Organization: Z-AXIS Inc., a division of Video Display Corporation (NASDAQ:VIDE), provides quality design, prototyping and manufacturing services for complex electronic products and electromechanical assemblies. The company offers fast design turnaround, competitive NRE charges, rapid production and low freight costs from its ISO 9001:2008 certified design and manufacturing facility near Rochester, New York. Also, Z-AXIS designs, manufactures and sells commercial and industrial products under its BEAR Power Supplies, Boundless Technologies and Display Concepts brands.

Problem: Z-AXIS had a serious communications systems stability issue. Its Zimbra-powered mail server was prone to unexpected crashes, wreaking havoc throughout the company. Once we had a crash that we were unable to recover from, explains Ms. Valerie Schafer, IT Director at Z-AXIS. Zimbra did not have a capability of doing a backup, and it took the mail server down. It was taking 23 hours to do the backup, and we were having trouble finding this time slot. It was a bad situation. Z-AXIS couldnt afford another work disruption like that and made a strategic decision to look for another solution. Solution: Z-AXIS technology team left nothing to chances and evaluated several products from the leading as well as emerging vendors. We considered Exchange and a few other smaller companies, and it really came down to MS Exchange and IceWarp, recalls Ms. Schafer.

What prevented us from going with Exchange was complexity. Another reason was the tight schedule we were on to do the migration. We did not feel it would be possible to implement Exchange in the same amount of time as we were able to deploy IceWarp. And, of course, the cost C was not the main factor, but still a contributing one. According to Ms. Schafer, ease of installation and use, along with superior customer service, were other decision-making factors. The ability to migrate the data was also a crucial feature. It was extremely important to be able to migrate the data from Zimbra, says Ms. Schafer. Without that capability we would have had to choose a different product. The migration took about 32 hours.

It wasnt as simple as one would like, but all in all it worked okay. Ms. Schafer notes that IceWarp tech support level made the migration process much less painful. I understand that with so many different email programs it is difficult to have a perfect migration solution for all of them, says Ms. Schafer. The support I received from IceWarp is excellent. That is the major difference between IceWarp and your competition. I am very happy that we selected IceWarp because of the communication I have had with your team. The support is something that really sets you apart from all others. We did this project on a very tight schedule and were successful. The transition did not require any additional infrastructure investments: Z-AXIS technology group deployed it on the existing Microsoft Server 2008R2.

Results: Z-AXIS discovered that IceWarp is easily deployed and doesnt disrupt normal workflow. The product is intuitive and works very well, says Ms. Schafer. And the support has been awesome! Its been very quickly adopted by our users. This made the IT group very happy, because we did not have to deal with a lot of unhappy users resisting change. I am receiving fewer requests to assist with the product and that helps our schedule out. The administration side turned out not to be taxing either. The interface is very easy to use and to make changes, says Ms. Schafer. One of the biggest benefits is the ability to get backups every single day, whereas with Zimbra it was a challenge to find time when I could get a backup. It was lengthy and difficult to do. Now, I do not need to take the mail server down to do the backup. Z-AXIS technology group is now thinking about expanding the use of IceWarp. With ease of use and capabilities of IceWarp we will consider using it with mobile devices, notes Ms. Schafer.

ROI According to Ms. Schafers rough estimates, IceWarp ROI was both fast and substantial. It paid for itself just through the amount of time it saved us and the quality of the product, says Ms. Schafer. And it is reasonably priced. Also, the fact that the support has been so good, has saved us time and money upfront. The solution paid for itself within a month. Ms. Schafer says she would absolutely recommend IceWarp to other organizations in the industry. I would recommend it to anyone who would ask me about e-mail solutions, concludes Ms. Schafer. You have a great product. Learn more about Z-AXIS: http://zaxis.net/ Learn more about IceWarp at: http://www.icewarp.com