WCOM News: Company Adds E-Mail Service
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Forbes.com
MCI WorldCom Adds E-mail Service
By Kathleen Cholewka
How can a telecom company like MCI Worldcom adapt to the quickly changing business world and protect its lucrative customer base? By becoming a one-stop shop for its business customers.
MCI Worldcom (Nasdaq: WCOM - news) is trying to make that leap, as exemplified by a recent partnership with Critical Path (Nasdaq: CPTH - news), a San Francisco company that provides outsourced e-mail and other messaging services. ``All the telecom companies are positioning themselves for the day that businesses want to buy all of their communications services from one company,' says Chris Selland, analyst at the Yankee Group in Boston. ``That day isn't quite here yet, but they need to be ready.'
Being able to offer e-mail and messaging services is key. ``The killer application of any network is e-mail,' says Dana Garder, research director at the Aberdeen Group in Boston. ``E-mail gets MCI's foot in the door, and acts as a beachhead from which they can offer other killer apps.'
Naturally, Critical Path reaps benefits from the deal as well. By partnering with MCI WorldCom, Critical Path gets to sell into the medium and large corporate enterprise market. ``As we considered the relationship, we realized that more and more corporations are turning to large carriers like MCI WorldCom to manage core pieces of their infrastructure,' says Peter Charland, vice president of channel marketing and sales at Critical Path.
The market potential for offering e-mail services is huge. According to Arlington, Va.-based Electronic Messaging Association, business users will send 6.8 trillion e-mails this year. And the Gartner Group, a research firm in Stamford, Conn., estimates the market for outsourced e-mail will reach $1.3 billion by the end of 2000.
With those kinds of numbers, it's no surprise that MCI WorldCom wants to offer an outsourced e-mail service rather than lose that business to someone else.
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