Running a small business with no time to manage your e-mail system? Telkom has come up with a cost-effective solution to enable small businesses to run a mail management system that could save SMMEs up to 40% on their current costs.
Telkom`s Message Suite is a Microsoft Outlook Web access e-mail service specifically developed for the South African SMME market. The service would enable access to e-mail from anywhere, any time and from virtually any device. Customers would be able to access internal and external e-mails, individual and shared calendaring, task management, contract and list management, journal entries, public folders, anti-virus scanning, spam and content filtering, directory services and distribution lists and deleted item recovery.
"Our thinking is that the less time entrepreneurs have to spend on non-core functions, the more time they have for their clients and core businesses, with positive results for the economy as a whole," says Steven White, Telkom Executive for Product Development.
White says trials were conducted with small businesses in the interior decorating business to retail and import and export companies. Many of these companies that voluntarily participated in trials said it made an immense difference in efficiency and productivity of their business.
"Message Suite has been specifically priced to suit the budgets of SMMEs and there is no monthly licence fees to pay, no extra charges for maintenance or upgrades and no hidden costs of any kind," says White.
The standard version of Message Suite includes sending and receipt of e-mails, address book and contact folder and full connection to the Internet functionality through the customer`s Internet service provider. The monthly fee ranges from R114 for the Standard 50meg product to R315 for the top of the range 200meg Professional option.
"Another cost benefit is that operation and support are included, as are maintenance and upgrades, so small businesses do not have to budget for these separately. There is also no need for customers to worry about downloading upgrades and patches as they normally would because these are mostly handled in Telkom`s data centre," says White.
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Telkom SA Limited is one of the largest companies registered in the Republic of South Africa and is the largest telecommunications service provider on the African continent based on operating revenue and assets. Telkom offers fixed-line voice and data services, branded as Telkom, and mobile communications services through a 50% shareholding in the joint venture, Vodacom, a company incorporated in the republic of South Africa, Tanzania, Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique.
Telkom has approximately 4.8 million telephone access lines in service as of March 2005. Telkom is South Africa`s incumbent operator. Telkom had consolidated operating revenue of R43.1 billion ($6.9 billion) for 2005. Telkom`s subsidiaries include TDS (Directory Services), which was formed as a result of a joint venture between Telkom and Maister Directories as well as Swiftnet, which was formed in 1994. Telkom strongly believes in corporate social investment and has a dedicated wing, The Telkom Foundation, which focuses in investing and developing previously disadvantaged South Africans. The Telkom Foundation spent R45.4 million (2004: R40.5 million) in the year ended 31 March 2005.
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