SINGAPORE, Sept. 22, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Open-Xchange, the supplier of business-class email and groupware for cloud providers, announced today a tighter integration with Parallels automation at the Parallels APAC Summit in Singapore, enabling web hosts and service providers to more easily offer advanced email and teamwork capabilities to their customers.
The Open-Xchange 4PSA OXtender for Plesk (www.open-xchange.com/en/solutions/4psa-oxtender-for-plesk.html), a software connector that makes deployment and billing of Open-Xchange simple for service providers and customers using Parallels Plesk Panel and Parallels Automation, now also supports Parallels Business Automation Standard. Parallels Business Automation Standard is the first available hosting automation software that manages all business aspects of shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting from a single management system.
Integration of Open-Xchange with Parallels industry-standard control panel and hosting automation software, enables web hosters and their resellers to enter into the business application market with Open-Xchange. Hosting providers can easily replace the Standard Plesk Webmail in existing shared hosting environments with the feature-rich AJAX interface of Open-Xchange and deliver business-class email and collaboration features.
"Small businesses are increasingly looking to purchase multiple services -- such as domains, website hosting, messaging and collaboration services and software as a service (SaaS) applications -- from a single source," said Rafael Laguna, CEO of Open-Xchange. "Parallels control panels and automation tools help hosters run their operations as efficiently as possible, while Open-Xchange provides hosters and their resellers with attractive features to differentiate in the market and increase the average revenue per user."
"Open-Xchange offers a great, yet simple business model for hosters and service providers using Parallels Plesk Panel to deliver true business-class email features including groupware, social networks-enabled collaboration and mobile sync solutions," said John Zanni, vice president of service provider marketing and alliances at Parallels. "Hosters remain competitive by replacing old webmail for all existing email accounts in a very cost-effective and profitable way and without changing their existing email infrastructure."
Open-Xchange integrates email, calendar, contact and task management with advanced groupware features such as information management and document sharing. Appointments and team meetings can be scheduled efficiently with team calendars. Using shared folders, team members get access to all important documents, tasks, appointments and contacts. Central storage of documents prevents duplicated work and reduces the amount of email traffic. Cutting-edge social network integration enables aggregation of email and contact information from external mail services and social networks.
Open-Xchange's unique Social OX features give users the ability to consolidate any kind of existing webmail accounts -- for example from Google and Yahoo -- into a folder in Open-Xchange so they can be managed more easily. Plus, contact details from social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Xing can be added automatically to the Open-Xchange address book -- giving users easy access to the latest contact information within their personal network. Also, users can merge their calendar and address books from Google into Open-Xchange.
With more than 24 million users, Open-Xchange is the world's leading technology supplier of hosted groupware. SaaS partners include 1&1 Internet, STRATO, Network Solutions, Versatel, Dotster, Surftown and Hostpoint.
Parallels APAC Summit attendees can view a demo of Open-Xchange's integration with Parallels Plesk Panel and Parallels Automation products at Open-Xchange's booth #11, and can learn about the opportunities Open-Xchange and Parallels bring to the hosting industry at the keynote address from Open-Xchange's CEO Rafael Laguna entitled "How to Compete in Cloudy Times" at 2:40 pm SGT on Friday, September 23. For more information on Parallels APAC Summit, visit www.parallels.com/summit/apac.
About Open-Xchange
For more than a decade, Open-Xchange has been delivering innovative, cost effective, open source collaboration alternatives for email, calendar, contacts and document management. The company is a pioneer in SaaS and now a leading email and groupware cloud application, which provides integration with social and business networks, as well as mobile access. Open-Xchange is used by the largest web host providers in the world, as well as on-premises by some 3,500 businesses, governments and educational institutions. 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.