The things that are nice about the growth of Email Center Pro are somewhat obvious:

• More users
• A tad more recognition
• The chance to impact more businesses

The challenges in the face of all that positivity are things like performance optimization and growth management. And the sign of a product or service that’s coming of age is the opportunity to tackle these challenges and emerge from them stronger for it.

Email Center Pro began its first genuine stint of product maturation a few weeks ago when our capacity to serve butted up against the demands of our users.

Quite frankly, it was terrific. The situation allowed us to learn a couple of things:

• We operate very effectively under a bit of duress
• It’s nice to be a SaaS — Internet-hosted — product, as it allows for big buckets of agility
• Focusing on optimization does wonders for Email Center Pro

Email Center Pro undergoes regular performance tuning, but never before had we drilled down on optimization with such laser-like precision. And it’s the users who win as now the service is faster and more responsive then ever before.

Oh, and the last thing we learned is that Email Center Pro has a rocking, passionate team driving it. And that’s a reason to use it, if nothing else convinces you.

Jason Gallic
Product Marketing Manager

Tags: Email, Email Center Pro, emailcenterpro, optimization, performance
Posted on March 17th, 2009 | No Comments »

Sound familiar? You come into the office, power up the computer, turn off the voice mail, and when the PC finally boots up, start checking multiple email inboxes to see what’s come in overnight. Wouldn’t it be nice to receive a listing of email from all addresses into one place? If you’re an Email Center Pro customer, you can. Check out this video and see how simple it is to receive email alerts:

Tags: alerts, ecp update, Email
Posted on November 25th, 2008 | No Comments »

Palo Alto Software CEO Sabrina Parsons has a remarkable capacity for life. She runs this company. She’s a wife (to COO Noah Parsons). And she’s raising two young lads.

But all of that pales in comparison to what’s done over the last few weeks.

Since we began the “Solidarity Experiment” in support of Email Center Pro a few weeks ago, Sabrina has been pressing life’s gas pedal without the benefit of sugar. That’s right, none. Zero. Zilch.

Because of Email Center Pro she’s been eating crackers and all natural jam for dessert. On Halloween, she watched the candy come and go. And, even more earth shaking, she’s been roaming the halls of Palo Alto without the suckers you see laid out to the right (Organic Chili Lime Lambada Lollipops) putting a giddy up in her gait.

I know, you’re thinking to yourself “they’re just suckers.” But that would be a devastatingly short-sighted. I kid you not, Sabrina showed up to my initial job interview with one of those sugar sweets sedating her.

But she has been faithful to the cause of Email Center Pro. We’re in pursuit of 4,000 users — and it’s going very well. Of course, “very well” is all in the eye of the beholder — depending on whether or not you’ve got sugar permissions.

Jason Gallic
Product Marketing Manager

Tags: Email, Email Center Pro, palo alto software, team, teamwork
Posted on November 5th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Email Center Pro was in Portland for the Oregon Association of Broadcasters Conference in early October.

It was a spirited conference with a couple of dynamic speakers who painted a bright future for the broadcasting industry. We can only hope that such positive energy was good for Email Center Pro as well.

The reason we journeyed to the Rose City for the conference was because we’ve built such a strong relationship and use case with radio station KLCC in Eugene, OR. The team at KLCC has done nothing but prove the effectiveness of Email Center Pro as a service, which led us to believe that other broadcasting outlets might benefit from the service as well.

Our booth at the OAB conference received plenty of traffic — despite the less than glamorous display. Check it out below.

Give it up for The National Guard!

Jason Gallic
Product Marketing Manager

Tags: collaborative email, Email, Email Center Pro, palo alto, roller skating, shared email, team, teamwork
Posted on October 25th, 2008 | No Comments »

Email Center Pro continues to do well. We’re adding users and the reviews of version 2.0 have been sterling.

In fact, I might argue that the new ECP 2.0 User Interface is more attractive than the mug on display below.

Who knew that email could be so much fun?

Oh, and forgive the shake…I just felt like dancing.

Jason Gallic
Product Marketing Manager

Tags: Email, Email Center Pro, palo alto software, team, teamwork
Posted on October 24th, 2008 | No Comments »

Today, we let Email Center Pro 2.0 out of the starting gate. Flush with a new user interface and a host of initial enhancements, we firmly believe that we’re offering a service capable of helping to reshape the way users think about work flow, in general, and email, specifically.

And that’s a good thing, because those skates you see over there to the right represent a small component of how strongly we at Palo Alto believe in Email Center Pro. You can skim through the other posts on this blog and find the one related to the “Solidarity Experiment”. The four-wheelers over there are the actual pair being worn to work every day by our VP of Customer Experience, Jake Weatherly.

He’s going to do so until Email Center Pro can claim 4,000 users. He started, as did all of the participants of the experiment, when were at about 2,000 users. Now that we’ve climbed above 2,200, Jake can be heard singing “Y-M-C-A” as he whips around the office as if he was carrying burgers and crinkly fries to the drive-in restaurant customers.

My hunch is that Jake selected “wear roller skates” as his “sacrifice” because he secretly wanted to know what it might be like to go about 7′3″ for six or eight weeks. Interesting that he also bought a very large truck and started drinking Miller Genuine Draft.

Over the coming weeks, as Jake literally spins around the office, and the other participants in this cruel little undertaking suffer as well, Email Center Pro 2.0 will realize a host of new feature packages that elevate it into a rich service capable of providing a solution to a wide swath of communication challenges.

