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Outsourcery creates added value for channel partners with the launch of Office Communicator(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) London, Manchester -- The biggest challenges facing resellers and dealers in 2010 are acquiring new customers and reducing churn as the harsh economic conditions continue to bite. As mobile telephony becomes increasingly commoditised,leading communications and hosted IT company Outsourcery is launching Office Communicator, enabling channel partners to deliver value to their customers. Office Communicator forms the first part of Outsourcery's Unified Communications solutions and enables businesses to streamline their communications - allowing staff to communicate more effectively, thereby saving time and travel costs. Being able to offer these benefits at lower costs via a hosted exchange model will mean the channel will open up to a new small and medium-sized business (SME) market and increase Average Revenue per User (ARPU). Some of the key features of Office Communicator are the presence functionality and Live Meeting. Presence works with an Outlook calendar, enabling staff to see if colleagues are in a meeting and relays that information to the person trying to contact them. PCs are also monitored, enabling managers to check on the availability of staff and check if a keyboard or mouse is being used. These capabilities mean that businesses are always communicating in the most productive way. Live Meeting provides the ability for users to take part in a web conference. These can be scheduled via Outlook using the 'Schedule a Live Meeting' button. Web conferencing supports a rich mix of data collaboration such as instant messaging, audio, video, slide presentations and application sharing on a single platform accessed from a PC, ultimately providing businesses with a tool for effective communication across their organisation. Mark Seemann, Product Strategy & Development Director at Outsourcery, said: "With large numbers of employees now working away from the office, businesses are finding that they need more effective ways to stay in touch with their colleagues and clients. Office Communicator lets businesses of any size communicate and collaborate more efficiently. "Being able to connect with your colleagues whenever and wherever they are will mean an increase in productivity company-wide." Users with a Windows Mobile device will also be able to download the active sync software allowing them to obtain access to Office Communicator instant messaging and presence information. The Office Communicator platform will be hosted within Outsourcery's secure state-of the-art data centres and will be provided for a small, predictable monthly fee. As it is offered as a hosted solution, there is no need to worry about the ongoing costs and time associated with managing and maintaining expensive servers and software licenses. Furthermore, those who are existing Microsoft Outlook users can integrate Office Communicator into their current service for added value and productivity. Mark Seemann provides his own incisive analysis of the latest developments in technology on his blog, http://www.markseemann.com Follow Outsourcery at http://twitter.com/outsourcery About Outsourcery Outsourcery is leading the UK market in the provision of an integrated channel offering covering mobile-centric unified communications and hosted IT solutions to SMEs, having acquired an HMC platform in 2007 and a Dynamics CRM business (Increase CRM) in early 2009. With an investment of GBP10 million in our own state-of-the-art data centres and hosting infrastructure, Outsourcery is now the UK's No.1 independent provider of business mobile solutions to SMEs and the UK's No.1 provider of hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. Outsourcery has an annual turnover of circa GBP60 million and employs over 250 staff based in three UK offices (London, Manchester and Leicester), managing 25,000 SME customers and over 100,000 business end users. We are a trusted partner of Microsoft, Vodafone and BlackBerry, giving our customers the benefit of first class communications and hosted IT to go alongside our high quality service and support. Outsourcery was selected by Microsoft as the sole UK launch partner for the Microsoft Communication Services and was a runner-up in the 2009 Microsoft Dynamics Regional Partner of the Year Awards. Outsourcery was recently awarded the prestigious "SME Hosted Communications Solution of the Year" award at the Comms National Awards 2009. Outsourcery is committed to providing its channel partners with the most complete UC and hosted IT product set in the UK, all managed via one control panel. ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) (c) 2010 M2 COMMUNICATIONS |