how customers are interacting with the company and, more importantly, a
unified pathway to help close the deal and build a long-term customer
relationship.
Sendside Networks delivers those
capabilities with a communications platform that works as a service that aims
to combine Web content, audio, video, Flash or existing print collateral and
then delivers it as a single multidimensional message, called a package. Those packages
allow organizations to prepackage and send important, confidential and complex
information to their customer prospects and business partners.
Advanced reporting and analytics provide the sender with key information on
when a package is opened and what content is viewed. The goal here is for
businesses to align marketing and sales efforts to deliver a central location
for approved content, which in turn facilitates faster follow-up on customer
requests.
The overall result of a package is to
create shorter sales cycle, reduce risk, improve efficiencies and meet
compliance requirements. The controlled nature of package delivery also helps
with DLP efforts. Sendside packages further
marketing and sales goals by eliminating the need for multiple steps in the
sales process and simplifying the creation of custom sales presentations or
complex media kits.
Advanced reporting capabilities instantly inform senders when packages are
delivered, what content was accessed, whether a video was viewed, and what documents
have been read and downloaded.
The product is delivered via a Web-based
service that uses Web 2.0 technologies. Users create accounts on the service
(the personal edition is free) and then access a communications management
console, where they can roll up documents, video, hyperlinks or other content
into deliverable packages. Those packages are delivered via the Sendside secure
network to targeted receivers.
In other words, a user creates a package,
which is then stored on the Sendside network—a secure link to that package is
then delivered via an e-mail to the receiver. The recipient then clicks on the
link, which brings them to a secure Web page, where they can interact with the
content, send messages, download files and so on. All activity is recorded and
archived, which allows users to keep track of who has seen what and also
creates an audit trail.
The platform portal offers a library,
message center, reporting, signature tracking, networking and many other
features that help to create an integrated communications environment. Users
can log into the portal from any Web-connected system, eliminating the need for
dedicated software to be placed on an individual PC. That also gives the
product “netbook” appeal, where all you need is a browser and an account to
stay in touch or deliver critical documents.
Business accounts range from $20 to $75
per seat per month. For enterprise implementations, pricing is based on the
number of unique recipients reached in a given month. Solution providers can sign
up as an affiliate to sell the service to their customers and can earn some
revenue via commissions and training opportunities, or better yet, by selling
mobile systems to leverage the service on the go.
Solution providers also have the option
to become reseller partners, and can rebrand the product, integrate with
existing Web pages, develop APIs and create custom solutions. Margins can range
from 30 to 40 percent for most partners.
Sendside helps to solve a critical
problem faced by many businesses by providing secure, auditable communications
that can be used to create customized packages for marketing needs or to keep
proprietary information secure during transmission.