Open-Xchange and Rack-Soft announce agreement to integrate collaboration and Unified Communications
NUREMBERG, Germany and BUCHAREST, Romania, September 3, 2009 – With an agreement announced today, Open-Xchange will extend its collaboration software with Rack-Soft’s leading Unified Communications software. The combination gives end users telephone, fax, presence*, instant messaging integrated with e-mail, contacts, calendar and task information. In addition, the two companies agreed to resell their products.
“This agreement extends our e-mail and groupware solution to a one-stop communication center that really boosts user’s productivity,” said Rafael Laguna, CEO of Open-Xchange. “Our on-premise customers and SaaS partners now have the option to add VoIP services, advanced call center functionality, or enterprise telephony to their Open-Xchange deployment.”
“With this partnership, we aim to provide 4PSA VoipNow users the ability to use e-mail, groupware and unified communications in an integrated environment,” said Bogdan Carstoiu, CEO of Rack-Soft. “There are many areas we target for improving user experience: voicemails and faxes will be tagged in the user’s mailbox, voice conferences can be scheduled from the calendar, contacts can be called with a mouse click, and many more.”
Both Open-Xchange and Rack-Soft provide software for on-premise implementations, as well as SaaS (software as a service). Both are long-time partners of SaaS platform software provider, Parallels, and have all worked together to simplify SaaS deployments.
Currently, Rack-Soft’s 4PSA VoipNow supports Parallels software and Open-Xchange supports the Application Packaging Standard developed by Parallels.
“We are partnering with Open-Xchange and Rack-Soft to deliver innovative technologies via SaaS, which help end users control costs and improve efficiency,” said Jack Zubarev, president of the Service Provider Division at Parallels. “With features built into Parallels software, service providers can introduce value-added services like Open-Xchange and 4PSA VoipNow to achieve higher average revenue–per-user while managing their operations more efficiently.”
Open-Xchange Hosting Edition is the only groupware specifically designed to meet the needs of SaaS providers. With over 10 million users, Open-Xchange is now the world’s leading technology supplier of groupware for SaaS providers. Open-Xchange customers include 1 & 1 Internet (U.S., Germany), Network Solutions (U.S.), JMF (Japan), OVH (France), Hostpoint (Switzerland) and many others.
Rack-Soft’s Unified Communications solution provides users with the advantages of a high-end PBX integrated with business applications. With 4PSA VoipNow, service providers can deploy next-generation hosted PBX services for a low monthly fee. The SaaS service allows companies of all sizes to reduce telephony costs by easily interconecting their offices around the world and to increase productivity by implementing voice, video and instant messaging.
About Rack-Soft
Rack-Soft develops innovative software for servers and data centers based on the 4Grid framework. The proprietary 4Grid technology offers the foundation for the next-generation, cloud-ready service delivery platforms that allow providers to deploy redundant, scalable and easy to manage SaaS infrastructures.
Rack-Soft business philosophy is based on an ISO 9001 quality management system certified by TUV CERT. For more information, please visit www.4psa.com.
About Open-Xchange
Open-Xchange is the innovator of scalable and integrated open source e-mail and collaboration solutions for enterprises, academic institutions, and government authorities. The company provides on-premise versions called Open-Xchange Server Edition and Open-Xchange Appliance Edition, along with Open-Xchange Hosting Edition, which enables web hosting companies to provide an easy-to-use and feature-rich application delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS). The Open-Xchange Hosting Edition is architected to integrate into a hosting provider’s existing infrastructure, such as authentication, provisioning, billing, and e-mail storage and does not require that these systems be replaced.
Open-Xchange AG is a privately-held company headquartered in Nuremberg, Germany with offices in Olpe, Germany and Tarrytown, N.Y. For more information, please visit www.open-xchange.com.
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* The term “presence” refers to the capability for someone, like a receptionist, to see current status of other phone extensions. For example, if they know if someone is on the phone, they would not transfer another call.
