The open source groupware, Open-Xchange, recently released improvements on the software that allows for easier aggregation of e-mail and contact information all while incorporating the use of social networking tools. This all-in-one piece of software is a boon to those business web site owners who happen to be just about everywhere when it comes to social media outlets.
Background
With offices in New York and Germany, Open-Xchange has been in the business of creating collaboration software tools for quite some time. The company works with technology partners such as Novell, Red Hat and Parallels to enable it to bring SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions to providers from around the globe.
Beginning in 2001, Open-Xchange combined forces with SUSE Linux (now a Novell business) to create the Openexchange server – one of the top selling Linux-based groupware solutions around. Over 3,500 businesses in 65 countries now run Open-Xchange solutions.
Dealing with 1&1 Internet, Network Solutions, Dotster and Hostpoint has brought Open-Xchange over 15 million paid mailboxes this year alone. This is a quadrupled increase from the company’s previous year. Open-Xchange shows no signs of stopping now.
Solutions
Because no two businesses are exactly alike, Open-Xchange offers several solutions to fit one’s particular business requirements. Each offering allows for a free testing period prior to purchasing – the perfect way to figure which solution is the right one.
The Appliance solution offered is perfect for small and medium-sized businesses who require a document and e-mail server without the need for an internet expert on hand.
The Server edition is geared more toward mid-sized businesses and is available in two versions – the standard server edition and the edition built for the Univention Corporate Server (UCS). The later is perfect for those businesses wishing to combine the CRM tool with an entire IT infrastructure or those already running the UCS server.
For those not wanting to completely overhaul and start with an entirely new solution, Open-Xchange offers the Hosting edition of their software. This solution allows users to keep their existing e-mail setup without the need to completely migrate over to a new system.
The Open-Xchange Server 5 steps things up from mere e-mail solution to a full-blown collaboration tool – e-mail, documents, calendars, tasks, and contacts. This CRM offering allows businesses to grow from webmail to complete groupware.
The company also offers mobility solutions and migration services. Open-Xchange completes the fullness of its software by also including a Mac OS version of its collaboration tool.
What is unique about all the company’s offerings is that a wizard has been incorporated into the software that searches and gathers information from several online sources, including social media sites. Facebook, Xing, LinkedIn as well as many others are thoroughly scoured and the pertinent data is fed back into the groupware solution chosen. A great way to gather all one’s social media contacts into one neat package.
Final Thoughts
A good business will not only rely on its standard CRM tools but also social media outlets. Open-Xchange offers some fabulous open source CRM solutions that combines both of these items into one very powerful and useful groupware solution.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:25 am
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January 2nd, 2010 at 11:26 pm
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