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(The Hosting News) – Parallels CEO Serguei Beloussov today outlined the future of Cloud service delivery by announcing the launch of Parallels Automation 5.0 (PA5.0) in his keynote presentation at HostingCon 2010.
The announcement introduced new key features in Parallels Automation 5.0, including support for delivering Microsoft Exchange 2010, unified communications with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 services, improved cloud syndication capabilities, customer on-premise directory integration, as well as over 100 other features.
“With the competition to attract small businesses to the Cloud heating up, Service Providers need to deliver profitable Cloud services to market at an ever-increasing pace,” said Serguei Beloussov, CEO and Chairman at Parallels. “Adding Microsoft Exchange 2010, Office Communications Server and customer directory integration to Parallels Automation 5.0 allows Service Providers to increase average revenue per user, reduce operational costs and attract new customers.”
Beloussov added, “Service Providers can now be amongst the first to offer their customers Hosted Exchange 2010 email. It also enables them to increase ARPU and decrease churn by cross-selling the latest Microsoft unified communications services.”
This release of Parallels Automation 5.0 also significantly improves Open-Xchange-based services capabilities for business class email providing an additional source of revenue for Service Providers.
“One of the advantages of the Parallels platform is that it has allowed us to dramatically expand our product portfolio and ultimately be a single vendor of choice for our customers’ business communication and collaboration needs,” said Chris Damvakaris, Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Apptix. “On top of being able to offer Hosted Exchange, Hosted SharePoint, and VoIP, Parallels Automation allows us to roll out Web conferencing, secure IM, online backup, DNS hosting and Web site hosting.”
The release of PA5.0 also includes Parallels Business Automation 5.0 (PBA) which boasts PCI Payment Application DSS certification. This simplifies PCI audits for Service Providers that require PCI DSS compliance.
“Parallels Automation provides a carrier-class tool with robust features and the ability to integrate new services such as BlackBerry and GoodLink — but its interface is simple enough so that mobile customers can manage their own accounts through a Web-based control panel,” said David Grantz, Chief Technology Officer at ExchangeMyMail.
(The Hosting News) – Parallels CEO Serguei Beloussov today outlined the future of Cloud service delivery by announcing the launch of Parallels Automation 5.0 (PA5.0) in his keynote presentation at HostingCon 2010.
The announcement introduced new key features in Parallels Automation 5.0, including support for delivering Microsoft Exchange 2010, unified communications with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 services, improved cloud syndication capabilities, customer on-premise directory integration, as well as over 100 other features.
“With the competition to attract small businesses to the Cloud heating up, Service Providers need to deliver profitable Cloud services to market at an ever-increasing pace,” said Serguei Beloussov, CEO and Chairman at Parallels. “Adding Microsoft Exchange 2010, Office Communications Server and customer directory integration to Parallels Automation 5.0 allows Service Providers to increase average revenue per user, reduce operational costs and attract new customers.”
Beloussov added, “Service Providers can now be amongst the first to offer their customers Hosted Exchange 2010 email. It also enables them to increase ARPU and decrease churn by cross-selling the latest Microsoft unified communications services.”
This release of Parallels Automation 5.0 also significantly improves Open-Xchange-based services capabilities for business class email providing an additional source of revenue for Service Providers.
“One of the advantages of the Parallels platform is that it has allowed us to dramatically expand our product portfolio and ultimately be a single vendor of choice for our customers’ business communication and collaboration needs,” said Chris Damvakaris, Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Apptix. “On top of being able to offer Hosted Exchange, Hosted SharePoint, and VoIP, Parallels Automation allows us to roll out Web conferencing, secure IM, online backup, DNS hosting and Web site hosting.”
The release of PA5.0 also includes Parallels Business Automation 5.0 (PBA) which boasts PCI Payment Application DSS certification. This simplifies PCI audits for Service Providers that require PCI DSS compliance.
“Parallels Automation provides a carrier-class tool with robust features and the ability to integrate new services such as BlackBerry and GoodLink — but its interface is simple enough so that mobile customers can manage their own accounts through a Web-based control panel,” said David Grantz, Chief Technology Officer at ExchangeMyMail.
