US-based GlobalOutlook is upbeat about the email market in India, which is currently pegged at $53 million (approximately Rs 265 crore or Rs 2.65 billion) and expected to grow to $125 million (Rs 625 crore or Rs 6.25 billion) by 2012 at a compound annual growth rate of 24 per cent.

"Currently, there are 4.55 million broadband-connected SME PCs, of which 13 per cent are expected to be the hosted exchange opportunity. Email is expected on every fourth phone to be sold in India in the next four years. Enterprise customers now want to access email, calendar, attachments and more wherever they are, on the device of their choice -- a big opportunity for telcos, Internet service providers and systems integrators," Dayakar Puskoor, executive chairman of GlobalOutlook, told mediapersons.

Announcing the launch of the company's operations in India on Tuesday, he said the venture-backed company had partnered Microsoft and will offer hosted exchange and collaboration services for enterprises in India through its software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based white label platform. "SaaS is fast catching on in India with cost benefits being the primary driver for adoption," he added.

Quoting a recent Springboard Research report, Puskoor said the Indian SaaS market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 77 per cent from 2006 to reach $165 million (Rs 825 crore or Rs 8.25 billion) by 2010.

The white label platform enables partners and resellers to sell these services without any capital investments, cuts down time-to-market and enables use of the entire service under their brand name. The platform has a control panel, which enables partners with service provisioning, assigning email plans, managing the users and billing.