Jason Gallic
Product Marketing Manager
Email Center Pro

Tags: collaborative email, Email, Email Center Pro, palo alto, roller skating, shared email, team, teamwork
Posted on October 15th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

You all remember Braveheart, right?

Best Picture of the Year in 1995, Mel Gibson, kilts, “Freeeedddooommm”…

Right, that one. The brutal story of an against-all-odds Scottish rebellion against England. It’s the story of a few brave souls standing firm to hold their own in the face of inconceivably long odds.

In true hyperbole fashion, at Palo Alto Software (Scotland) we’ve banded together in pursuit of Email Center Pro users. And we’re on the attack against the unknowing marketplace (England).

Ok, so we’re not exactly risking life and limb, but we are engaging in commitments that show corporate solidarity as we pursue a common goal. And that common goal is this: We are hungrily hustling toward a user base of 4,000.

And at least 12 Palo Alto employees are making commitments varying in nature from the very difficult to the community-focused until we do. And now that your curiousity is piqued (even if it’s not, just go with me), here is a list of Palo Alto crew members participating — along with each individual’s “sacrifice”:

Tim Berry, Founder & President: Shaving his beard

Sabrina Parsons, CEO: Giving up sugar/sweets

Noah Parsons, COO: Giving up sugar/sweets

Cale Bruckner, VP of Product Development: Coloring his hair silver

Jake Weatherly, VP of Customer Experience: Wearing roller skates every day at work

Vie Radek, Controller: Crocheting an Afghan to be donated

Josh Cochrane, Director of Online Marketing: Going without caffeine

Chelle Parmele, Social Marketing Manager: Giving up soda

Alex Boone, Developer of Email Center Pro: No eating out for lunch

Kristen Langham, Director of Business Development: Collecting canned goods for donation

Teri Epperly, Documentation Manager: Exercise and Yoga stretching every day

Shawnie Gartman, Senior Customer Care Specialist: Riding her bike to work or working out at least three days per week

Jason Gallic, Product Marketing Manager: No shaving

Over the next few weeks, as we aggressively pursue our user goal, this blog will be the epicenter for all things “Solidarity Experiment”. Here you’ll find profiles of each of the participants, including a little more about what each one does at Palo Alto Software, why each opted to forgo his or her particular item and how life is getting along without it.

Which reminds me to remind you NOT to get stuck in the path of those who’ve decided to go either without sugar or caffeine. Productivity is already plummeting from those corners of the office.

Anyway, the documentation you’ll see includes words, photos and perhaps some video — along with a few surprises.

No matter what, though, it’s going to be fun…if by fun you mean itching places on your face where previously hair dared not grow.

Oh, and because I know you’ve been scanning through the article rapidly in pursuit of this figure, here it is: we’re currently at about 2,000 users.

Jason Gallic
Product Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software

Tags: , Email, Email Center Pro, palo alto, team, teamwork
Posted on October 8th, 2008 | 3 Comments »

“Software as a Service” products are treading lightly, but with increasingly regularity, into a world that’s not much different than, say, Hershey’s Chocolate. If you visited the home base in Pennsylvania, they’d serve you as much sugary decadence as your heart desired. But you’re far more likely to pick up a bar at your neighborhood grocery store.

Email Center Pro is now among the SaaS products offered on the Etelos Marketplace. The service went live there a couple of weeks ago, and was officially announced on Tuesday, Sept. 16.

It’s a nice opportunity to expose Email Center Pro to an audience looking specifically for hosted solutions to common business functions.

ECP entered the Etelos Marketplace with five other SaaS products looking to gain traction in an ever-expanding market. Those companies, LOOP, Blink Logic, Box.net, Entellium and Central Desktop help to round out what we think is a strong six-pack.

As for Etelos, their marketplace is in the business of  giving developers a channel for distributing and hosting applications, and giving businesses a wide selection of those on-demand applications from which to choose.

Tags: Email, Email Center Pro, etelos, etelosmarketplace, saas, software as a service
Posted on September 19th, 2008 | No Comments »

We’re getting ready to launch a new product called Email Center Pro (ECP) next month and we’re all very excited about it.

For more than a decade we’ve been focused on our business planning software product, Business Plan Pro, so some people will think ECP is a bit off course for us and a risky new venture.

So why did we decide to build ECP and take the chance? Simple. We think it can help people succeed in business and helping people succeed in business is what we’re all about – it’s our mantra. Business Plan Pro, for obvious reasons, has helped a lot of people succeed in business and we feel really great about that. ECP does it in a less direct way but it will help you improve the way you run your business and therefore increase your chances of business success.

Email Center Pro helps you manage shared email addresses like sales@yourcompany.com and info@yourcompany.com. It provides your team with easy access to these email accounts by creating web-based shared mailboxes that the whole team can access. You can assign messages, track conversations, add notes to messages, and use templates to respond to messages in consistent ways. You can efficiently manage more email and deliver better quality responses to your customers. See – it will help you improve the way you run your business. At Palo Alto Software, our customer services teams use ECP every day and our customers and our business are better off because we do.

You can learn more about the product by visiting the Email Center Pro website. You can also request an invitation to the Beta program.

Cale Bruckner
VP Product Development

Tags: Announcment, Email, Email Center Pro
Posted on March 26th, 2008 | 2 Comments »