Source: Automation is the future of Cloud Delivery
(The Hosting News) – Parallels, the global leader in Cloud enablement software, today announced the return of its annual cloud services industry event, the Parallels APAC Summit, in Singapore between 24 and 26 September 2010. As Cloud computing gains traction with small businesses, the Summit aims to provide Cloud services providers – including hosters, telcos, communications service providers (CSPs), distributors, VARs and ISVs – with the latest insights and strategies needed to enhance productivity and efficiency in Asia.
The three-day Summit, taking place during the SingTel Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend, will focus on enabling cloud services providers to profit from cloud services and will feature in-depth business and keynote sessions by prolific Parallels executives, guest speakers and other industry leaders such as Warren Adelman, President and Chief Operating Officer of Go Daddy, the world’s top domain name registrar and Web hosting provider, as well as the world’s fastest growing SSL provider.
“Go Daddy recognizes Asia as one of the most dynamic regions in the world, especially when it comes to growth in hosting and cloud service use,” said Go Daddy President and Chief Operating Officer Warren Adelman. “The Parallels APAC Summit is a one-of-a-kind event and we think it is a powerful opportunity for hosting and cloud service providers to enhance their own offerings by working with Parallels.”
Alvin Lim, Regional Director of Microsoft Asia is also set to address attendees.
“Microsoft and Parallels continue our successful collaboration and partnership in Asia. We have seen tremendous growth and interest in cloud services as hosters, CSPs and ISVs eye the profit opportunity in the cloud,” said Alvin Lim, Regional Software Services Director at Microsoft Asia. “Our joint offerings of Cloud services with Microsoft Exchange, Sharepoint and Office Communications Server with Parallels Automation are invaluable to accelerate time to market, reduce churn and increase ARPU.”
This year’s Summit provides three days of sessions and networking for sharing valuable insights on becoming a profitable hosting and Cloud services provider, building new channels and revenue streams and engaging with other industry players and potential partners. Participants of the cloud services panel discussion include Bhavin Turakhia from Directi (India), Daryl Webb from Webvisions (Singapore), Jason Frisch from Tsukaeru.net (Japan), Michael McGoogan from AussieHQ (Australia), and Natalie Kong from PacHosting (Hong Kong).
“The success of last year’s Summit demonstrated both the sizeable opportunity represented by Cloud computing and Parallels’ position as a key strategic partner for players, especially in Asia Pacific where we are experiencing tremendous growth,” said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels. “The fastest adoption of Cloud services is amongst small businesses where the Cloud allows for fast deployment of IT services in a cost effective and flexible manner. Asia is a huge growth area for Cloud services as an estimated 38% of the world’s small businesses are in this region. The Parallels APAC Summit is the key event in Asia for hosters and service providers to profit from the cloud.”
The Parallels APAC Summit 2010 is open to all hosters and cloud services providers, including hosters, telcos, CSPs, distributors, VARs and ISVs. To register for free or to find out more information, please visit www.parallels.com/summit/apac.
Ensim Corporation, a provider of web hosting automation, user provisioning and access control software solutions, announced that it recently provided provisioning and management services for Microsoft OCS (Office Communications Server), speeding up deployment to accommodate customers of more than 150,000 seats. The move is being described as North America’s largest single OCS deployment in less than 90 days. Though once delayed, the deployment is on course and Ensim is happy to get things back on track.
Scott Young, Ensim Vice President of Marketing and Product Management, revealed that the deployment of OSC 2007 is often a burden for regulated organizations due the complexities involved with user entitlement policies. He stated that by deploying the Ensim Unify product, a particular customer was able to solve its provisioning and management problems in under 90 days all while enforcing the security and compliance policies demanded by its user base. According to Young, the scalability and efficiency of Ensim Unfiy speaks volume when considering the tremendous size of the deployment it supported.
Ensim Unify Enterprise Edition is a fully integrated, role-based access management tool with the ability to be deployed merely for the OCS platform, or across an organization’s entire unified communications infrastructure. This includes email, instant messaging, collaboration and conferencing. Its built-in OCS Manager enables companies to reap the benefits of a complete unified communications system without the burden of manual provisioning and tedious management. The feature integrates with existing ID management solutions to help organizations leverage the new functionality of OCS without straining their IT resources.
