Customer Contracts simplified with Variable monthly billing for extra usage: Part 2, 3, 4 of 6

Customer Contracts simplified with Variable monthly billing for extra usage:

In Part 1 of this series of announcements to simplify a customer contract, we covered the background of Mithi’s billing models and the improvements we had rolled out and planned shortly.

While Part 1 announced the roll-out of variable billing for excess storage used by our contract customers, this announcement is about parts 2 and 3.

In Part 2 and 3, we have automated the billing for the consumption of Legacyflo on demand and also additional user subscriptions during your contract period.

This roll-out came into effect from the 1st of February 2020.

In Part 4, we have included disabled users as paid licensed users.

This roll-out came into effect from the 1st of April 2020.

So, let’s have a closer look at both these improvements:

ADDING USERS during a contract period:

Before the improvement:

You were unable to add users beyond your original purchased quantity. For adding users, you had to raise a request to increase your purchased user count, and we would send you a pro-rated bill matching your contract term.

After the improvement:

During your contract period, you can freely add users without any restrictions. Our system will track your usage and issue a pro-rated bill monthly in arrears to cover the usage of the additional users.

Heres an example of how we have simplified addition of users for you:

You sign up 100 users of Mithi SkyConnect on 1st January
On 15th February, you add ten users
1st March, you will receive a bill for the extra ten users pro-rated for 15 days of consumption in Feb.
Start of April, you will receive a bill for the additional ten users for 31 days of consumption in March.
On the 10th of April, you delete the extra ten users.
1st May, you will receive a bill for the additional ten users only for ten days of consumption in April.
Post that, your bill for the extra users will stop unless you add some more users again.

This process shows how easy it is for you to grow and shrink your usage, and be billed precisely for what you are consuming.

Using Legacyflo to IMPORT, EXPORT, and MIGRATE email data during a contract period:

Before the Improvement:

The Legacyflo tool was available to customers of SkyConnect on request. While Vaultastic contract customers had access to this tool, but their usage of this tool was unbilled.

After the Improvement:

Legacyflo, the online email data migration tool is available to all our customers (cloud and on-premises). They can now use this tool on-demand to import email data into mailboxes or their Vaultastic vaults, export data from their mailboxes or archive accounts, and migrate data from one mailbox to another. Our system will track your usage and will issue a pro-rated bill monthly in arrears to cover your usage.

Heres an example of how easy we have made it for you to consume services for migration of data.

You sign up for MithiSkyConnect and Vaultastic on 1st January.
On 15th January, you import 50 GB of email data into one of your SkyConnect accounts.
1st February, you will receive a bill for the import of 50GB at the rate per GB.
In February, you don’t do any import or export of data.
On 25th March, you export 75 GB of data from one mailbox and import that into Vaultastic.
1st April, you will receive a bill for the import of 75 GB of data and export of 75 GB of data.

Disabled users on SkyConnect are now paid users:

Before 1st April 2020:

Users, which were disabled on SkyConnect, were not counted as paid, licensed users.

After 1st April 2020:

Disabled users form a substantial part of the cloud resource consumption in terms of compute and storage. Many customers need to disable users temporarily and then reenable them. And many customers are disabling users to maintain their email data for compliance or role transition. Considering the resource utilisation by disabled users, from 1st April 2020, all disabled users will be counted as licensed paid users.

Heres an example of how disabled users are counted as licensed users.

You sign up for MithiSkyConnect on 1st January for 200 users and add all 200 users onto the platform.
On 15th January, you disabled 20 users. Your license continues to show a consumption of 200 users.
On 15th of Feb you re-enable 10 of those 20 disabled users. Your license continues to show a consumption of 200 users.

Roll out schedules: When does this monthly variable billing model for contracts, become active?

We are upgrading our systems in parts and would be rolling this out in the following sequence

Resource/Module	Date of roll out	Status
Extra storage consumption on SkyConnect	01 Sept. 2019	This is done and an initial alert was sent in September, which was followed by proforma invoices for review to customers who are using storage in excess of their purchase. The tax invoices have also been despatched and then recur monthly as per actual usage. Learn more.
Migration of Legacy data using Legacyflo	01 Feb 2020	We have opened this tool to all our customers, which will allow you to migrate legacy email data from files or other mailboxes into SkyConnect or Vaultastic. This will then be metered as per the jobs executed, followed by a monthly bill.
Additional users created on SkyConnect	01 Feb 2020	We have relaxed the limit on the number of users in your license to more than your purchased quantities, allowing you to stretch a during the month as per your need. The extra users will then be metered, pro-rated daily and an aggregate bill sent to you monthly.
Disabled users on SkyConnect now counted as licensed, paid users	01 Apr 2020	Our analysis shows that disabled users consume resources, simply to maintain at rest. From 1st April 2020, disabled users will be counted as licensed active users and be charged similar to active users. If you are disabling users for long periods to simply preserve their email, you may want to look at Vaultastic as a better option
Extra storage consumption on Vaultastic Hold	Planned	While you buy a block of storage for HOLD, our systems allow you to stretch the storage consumed and we track this extra storage consumed on a daily pro-rata to send you an aggregate bill monthly.
Additional users created on Vaultastic’s retention based plans	Planned	We are considering to relax the limit on the number of users in your license to more than your purchased quantities, allowing you to stretch a during the month as per your need. The extra users will then be metered, pro-rated daily and an aggregate bill sent to you monthly.

As always, we thank you for all your suggestions to help us improve our services and the system of doing business to make your life easier.

Please stay tuned to more alerts from us regarding the other planned items. You can stay in touch by subscribing to our newsletter.

Questions? Please leave a comment below.

Read about Part 1 of this announcement series.