Open-Xchange Delivers Push E-Mail, Sync for BlackBerry, iPhone, Others

Open-Xchange's OXtender for Business Mobility enables users to "receive push e-mail and synchronization of contacts, calendar and other information from their Open-Xchange [accounts] to their smartphones, including Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Nokia, Windows Mobile [phones] and others," Open-Xchange said in a news release Sept. 29.

The new capability is enabled by Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. "Open-Xchange selected the Microsoft ActiveSync protocol for synchronization due to the wide range of supported handhelds and smartphones. This ensures that any ActiveSync client on a mobile device can set up and start using mobile e-mail and PIM (personal information manager) functions without complex configuration—and without Microsoft Exchange Server. In addition, software clients for almost all other platforms, including Symbian-based devices, BlackBerry [and] Google Android, are available," the company said in the release.

"Most current solutions are [either] limited ... to specific smartphones or require costly proprietary server solutions," Open-Xchange CEO Rafael Laguna said. "The OXtender for Business Mobility provides users with easy-to-use mobile messaging and collaboration capabilities on all the devices they use—anywhere, any time, at a reasonable cost."

Other features of OXtender for Business Mobility include "end-to-end encrypted e-mail and PIM data push; end-to-end encrypted over-the-air synchronization of personal contacts, calendar and tasks;" end-to-end encrypted over-the-air synchronization of global address book; "account management directly from the mobile device; [and] Single-Sign-On (SSO) management," according to the company. The release continued:

"Open-Xchange's collaboration solutions offer the full set of PIM functionality ... together with advanced groupware features such as Documail and Smart Document Sharing. With OXtender for Business Mobility, small businesses and individuals have a cost-effective solution [with which] to work remotely [that] is comparable to the capabilities of users at large enterprises.

"Open-Xchange is installed by more than 3,500 companies and organizations worldwide with the Open-Xchange Hosting Edition used by more than 10 million users worldwide as hosted business-class e-mail, along with personal information management (PIM), and full groupware. ...

"OXtender for Business Mobility is available for Open-Xchange Server Edition and Open-Xchange Appliance Edition from Open-Xchange and its partners. License and software subscription for 25 users including updates, patches and security fixes is $355 ... per year. Additional users cost $14.22 ... in the first year. Software subscription for the following years is 25 percent of the cost for the first year."