Nemertes Impact Analysis

The Impact Analysis is a weekly quick-take on breaking IT news.
Nemertes provides expert insight on how recent IT news affects you.

Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho it's Offline e-mail with Zoho! 

With an eye toward reduced costs, many IT shops are evaluating
hosted/web-based email. A roadblock with online solutions like Google's
(NASDAQ:GOOG) GMail is the online requirement; particularly challenging for
virtual workers.

Privately held Zoho, through use of Google Gears, has released a web-based
solution that combines the advantages of hosted email with the flexibility to
work offline. The needs of virtual workers are underscored by Nemertes'
Unified Communications and Collaboration benchmark, where 57.8% of
participants rate email as the second most important tool - behind telephony -
for their virtual workers.

Impacts:

Enterprises: Even as Web-based email solutions are evolving and become more
robust, always take a risk-based approach to ensure that outsourcing doesn't
create compliance issues.

Vendors: Zoho's offering puts pressure on Google and Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) to
release offline email options.

Investors: Current economics makes webmail options even more attractive;
watch Zoho, Google, Yahoo and even Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).

Ted Ritter, Research Analyst

http://www.nemertes.com/benchmarks/unified_communications_and_collaboration

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Messaging-and-Collaboration/Zoho-Takes-Zoho-Mail-Offline-With-Google-Gears/?kc=rss