Thursday, February 15, 2007
Outlook 2007, Re-setting the standard for e-mail to 1995 - The Impact?
In my last post, I outlined a few reasons why it makes sense for MS to take the action of retarding the e-mail experience back to 1995. But, this action is at the expense of User Experience. 'Throwing the baby out with the bath water.'
Will the public stand for this? I don't think time will tell as I hope MS will not see the end zone. A Gartner Research study predicts the majority of businesses will not upgrade for 3-5 years. In the mean time, better solutions will appear. Where will these solutions generate from?
ESPs
Well, one population that will certainly fight back are e-mail service providers (ESPs) such as Exact Target, Constant Contact, Responsys, SubscriberMail, etc.
Their business is delivering e-mail. Therefore, the single most important statistic to their livelihood is the Open Rate. The open rate is now rendered uselessly low. In order to track an open, the viewer must have images turned on.
Since the stat is erroneously low, but still active, customers will, over time, begin to lose the first level ROI for ESP vendors. The second level ROI for ESPs is based on conversions, but as you'll read below, conversions will drop too. ESPs will lose business. ESPs have money and shareholders and they will fight back.
Marketers
Another group will be legitimate e-mail marketers from big brands to their agencies like Performance Communications Group. The goal of e-mail marketers is to increase or maintain sales using e-mail as the channel. Despite people who claim to be 'e-mail purists,' E-mail is a legitimate sales channel. As the messaging opportunity decreases, so does the conversion rate. As an impact, the cost of doing business will go up and so, consequently, will the total number of e-mails sent. An unfortunate outcome adding to the downward cycle of e-mail.
Internal Business Process Guys
A group that has been gaining power, typically in conjunction to corporate IT, are the business process guys. In the e-mail arena, IT and Business Process are or soon will be at odds with each other. As happy as IT is about MS's move, Business Processes should be angry. Why? Because e-mail is used in corporations for more than simple conversations. E-mail is used to increase productivity and workflows. These e-mails require the use of forms, and other actions which may never go outside the corporate firewall. Its Process guys that I think MS underestimates and its these guys that will eventually put forth the business case to leave Outlook.
For your viewing pleasure, Apple's latest commercial about MS Vista:
http://images.apple.com/movies/us/apple/getamac/apple-getamac-security_480x376.mov
Will the public stand for this? I don't think time will tell as I hope MS will not see the end zone. A Gartner Research study predicts the majority of businesses will not upgrade for 3-5 years. In the mean time, better solutions will appear. Where will these solutions generate from?
ESPs
Well, one population that will certainly fight back are e-mail service providers (ESPs) such as Exact Target, Constant Contact, Responsys, SubscriberMail, etc.
Their business is delivering e-mail. Therefore, the single most important statistic to their livelihood is the Open Rate. The open rate is now rendered uselessly low. In order to track an open, the viewer must have images turned on.
Since the stat is erroneously low, but still active, customers will, over time, begin to lose the first level ROI for ESP vendors. The second level ROI for ESPs is based on conversions, but as you'll read below, conversions will drop too. ESPs will lose business. ESPs have money and shareholders and they will fight back.
Marketers
Another group will be legitimate e-mail marketers from big brands to their agencies like Performance Communications Group. The goal of e-mail marketers is to increase or maintain sales using e-mail as the channel. Despite people who claim to be 'e-mail purists,' E-mail is a legitimate sales channel. As the messaging opportunity decreases, so does the conversion rate. As an impact, the cost of doing business will go up and so, consequently, will the total number of e-mails sent. An unfortunate outcome adding to the downward cycle of e-mail.
Internal Business Process Guys
A group that has been gaining power, typically in conjunction to corporate IT, are the business process guys. In the e-mail arena, IT and Business Process are or soon will be at odds with each other. As happy as IT is about MS's move, Business Processes should be angry. Why? Because e-mail is used in corporations for more than simple conversations. E-mail is used to increase productivity and workflows. These e-mails require the use of forms, and other actions which may never go outside the corporate firewall. Its Process guys that I think MS underestimates and its these guys that will eventually put forth the business case to leave Outlook.
For your viewing pleasure, Apple's latest commercial about MS Vista:
http://images.apple.com/movies/us/apple/getamac/apple-getamac-security_480x376.mov
