Any email resellers here (gapps/office365)?

[jagowar]

I have worked in IT for a number of years and through that job have done some work on the side when people ask. Recently I have been getting more questions about email/doc collaboration and have started investigating the various email services. I think I would only be confident recommending gapps or office 365 (because there would be little upkeep needed after the initial setup) but many of the people who ask about this would want me to run it so I was thinking about testing the waters. I use a custom live domain for my personal email but don't think that would work for businesses (wouldn't have enough control over things).

Has anybody else done this? Any pitfalls I should be aware of? I am thinking contract/billing issues might come into play since this would be a recurring cost.

As for office365 vs gapps... It seems gapps has a far better reseller program and office365 does not really have anything like a reseller program and theirs is more like a referral program but I have not found much about office365 (also curious if the referral fee for office 365 would be better than the discount you get off gapps). Also are there any other options I should look at? Seems those 2 are the most popular these days and ms and google have overall excellent reputations compared to the smaller guys.

[Japlabot]

Google Apps there is a lot to learn from experience in different business requirements. As a reseller there is Admin work involved where you collect payment from your customer, add your markup and then have to transfer it internationally to Google's Irish bank account using a SWIFT code. If your client drags their feet in paying you when it comes up for renewal, their account is locked out of the business features because you in turn have not paid Google, simple as that.

[manroweb]

Both are very good products.

I resell both. GApps offered more in terms of email vs price.

Hosted Exchange / Office 365 gives less space per user as standard compared to GApps.

Both can be billed annually or monthly to suit your client.

[jagowar]

Both are very good products.

I resell both. GApps offered more in terms of email vs price.

Hosted Exchange / Office 365 gives less space per user as standard compared to GApps.

Both can be billed annually or monthly to suit your client.

Have you had any issues with customers not paying? That is my worry with this being more trouble than its worth.... also just wondering but do most opt for the monthly plan or paying for the year? In some respects I could see the year being less of a pain only having to collect once a year but the monthly allows businesses to grow/contract easier as needed and it keeps a steady income stream for me vs. it coming in chunks.

I can't find any info on the office 365 option.... how does their referral system work and is it better/worse than gapps in your experience?

On the google reseller side I looked at their registration page and it looks like you need to be a registered business.... right now its just me in terms of the business and nothing official so I'm not sure who they want me to "register" with.... is it just a file for a llc or something of that nature?

[manroweb]

90% of my clients pay on time either monthly or annually. As for monthly/annually its pretty much 50/50. Bigger clients prefer to pay monthly 100+ users. Smaller clients 1-20 users pay annually, and in-between this it is a mixture.

We have strict contracts with all clients and late payments can result in account suspension, but we try to avoid this as they have a business to run, and if they are not paying us, and we stop their email, then chances are they will lose business, and we end up receiving payment even later.

Yes Google needs a business in order to apply as a reseller. Even then you need to generate a certain amount of business before you can actually gain reseller status, and start to benefit from it.