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Local Microsoft hosting provider, Emantra, will = ramp up its=20 reseller efforts this year as part of plans to expand its customer = reach.
Emantra CEO, Ross Dewar, said it currently worked = with six=20 resellers but was keen to bring on other partners operating in the 20-50 = user=20 segment. Emantra's sweet spot is the mid-market.
"Essentially we plan on letting resellers white = label our=20 hosting services, which they can bundle with their own services for = customers,"=20 Dewar said. "These are the organisations that have that local touch, = which is=20 impossible for us to provide to smaller customers."
This week, Emantra announced it would begin = offering hosted=20 versions of Microsoft's Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007, as well = as the=20 vendor's new Dynamics CRM 4.0 suite. The hosting company claims it is = the first=20 Australian company to offer OCS as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
Dewar said several customers were also trialling = hosted OCS,=20 including financial services organisation, BDO Kendalls. The SaaS = offering is=20 being delivered as a monthly pay-as-a-you-go service.
He said one of the biggest customer drivers behind = OCS=20 adoption was the ability to have real-time communications. Most interest = had=20 come from customers that had already taken up its hosted Exchange = services.
Emantra also offers hosted SharePoint, and = SQL-based=20 accounting systems.
"Email is asynchronous - with OCS, we're talking = real-time=20 communications," he said. "It helps organisations to not waste time = trying to=20 contract people that might be busy. It connects users via the most = efficient=20 communications route at that time."
Dewar predicted OCS would trigger a huge uptake in = unified=20 communication solutions this year.
"I see this as broadening the way users can = communicate with=20 each other, much like email did 15 or so years ago," he said.
Microsoft's decision to introduce multi-tenanted = capabilities=20 into its CRM 4.0 release had also opened the door for Emantra to begin = offering=20 a hosted version to customers, Dewar said.
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