Verio Inc., a provider of online business solutions to small to medium-size businesses worldwide, including Web hosting, application hosting and software as a service, announced at its viaVerio Partner Summit the availability of Microsoft Hosted Exchange 2010, which the company said is now available.
Verio’s Hosted Exchange 2010 offering provides the functionality of a business-class e-mail solution with key features of Hosted Exchange 2010 including calendar and scheduling features, which gives users the ability to view instantly when all members are available, collaboration between one office and/or multiple offices where users can share e-mail, address books, calendars, tasks, mobile e-mail and more companywide, and the ability to instantly connect from anywhere with mobile messaging. With the mobile messaging feature, users can integrate and sync wireless e-mail and applications on their iPhone, BlackBerry and other smartphones.
Hosted Exchange 2010 also offers features such as tasks to assign to-do items companywide. Users can assign tasks without having to send notes and e-mail to check availability. With ActiveSync for Apple’s iPhone and other mobile devices, users can automatically sync e-mail with the iPhone or other smartphones using Free ActiveSync. Verio also offers the ability to add BlackBerry mobile messaging for a few dollars more.
“We’ve identified mobility, unified communication and advanced messaging capabilities as some of the -hot’ technology trends for SMBs in 2010,” said Ray Boggs, vice president of small and medium business research for IDC. “With the availability of this new offering, viaVerio partners have new opportunity to capitalize on a growing demand in the SMB marketplace for leveraging connectivity tools to help extend workplace productivity.”
Additional bonus features included free of charge for Verio’s 25GB Hosted Exchange 2010 plans include a company disclaimer service, where users can implement company-wide email policies like a signature or legal disclaimer for all email that staff distributes outside of the organization. These disclaimers cannot be edited or removed by the user. Verio is also offering an e-mail archiving service, which archives all messages in accordance with all legal documents and regulations using a third party archiving service provider.
Hosted Exchange 2010 includes a message mirror service, whereby users can monitor and organize messages for compliance with company e-mail policies. The solution creates a copy of every e-mail message – incoming and outgoing – in a separate folder to be referred to when needed. Active Directory Synchronization gives users the ability to constantly synchronize on-premise Active Directory user data with Verio’s Hosted Exchange Active Directory using DirectoryLink. Users can maintain the same contact information, password and other user-related information by importing it to Verio’s Exchange infrastructure.
“Hosted Exchange 2010 provides our partners with a unique competitive advantage as we are one of the few providers in the world offering this solution,” said Steve Renda, senior vice president of Global Sales and Marketing. “Exchange continues to be one of our top sellers and the availability of this new offering will enable our partners to meet the growing demand in the market for messaging and collaboration tools while at the same time, expanding their revenue opportunities.”