Ceryx Launches 'ThinOffice' Hosted Exchange Solution for the Channel

October 27, 2006; 02:22 AM
The North American hosted Exchange market is growing at a staggering rate. Experts predict the market opportunity for new customers is more than 25 million end users and it will continue to grow by 4 million seats per year. To help address this growing need, high-availability messaging service provider Ceryx announced today the launch of ThinOffice, a new hosted Exchange solution for the channel market. A white-label version of Ceryx's award-winning hosted Exchange platform, ThinOffice is a suite of Exchange services available for partners to brand, host and offer their customers.

"Ceryx's ThinOffice solution is an excellent example of the innovative solutions our technology partners are developing to expand customer relationships by easily accommodating their growing messaging needs," said Lora Gernon, Director, Partner Group, Microsoft Canada. "Ceryx is helping us enable our technology partners to bring new services to market faster, with lower risk and lower upfront investment."

Working closely with Microsoft Canada, Ceryx has developed a solution to give ThinOffice partners the opportunity to quickly bring hosted and branded Exchange services to market. The turnkey professional messaging services will allow partners to offer and utilize:

*A proven technology platform and advanced administration tools, without up front infrastructure investments.
*A messaging solution based on the Microsoft core Hosted Messaging and Collaboration (HMC) platform.
*Hosted Exchange and other related messaging services like Active Sync and Blackberry Enterprise Server.
*ThinOffice Customer Centre, a web based administration application that will bear the partners' brand and enable partner administrators as well as end user administrators to perform all major mailbox management.
*A highly redundant, sophisticated platform, housed in Tier 4 data centers and operated by a Microsoft Gold Certified team.
*Managed infrastructure 24x7 and all maintenance, patches and upgrades plus system monitoring.

Ceryx' highly trained Exchange experts enable partners to focus on managing their client relationships and help integrate the email platform into their customers' broader technical requirements. The ThinOffice Partner Support Program includes second-level support, sales and support training, integrated billing, lead generation programs, marketing collateral, and the ThinOffice Customer Centre web application -- our proprietary, sophisticated administration tool. "We will be launching with a big push and lead generation program around hosted Exchange 2007 and our partners will benefit significantly from being able to offer this, as we expect to be among the first to market with the offering," said Gus Harsfai, President of Ceryx.

"Ceryx has consistently impressed us with their ability to add considerable value to the basic technology platform and the ThinOffice solution demonstrates the company's solid development and expertise of Exchange," said Paul Kaczmarczyk, Microsoft Hosting Channel Partner Manager. "We are looking forward to collaborating with Ceryx on demand generation activities across Canada to drive awareness of the ThinOffice offering. We're confident their white-label solution will help make the Hosted Messaging and Collaboration solution and service more accessible to a broader range of partners."

"Ceryx's long standing relationship with Microsoft has allowed us to develop ThinOffice, providing our partners with a service offering and superior platform that addresses their needs while giving them the opportunity to develop a deeper relationship with their clients," added Harsfai. "Our partners can now let Ceryx manage the Exchange platform, while they focus on managing client relationships and coordinating the broader basket of technology needs."

Interested partners are invited to visit the ThinOfice website at http://www.thinoffice.com/reseller5.html or contact ThinOffice to enroll in the program at (416) 482-9659 ext. 116.

ABOUT THINOFFICE:

ThinOffice is a white-labeled set of Exchange-based messaging solutions for the channel and was launched in October 2006. Ceryx, an award-winning provider of messaging infrastructure services, partnered with Microsoft to deliver ThinOffice, a partner-enabled solution based on Microsoft's award-winning hosted Exchange technology. ThinOffice provides partners with a branded solution and a web-based delegated administration tool for managing the application and other technical, sales and marketing support. Visit www.thinoffice.com for more information.

ABOUT CERYX:

Ceryx helps businesses achieve e-mail reliability by bringing together operational experience, advanced infrastructure, proprietary research and product development with leading messaging and collaboration solutions. With operations in Toronto and New York, as well as Tier 4 redundant data centres in both cities, Ceryx's team of senior messaging professionals have met Fortune 500 companies' messaging needs across North America for more than 17 years. Ceryx offers clients a suite of messaging services that include hosted and managed email systems, business continuity messaging, and e-mail security. The Ceryx platform was recently named as a finalist in the Microsoft Impact Awards for Advanced Infrastructure Solution of the Year. Visit www.ceryx.com for more information.