March 5, 2008 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Microsoft Exchange Server and SharePoint Services provider groupSPARK (http://www.groupspark.com) has welcomed Microsoft’s 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, Microsoft’s beta release of Exchange Online and SharePoint Online “further validates’ its core vision, that the two technologies are difficult for SMB’s to setup and manage, and best utilized as hosted services. The company believes Microsoft’s involvement in the area will prompt an increase in Exchange Server mailboxes and “cause many SMBs to look at hosted alternatives such as Microsoft’s and groupSPARK’s offerings”.
“We welcome Microsoft’s 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 groupSPARK’s Chief Executive Officer, Ravi Agarwal. “Currently only 1.5 million users use hosted Exchange worldwide. Microsoft’s 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.”
Microsoft’s offerings, groupSPARK believes, will not compete with its own. “Microsoft’s 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 partner’s relationship with the end customer as the customer realizes that the partner is not adding any value and simply reselling a commodity service”.
