March 5, 2008 (HOSTSEARCH.COM) Microsoft Exchange Server and SharePoint Services provider groupSPARK (http://www.groupspark.com) has welcomed Microsofts expansion into the hosted services market, it was reported yesterday. According to the company, the move validates the use of industry-leading applications such as Hosted Exchange and Hosted SharePoint by SMBs.
groupSPARK, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, is a Software as a Service (SaaS) provider whose services include private label Exchange Server 2007 and private label SharePoint 3.0. According to the company, Microsofts beta release of Exchange Online and SharePoint Online further validates its core vision, that the two technologies are difficult for SMBs to setup and manage, and best utilized as hosted services. The company believes Microsofts involvement in the area will prompt an increase in Exchange Server mailboxes and cause many SMBs to look at hosted alternatives such as Microsofts and groupSPARKs offerings.
We welcome Microsofts new entry into the hosted services market and are encouraged that SMBs will realize that hosted software services are a key tool in increasing corporate productivity and growing their business, explained groupSPARKs Chief Executive Officer, Ravi Agarwal. Currently only 1.5 million users use hosted Exchange worldwide. Microsofts entry into this market will cause awareness of hosted Exchange to grow and will cause this market growth to accelerate. groupSPARK is uniquely positioned to help channel partners to take advantage of this explosive growth opportunity and maximize revenue.
Microsofts offerings, groupSPARK believes, will not compete with its own. Microsofts offerings, which seemingly compete with groupSPARK, are incomplete at best, as they lack critical third party services such as BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), suggested a groupSPARK announcement. More importantly, the Microsoft Online services will be sold exclusively through partners, but without any partner branding. The lack of partner branding reduces the partners relationship with the end customer as the customer realizes that the partner is not adding any value and simply reselling a commodity service.