NUREMBERG, Germany, Feb. 13, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rafael Laguna, CEO of business-class email and collaboration provider Open-Xchange, will join executives from 1&1 Internet, Microsoft, Symantec and others in a panel session moderated by Phil Shih, president of industry analyst firm Structure Research at the upcoming Parallels Summit 2012, being held in Orlando, Florida, from February 14-16.
The session, "Hosted and cloud services SMBs never knew they needed" is scheduled on Wednesday, February 15 from 11:50 am to 12:30 pm and will explore strategies and tactics for profitably selling services like email, website hosting and more.
Founder and executive vice president Frank Hoberg will also present a theater presentation in the exhibit hall at 3:45 on how Open-Xchange makes deploying and billing of cloud services fast and easy by enabling automated provisioning, configuring, billing and support for service providers. Other leading software suppliers supporting the Application Packaging Standard (APS) will also present.
"At the annual Parallels summits, we meet with existing partners in our worldwide ecosystem, as well as potential new service providers, to discuss how they can grow business with collaboration services delivered to their customers," said Rafael Laguna, CEO, Open-Xchange. "We’re seeing exploding demand for communication and collaboration software delivered via the cloud."
Open-Xchange is a Gold sponsor at the Parallels Summit, the leading global annual gathering of the cloud industry. Open-Xchange was among the early adopters of APS more than two years ago, which today includes a catalogue of some 300 applications.
In 2011, Open-Xchange grew to more than 42 million users- an increase of 75 percent over the prior year - with plans to increase to more than 80 million in 2012.
"At Parallels Summit 2012, we’re showcasing ways for service providers to sell and deliver a wide range of cloud services to SMBs by leveraging Parallels software and our ecosystem partners," said John Zanni, vice president of service provider marketing and alliances at Parallels."Open-Xchange serves as a model of success in delivering its collaboration software through Parallels Automation software, which is used by leading service providers worldwide."
Open-Xchange is a pioneer in enabling service providers to offer Software as a Service (SaaS) to customers. Its software reaches customers through partners worldwide that include web hosting companies, telecoms, cable carriers, system integrators, value-added resellers and distributors.
The Open-Xchange software integrates email, calendar, contact and task management with advanced collaboration features such as information management and document sharing, along with cutting-edge social network integration. By adding the Open-Xchange mobility capabilities, users can receive push email and synchronization of contacts, calendar and other information from their Open-Xchange account to their smartphones, including iPhone, Android-based devices, Nokia, Windows Mobile and others.
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 (software as a service) and now a leading email and collaboration 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.