USA.NET announced that it is using the advanced features and capabilities of Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP1, SharePoint Services 3.0 and other software applications and utilities to provide its clients with a more fully integrated eMessaging experience.

“Our latest expanded integration is part of our commitment to provide our clients with the best solutions and service available on an ongoing basis,” said USA.NET President Doug Howard.

“We work closely with our technology partners to provide integrated solutions that meet our clients’ custom messaging and collaboration requirements. “When any of our partners upgrade their services, as Microsoft did with Exchange 2007, we upgrade our client base. In fact, we haven’t charged our existing customers for an upgrade to Exchange since we began offering the service in 2000.”

At the heart of these integrated applications are Microsoft Exchange 2007 and SharePoint services, which provide advanced collaboration capabilities – from organizations spread across a building to those spread across the world. They also provide a consistent user experience that simplifies how people interact with an organization’s content, processes, and data.

Hosted Environments can Deliver More Cost-Efficient and Foolproof Integration, along with Risk-Free Upgrades
An advantage for organizations that use hosted services instead of in-house solutions is hosting providers’ ability to quickly meet an organization’s business requirements with a comprehensive selection of turnkey enhanced services.

“It is becoming common knowledge that the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model delivers more predictable costs, enhanced security, reliability, continuity, compliance readiness, and full-function integration for mobile and remote employees,” according to Howard.

The already growing trend toward SaaS and hosted eMessaging has accelerated because of the complexity and cost of upgrading to applications like Exchange 2007 and SharePoint services -- including a required upgrade to 64-bit hardware for Exchange 2007.

Upgrading such systems in-house can be draining on internal budgets and resources, can create a great degree of uncertainty and, at times, can be beyond the capabilities of an in-house operation.

Hosted Integrated Solutions go beyond eMessaging
Email doesn’t have to be a stand-alone application. USA.NET can further streamline a business by integrating a company’s email with its other important applications, cutting down on the frustration and loss of productivity involved with moving information manually from one application to another or engineering integration in-house. Such integration of data can result in a huge productivity boost.

“At USA.NET, we are continually assessing ways to streamline our clients’ businesses by integrating our messaging solutions with their mobile devices, existing personnel directory, provisioning processes, web portal, fax services, and many other applications,” Howard said.

Quality of Integration is Dependent on the Exchange Hosting Provider
As eMessaging software applications become more complex and the management of security, compliance, continuity, upgrades and patches, and mobility become more difficult, the quality of the solution depends more and more on the quality of the hosting services provider.

Companies choosing a provider of hosted Exchange should look for:

• High touch customer support
• Email hosting track record
• Change management, implementation and migration expertise
• Customized and tiered services to fit clients' requirements
• Enhanced services to boost productivity and collaboration
• Robust architecture and proven email security controls
• Proven Service Level Agreements (SLAs)