Some of the key features Ensim Unify’s OCS Manager offers include:
- The ability to seamlessly integrate complex provisioning polices
- The ability to support multiple provisioning workflows
- Complete Help Desk support on multiple levels
- Comprehensive logging of system activity and transactions
- The ability to automatically manage manual updates on a daily basis.
David J. Wippich, Ensim Corporation CEO and chairman, noted how the Ensim Unify product can be both a productive and cost effective solution. He stressed that while the ROI which can result from deploying unified communications is substantial, many companies are lost at the deployment stage or find themselves dealing with complicated tasks following deployment. He explained that the Ensim Unify solves the problem by enabling a fast deployment, automating daily management processes and unrivaled interoperability that makes the most of existing policies and investments that can be extended to unified communications applications such as Microsoft Office Communications Server.
About Ensim Corporation
Founded in 1998, Ensim Corporation is Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and the global leading provider of user provisioning and access management software solutions. Its products are leveraged by enterprise companies and service providers around the world to enable and accelerate the deployment of various integrated solutions, simplifying the management of complex environments through automated functionality while ensuring security and increasing productivity amongst IT teams and users. Ensim currently has more than two million users under management and that number seems to be growing considerably every quarter.
Santa Clara, California – (The Hosting News) – September 22, 2009 – Provider of change management, user provisioning and access control software, Ensim Unify, is providing provisioning and management for Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS), accelerating the deployment for customers of over 150,000 seats.
Described as currently the largest single OCS installation in North America, in less than 90 days, Ensim’s OCS Manager solved all the major provisioning and management requirements that had delayed the deployment of over 150,000 seats of Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007.
Scott Young, vice president of marketing and product management at Ensim Corporation noted, ”Deployment of OCS 2007 often proves challenging for regulated organizations due to complex user entitlement policies. By deploying Ensim Unify, our customer was able to solve its OCS provisioning and management challenges in less than 90 days, while enforcing the security and compliance policies required for its users. The effectiveness and scalability of Ensim Unify speaks for itself in this case, given the size of the OCS deployment it enabled.”
A number of provisioning obstacles had stopped the customer from gaining the benefits of OCS. These obstacles included support for complex IT security and compliance policies, such as multiple provisioning workflows for different types of employees, multi-level help desk support, and minimizing the burden on IT caused by the manual update process. Ensim delivered a provisioning and management solution that integrated with the customer’s existing directory infrastructure and provisioning policies and supported different provisioning workflows, while automating the hundreds of daily manual updates. It also enabled delegated administration to support multi-level help desk operations, while offering full audit and reporting for these processes.
Ensim Unify Enterprise Edition is a complete, role-based access management solution that can be deployed just for OCS or across the entire unified communications (UC) infrastructure including email, VoIP, conferencing, collaboration, and instant messaging. Ensim’s OCS Manager enables businesses to realize the promise of unified communications without the pain of manual user provisioning and burdensome management. OCS Manager works with existing ID management solutions to allow organizations to take full advantage of all the new OCS 2007 features without imposing a burden on IT.
Key features of Ensim Unify Enterprise Edition OCS Manager include:
- Ability to Integrate with Complex Provisioning Policies
- Support for Multiple Provisioning Workflows
- Automated Maintenance of Daily Manual Updates
- Full Multi-level Help Desk Support
- Detailed System Activity and Transaction Logging
David J. Wippich, chairman and CEO at Ensim Corporation remarked, ”The ROI associated with deploying unified communications is significant, but many organizations are stuck at deployment or take on burdensome management tasks after deployment. Ensim Unify enables quick deployment, automation of maintenance tasks, and interoperability that leverages existing investments and policies that can be extended to UC apps like OCS.”
Founded in 1998, Ensim Corporation is the leading provider of user provisioning and access management software. Ensim products are used by service providers and enterprises worldwide to accelerate and enable deployment of integrated solutions, simplify and automate secure management of complex environments, and increase user and IT productivity. Ensim has over two million users under management and is Microsoft Gold Certified.
