Microsoft has announced the Windows Live @ edu program http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/apr06/04-21WindowsLiveEDU.mspx for colleges and universities. Hosted email has been around for a long time. Windows Live @edu is different because it allows the university to provide email addresses to students and alumni with their own .edu domain name. Another big factor is that the university controls the user directory so they can add or delete names at their discretion.
I have said for years that the big thing preventing small companies from using Hotmail for their company email system is control of the user directory or "name space". This is critical because a company needs to be able to disable an email account when an employee leaves the company.
If your best sales person uses a Hotmail email account to communicate with all your customers, and then leaves the company to go to a competitor, then the sales person still has direct links to all your customers through the Hotmail account. There are other good reasons why a company needs to control the user directory.
The second big reason small companies don't use Hotmail for their company email is the domain name. They want to have their own company name in the domain name.
Now Microsoft Windows Live is enabling universities to manage the user directory and have their own email domain name. If this program is extended to small business it could be a huge success.
The Windows Live @edu program also provides free MSN Spaces, blogs, instant messaging, as well as calendar and address book.
I like this. Right now I'm a student and I'm entering my Senior year. It would be nice for me to not have to worry about changing my personal e-mail address when I graduate. Although many universities give people "e-mail for life" when they graduate, some of them charge for it and others host it at a separate ".alumni.19xx" domain.
The question I have, however, is how this puts Hotmail up against GMail? It would be easy for Google to copy what Microsoft is doing here. Right now GMail is taking away market share from Hotmail because the Google brand has better public appeal (not necessarily features alone). By doing the same with university e-mail, they will be able to take advantage of this.
The university e-mail market will be even more lucrative to Google than the regular web-based e-mail market because there are higher obstacles for convincing an IT department to switch e-mail providers rather than an individual. Once a university decides on a provider, they are effectively locked in for a while and need major a incentive to switch again.
Posted by: Steve | April 26, 2006 at 12:41 AM
I agree with this post completely. Its a great idea what microsoft is doing and as we move into federated identity companies should be able to offer these services with no problem. I will forward this post to my university since they dont offer accounts for life.
Posted by: felipe | May 04, 2006 at 11:47 PM