ICL yesterday announced a new bulk e-mailing service targeted at corporate users that need to communicate with hundreds of thousands of customers.
Clients can send out up to 200 000 mails at a time from 6c a mail upwards. Pricing is dependent on frequency and volumes, says ICL Infrastructure Services Manager Mike Semple.
"The service is targeted at anyone who needs to mail a large number of users," says Semple. "For example, ISPs, financial institutions and large enterprises." Users, who sign up for the service on a contract basis, use a Web-based template to build up the content and design of the mail before handing it over to ICL for delivery.
With the template, users can insert logos, images and text, as well as control the design of the mail. They are also able to choose between text only or HTML-based mail or deliver the mail based on language preferences or group affiliations.
"Using the service, users can send out mail in a way that is far less-resource intensive than if they did it themselves," says Semple. The software is not designed to run on customer infrastructure, he says, although the client does use the template software to define the message.
"The value proposition we offer is that the service minimises resource overheads when bulk mailing." ICL uses its own infrastructure to deliver the required mails.
As part of the service contract, ICL signs a non-disclosure agreement with clients as far as the contact database is concerned and ownership of the database rests entirely with the client.
Semple says, however, that the service is not about to become a new way for spammers to increase their coverage. "Our existing client base is made up of reputable clients such as eBucks and our target clients are large organisations. It is also quite easy to be selective from our point of view."
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