To learn more about Ensim, please visit: www.ensim.com.
For more information on Ensim Unify Enterprise Edition OCS Manager, please visit: www.ensim.com/products/ensim_unify/OCS.
Santa Clara, California – (The Hosting News) – September 22, 2009 – Provider of change management, user provisioning and access control software, Ensim Unify, is providing provisioning and management for Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS), accelerating the deployment for customers of over 150,000 seats.
Described as currently the largest single OCS installation in North America, in less than 90 days, Ensim’s OCS Manager solved all the major provisioning and management requirements that had delayed the deployment of over 150,000 seats of Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007.
Scott Young, vice president of marketing and product management at Ensim Corporation noted, ”Deployment of OCS 2007 often proves challenging for regulated organizations due to complex user entitlement policies. By deploying Ensim Unify, our customer was able to solve its OCS provisioning and management challenges in less than 90 days, while enforcing the security and compliance policies required for its users. The effectiveness and scalability of Ensim Unify speaks for itself in this case, given the size of the OCS deployment it enabled.”
A number of provisioning obstacles had stopped the customer from gaining the benefits of OCS. These obstacles included support for complex IT security and compliance policies, such as multiple provisioning workflows for different types of employees, multi-level help desk support, and minimizing the burden on IT caused by the manual update process. Ensim delivered a provisioning and management solution that integrated with the customer’s existing directory infrastructure and provisioning policies and supported different provisioning workflows, while automating the hundreds of daily manual updates. It also enabled delegated administration to support multi-level help desk operations, while offering full audit and reporting for these processes.
Ensim Unify Enterprise Edition is a complete, role-based access management solution that can be deployed just for OCS or across the entire unified communications (UC) infrastructure including email, VoIP, conferencing, collaboration, and instant messaging. Ensim’s OCS Manager enables businesses to realize the promise of unified communications without the pain of manual user provisioning and burdensome management. OCS Manager works with existing ID management solutions to allow organizations to take full advantage of all the new OCS 2007 features without imposing a burden on IT.
Key features of Ensim Unify Enterprise Edition OCS Manager include:
- Ability to Integrate with Complex Provisioning Policies
- Support for Multiple Provisioning Workflows
- Automated Maintenance of Daily Manual Updates
- Full Multi-level Help Desk Support
- Detailed System Activity and Transaction Logging
David J. Wippich, chairman and CEO at Ensim Corporation remarked, ”The ROI associated with deploying unified communications is significant, but many organizations are stuck at deployment or take on burdensome management tasks after deployment. Ensim Unify enables quick deployment, automation of maintenance tasks, and interoperability that leverages existing investments and policies that can be extended to UC apps like OCS.”
Founded in 1998, Ensim Corporation is the leading provider of user provisioning and access management software. Ensim products are used by service providers and enterprises worldwide to accelerate and enable deployment of integrated solutions, simplify and automate secure management of complex environments, and increase user and IT productivity. Ensim has over two million users under management and is Microsoft Gold Certified.
To learn more about Ensim, please visit: www.ensim.com.
For more information on Ensim Unify Enterprise Edition OCS Manager, please visit: www.ensim.com/products/ensim_unify/OCS.
Munich, Germany – (The Hosting News) – August 25, 2009 – Server virtualization, automation and software provider, Parallels, will conduct a seven-country partner roadshow targeting Parallels’ partners and other hosters, cloud services providers and ISVs.
The EMEA Partner Roadshow will provide attendees with insights and best practices to deploy applications and services in a hosted environment. The roadshow will also provide practical examples of how hosters can use white-label reselling to create a lucrative indirect sales channel with a wider portfolio of applications, while maintaining brand independence and client loyalty.
Johan Vansimpsen, CTO and co-founder at Network Group Europe remarked, ”Network Group is using Parallels to balance a fine-tuned approach for delivering IT resellers the best possible technology to ‘grow with the cloud’ from the start. We are committed to delivering a full-blown hosted communications platform reseller solution and with Parallels, we are now able to deploy new services five times faster, so logically we are anticipating five times more revenue. Parallels also allows Network Group systems integrators (SIs) and value added resellers (VARs) a speedy entry to market option that gives them the fastest route to customers who trust them to deliver the most flexible software and services packages at the best price points.”
