Dotnetpanel Forums

Anyone try hostedExpress yet ?  http://www.msnetsoft.com/ 

We are beginning a trial with them shortly.  Other than MPS (Microsoft Provisioning System, which can be a bear) they seem to be the price leader in control pannels with Exchange capability.  I'll post our results here when we are done.

Looking forward to your results!

Just completed initial testing hostedExpress on a VPC.  I must say for a product costing less than $250 it is quite impressive.  Did all the tasks of creating the OU's with proper delegated permissions needed for hosting, has online stats for box/folder sizes and a user control applet to allow them to update their own information in the AD.  It is also a 3 tiered product with web services interfaces which leads me to believe we can eventually write an interface with it to any control panel that has a VB/C# customization extension.  My only gripe so far is the lack of really good documentation, and a custom reporting engine.  However it does use SQL so this shouldn't be a big problem. 

For smaller hosters (if you are hosting less than a complete Exchange server can scale its maximum to) this looks like its just the right fit.  I'd love to compare it with the DNP Hosted Exchange module, but there is no trial edition of it and no real comparison in price.

Yes, I've been looking at their demo too. 

The "problem" of hostedExpress is that it is very specialized tool just for managing Exchange 2007, nothing more. At the same time DotNetPanel is a hosting management solution with its own framework. Exchange 2007 module is only a part of DNP.

Next DNP 2.3 will deliver even more: fully-functional SharePoint module (WSS and MOSS) integrated with Exchange AD infrastructure!

Feodor,

That is correct, it is strictly for Exchange 2003/2007 hosted or local management.  However due to its webservice architecture, any application capable of making a web service call could front end this provisioning tool.

I realize that your companies Exchange 2007 module is only a part of DNP, that is what is so confusing trying to figure out the pricing logic behind it.  Just pitting the your "module" against this one product we come to a choice of paying you guys $3,000 (sight unseen with no demo version) or spending $250 but have our guys switch to a different tool to manage it.  Thats kind of a no brainer.  We may even be able to integrate it later on using the DNP portal (still need to look at it).

Since you have looked at their demo, have you found anything their tool can't do in comparision to the DNP Exchange Module (other than being integrated with DNP of course)?

Your last statement about the Exchange AD infrastructure is also encouraging.  Does this mean that in DNP 2.3 we wont need that $3000 exchange option ?

Thanks!

One of our benefit is that we can work out almost every pricing model for certain customer. The price stated on our site is not final and it is always a subject for negotiation. We offer leased DNP HES licenses too and have special offerings for dedicated Exchange server providers.

Yes, I have to admit hostedExpress looks pretty good and competitive. But you know, we like competition and it is always a good challenge for us!

Feodor,

I tried working with sales on this, the only option they would agree to is either $3000 for a perpetual license or $140/month for a leased one.  If you'd like to put together something for us around the same pricing as hostedExpress, and let us do an eval on it to make sure it meets our needs, I'd be happy to consider it.

Thanks,

Gary

Feodor,

Still waiting for a contact for the special pricing on this......

Gary