By Susan J. CampbellTMCnet Contributing Editor
Microsoft (News – Alert) Exchange hosting provider, Intermedia, is reporting explosive growth in its hosted Exchange 2010 customer base. Intermedia gained market strength being first to market with this service in November 2009, right on the heels of Microsoft’s announcement of the availability of the Exchange Server 2010 software.
Intermedia is able to tout that 1,400 direct customers with 20,000 mailboxes have been on board since the debut of the service. Small businesses were the early adopters of hosted Exchange 2010 and by April of 2010, 90 percent of new accounts were replacing 2007 with 2010.
In partner mailbox sales, Intermedia enjoyed a 74 percent increase. The company’s partners achieve differentiation by offering hosted Exchange 2010 over competitors offering Exchange 2007. By switching to the latest version of Exchange, customers can avoid a second migration.
Since the launch of Intermedia’s offering, the company has seen an average of 200 new partner sign-ups per month. To date, the company’s partner program has drawn more than 4,000 partners and affiliates. In addition, private label partners resell hosted Exchange 2010 under their own brand to control pricing and billing.
With remote access from popular Web browsers and support for integration with secure instant messaging, users can access the power of Exchange from virtually anywhere. This is an advantage over Exchange 2007, as its Web access does not include instant messaging and fully functions only on Internet Explorer.
“Our success comes not only from offering Exchange 2010, but adding proprietary value to it,” says Serguei Sofinski, CEO, Intermedia, in a statement. “For instance, Intermedia customers move to the cloud at their own pace with our proprietary tool to synchronize user passwords across hosted Exchange and applications that remain on-premise.
“Our partners can also use this tool with their own customers. Features such as these solve real business problems and help make our customers and partners more successful,” Sofinski added.
The first quarter of 2010 proved to be among the company’s strongest quarterly sales performance to date as a result of its hosted Exchange 2010 launch and its hosted Exchange 2007 sales. April sales continued the momentum and the company remains the only major provider of hosted Exchange 2010.
One of the benefits of this solution is itincludes migration from a new customer’s current e-mail set-up and 24×7 support from RIM and Microsoft-certified support staff. Guy Timberlake, CEO, The American Small Business Coalition, noted “Our organization chose Intermedia’s hosted Exchange as our email solution after researching and trying various platforms and providers.
“The transition to Exchange 2010 was completed flawlessly by the Intermedia Support Team. The advantages over alternative email platforms are astonishing. The increased support for wireless devices and an amazing Outlook Web Application make accessing important mail and other company information safe, secure and simple.”
In other Intermedia news, the company announced in April that it had been selected by Blue Ridge Interworks as their new Exchange hosting provider.Intermedia’s Private Label Partner Program lets BRI offer Intermedia’s hosted Exchange service entirely under the BRI brand, while Intermedia maintains, monitors and upgrades the hardware and software.
Last year, Intermedia launched the Hosted Exchange community on TMCnet. This channel is designed for decision-makers from small and mid-size businesses and service providers seeking information about hosted Microsoft Exchange—including email, unified communications and mobility. Information on the Hosted Exchange community addresses issues important to decision-makers.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Alice Straight
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