White-label reselling enables hosters to resell and deliver SaaS applications including Microsoft Exchange, Windows SharePoint, Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS), etc. in a hosted environment. In the SaaS model, end user customers subscribe to applications instead of purchasing them, typically on a monthly basis. In this pay-as-you go approach, SMBs are afforded an easy-to-use low-cost service.
An April 2009, study by IDC finds that growth in the SaaS market will be strong in Europe despite – and in some cases because of – the weak economic conditions. The overall SaaS market will grow from 237 million in 2004 to 6,005 million in 2013 (1). From this and other recent IDC studies, it is clear that SaaS has become accepted by the mainstream of user organizations around Europe. This will result in continued strong growth, making SaaS a rising star in a very largely depressed European software market.
Dan Germain, CTO at Cobweb Solutions remarked, ”Leveraging Parallels we were able to increase our average revenue per user, deploy new services faster and reduce operating costs. It was critical for us to find a provider able to properly support white-label services at a modular and infrastructure level, so that our partners can resell Cobweb services under their own brand. Parallels allows Cobweb and its resellers to provide multiple-vendor solutions and flexible billing and administration across its different service offerings. Parallels enables Cobweb to increase revenue from each and every customer, both now and in the future.”
White-Label Reselling lets hosters delegate service plans to their customers to resell and offer a wider array of applications, without the extended cost of infrastructure involved in creating and distributing the applications themselves. White-label resale also offers an indirect sales channel and lets resellers maintain their unique brand independence, as well as retaining client loyalty. With white-label web hosting, it is possible for anyone to run their own web hosting business, while they rent or buy the actual web server space and services from an established hosting provider. Resellers do not have to take on the huge investment that make-up a web hosting service such as web servers, network connections, data center staff, server administrators, server support technicians and web server software and system licenses.
The 2009 Parallels Partner Roadshow will be take place in: Stockholm, September 1; Amsterdam, September 3; Warsaw, September 7; Cologne, September 10; Paris, September 14; Madrid, September 17 and London, September 21. To register for any of the events, or for more information, please visit www.parallels.com/emea2009.
Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and cloud services providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with more than 650 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia.
To learn more, please visit: www.parallels.com.
Munich, Germany – (The Hosting News) – August 25, 2009 – Server virtualization, automation and software provider, Parallels, will conduct a seven-country partner roadshow targeting Parallels’ partners and other hosters, cloud services providers and ISVs.
The EMEA Partner Roadshow will provide attendees with insights and best practices to deploy applications and services in a hosted environment. The roadshow will also provide practical examples of how hosters can use white-label reselling to create a lucrative indirect sales channel with a wider portfolio of applications, while maintaining brand independence and client loyalty.
Johan Vansimpsen, CTO and co-founder at Network Group Europe remarked, ”Network Group is using Parallels to balance a fine-tuned approach for delivering IT resellers the best possible technology to ‘grow with the cloud’ from the start. We are committed to delivering a full-blown hosted communications platform reseller solution and with Parallels, we are now able to deploy new services five times faster, so logically we are anticipating five times more revenue. Parallels also allows Network Group systems integrators (SIs) and value added resellers (VARs) a speedy entry to market option that gives them the fastest route to customers who trust them to deliver the most flexible software and services packages at the best price points.”
White-label reselling enables hosters to resell and deliver SaaS applications including Microsoft Exchange, Windows SharePoint, Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS), etc. in a hosted environment. In the SaaS model, end user customers subscribe to applications instead of purchasing them, typically on a monthly basis. In this pay-as-you go approach, SMBs are afforded an easy-to-use low-cost service.
An April 2009, study by IDC finds that growth in the SaaS market will be strong in Europe despite – and in some cases because of – the weak economic conditions. The overall SaaS market will grow from 237 million in 2004 to 6,005 million in 2013 (1). From this and other recent IDC studies, it is clear that SaaS has become accepted by the mainstream of user organizations around Europe. This will result in continued strong growth, making SaaS a rising star in a very largely depressed European software market.
Dan Germain, CTO at Cobweb Solutions remarked, ”Leveraging Parallels we were able to increase our average revenue per user, deploy new services faster and reduce operating costs. It was critical for us to find a provider able to properly support white-label services at a modular and infrastructure level, so that our partners can resell Cobweb services under their own brand. Parallels allows Cobweb and its resellers to provide multiple-vendor solutions and flexible billing and administration across its different service offerings. Parallels enables Cobweb to increase revenue from each and every customer, both now and in the future.”
White-Label Reselling lets hosters delegate service plans to their customers to resell and offer a wider array of applications, without the extended cost of infrastructure involved in creating and distributing the applications themselves. White-label resale also offers an indirect sales channel and lets resellers maintain their unique brand independence, as well as retaining client loyalty. With white-label web hosting, it is possible for anyone to run their own web hosting business, while they rent or buy the actual web server space and services from an established hosting provider. Resellers do not have to take on the huge investment that make-up a web hosting service such as web servers, network connections, data center staff, server administrators, server support technicians and web server software and system licenses.
The 2009 Parallels Partner Roadshow will be take place in: Stockholm, September 1; Amsterdam, September 3; Warsaw, September 7; Cologne, September 10; Paris, September 14; Madrid, September 17 and London, September 21. To register for any of the events, or for more information, please visit www.parallels.com/emea2009.
Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and cloud services providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with more than 650 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia.
To learn more, please visit: www.parallels.com.
New Orleans, Louisiana – (The Hosting News) – July 28, 2009 – At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 (WPC09), Microsoft Corp. announced the global availability of partner program to help hosting providers and their resellers market hosted unified communications to small and midsize business (SMB) customers.
Microsoft Communication Services provides a common set of marketing collateral and the ability to utilize the Microsoft brand beyond individual product brands for better recognition in the SMB marketplace. The initiative is open to Microsoft partners that have attained the Hosting Solutions competency, part of the broader Microsoft Partner Network. John Zanni, general manager of the Worldwide Software plus Services Industry team for the Communications Sector at Microsoft, will outline Microsoft Communication Services and its benefits to hosting providers and their resellers in a software-plus-services breakout session today titled “Bringing It All Together Across MS Online Services, Partner Hosted and Windows Azure.”
Mr. Zanni noted, “SMBs are increasingly interested in communication and collaboration tools to improve productivity and reduce costs. The majority of customers in the SMB segment want to purchase Microsoft Hosted Exchange and Microsoft Office Communications Server services from companies that package these offerings. With Microsoft Communication Services, hosting providers and their resellers are speaking the language of their customers.”
Microsoft Communication Services was designed with Comcast, the leading provider of entertainment, information and communications products and services in the U.S., to help enable service providers to offer higher-margin services, create customer loyalty and become a trusted advisor. Collateral and guidance focuses on marketing a solution of collaborative hosted services, including hosted Microsoft Exchange Server, Hosted Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Live Meeting. Microsoft-branded collateral includes demo videos, marketing guidance and telesales scripts.
Also, today Microsoft announced that Outsourcery Ltd. (formerly Genesis Communications Ltd.), a U.K. hosting and communications provider and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, will use Microsoft Communication Services in the United Kingdom, enabling it to better market Microsoft-branded solution bundles to its customers.
Mark Seemann, Product Strategy Director at Outsourcery added, “Outsourcery is delighted to be involved in the launch of Microsoft Communication Services to U.K. SMBs. We’ve found that the Microsoft brand name resonates very well with our SMB customers, and that Microsoft Communication Services allows us to talk about entire solutions rather than just individual products. This alliance is totally aligned with our business strategy to become Europe’s No. 1 outsourced IT and unified communications provider for Microsoft-hosted solutions.”
Microsoft and Comcast piloted the program in November 2007, helping Comcast market business-class e-mail, calendaring and document sharing to its SMB customers. To date, Comcast has more than 100,000 e-mail users on Microsoft Hosted Exchange. Based on the success of the pilot for Comcast and its customers, Microsoft will now offer Microsoft Communication Services worldwide to all its hosting partners.
Bill Stemper, President, Comcast Business Services remarked, “Microsoft Communication Services from Comcast is an integral part of our Business Class Internet service and truly differentiates us from our competition. Not only does it help small-business owners be more productive but it also helps them save money by dramatically reducing their need for communication servers and IT support.”
Information on how to find a certified hosting partner is available at www.microsoft.com/hosting/catalogs/reseller/private-label-hosting.mspx. More information about announcements at WPC is available at www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/wwpc/default.aspx. More information on Outsourcery is available at www.outsourcery.co.uk. More information on Comcast is available at http://business.comcast.com/internet/business-tools.aspx.
To learn more about Microsoft Communication Services, please visit: www.partner.microsoft.com/communicationservices.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
New Orleans, Louisiana – (The Hosting News) – July 28, 2009 – At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 (WPC09), Microsoft Corp. announced the global availability of partner program to help hosting providers and their resellers market hosted unified communications to small and midsize business (SMB) customers.
Microsoft Communication Services provides a common set of marketing collateral and the ability to utilize the Microsoft brand beyond individual product brands for better recognition in the SMB marketplace. The initiative is open to Microsoft partners that have attained the Hosting Solutions competency, part of the broader Microsoft Partner Network. John Zanni, general manager of the Worldwide Software plus Services Industry team for the Communications Sector at Microsoft, will outline Microsoft Communication Services and its benefits to hosting providers and their resellers in a software-plus-services breakout session today titled “Bringing It All Together Across MS Online Services, Partner Hosted and Windows Azure.”
Mr. Zanni noted, “SMBs are increasingly interested in communication and collaboration tools to improve productivity and reduce costs. The majority of customers in the SMB segment want to purchase Microsoft Hosted Exchange and Microsoft Office Communications Server services from companies that package these offerings. With Microsoft Communication Services, hosting providers and their resellers are speaking the language of their customers.”
Microsoft Communication Services was designed with Comcast, the leading provider of entertainment, information and communications products and services in the U.S., to help enable service providers to offer higher-margin services, create customer loyalty and become a trusted advisor. Collateral and guidance focuses on marketing a solution of collaborative hosted services, including hosted Microsoft Exchange Server, Hosted Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Live Meeting. Microsoft-branded collateral includes demo videos, marketing guidance and telesales scripts.
Also, today Microsoft announced that Outsourcery Ltd. (formerly Genesis Communications Ltd.), a U.K. hosting and communications provider and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, will use Microsoft Communication Services in the United Kingdom, enabling it to better market Microsoft-branded solution bundles to its customers.
Mark Seemann, Product Strategy Director at Outsourcery added, “Outsourcery is delighted to be involved in the launch of Microsoft Communication Services to U.K. SMBs. We’ve found that the Microsoft brand name resonates very well with our SMB customers, and that Microsoft Communication Services allows us to talk about entire solutions rather than just individual products. This alliance is totally aligned with our business strategy to become Europe’s No. 1 outsourced IT and unified communications provider for Microsoft-hosted solutions.”
Microsoft and Comcast piloted the program in November 2007, helping Comcast market business-class e-mail, calendaring and document sharing to its SMB customers. To date, Comcast has more than 100,000 e-mail users on Microsoft Hosted Exchange. Based on the success of the pilot for Comcast and its customers, Microsoft will now offer Microsoft Communication Services worldwide to all its hosting partners.
Bill Stemper, President, Comcast Business Services remarked, “Microsoft Communication Services from Comcast is an integral part of our Business Class Internet service and truly differentiates us from our competition. Not only does it help small-business owners be more productive but it also helps them save money by dramatically reducing their need for communication servers and IT support.”
Information on how to find a certified hosting partner is available at www.microsoft.com/hosting/catalogs/reseller/private-label-hosting.mspx. More information about announcements at WPC is available at www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/wwpc/default.aspx. More information on Outsourcery is available at www.outsourcery.co.uk. More information on Comcast is available at http://business.comcast.com/internet/business-tools.aspx.
To learn more about Microsoft Communication Services, please visit: www.partner.microsoft.com/communicationservices.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
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