Posted by Steve Schwartz on Tue, Jun 22, 2010
Here are a few recent updates on implement.com and our work as a partner with Microsoft.
implement.com attends 2010 EMEA Hosting Club
We recently attended a gathering of executives from the top hosting companies in Europe called the EMEA Hosting Club. It was held in Vienna and focused on sharing best practices amongst the various companies in attendance in a roundtable format. We also took the opportunity to meet with some of our key European clients and work out plans for deploying Exchange 2010 SP1.
implement.com profiled in 2010 EMEA Partner Guide
We have been profiled in a Microsoft publication that highlights sgnificant partners in Microsoft's EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, and Africa). This is a great opportunity for us to relay our value proposition to a wide audience. Here is a link to the guide:
Microsoft Communications Sector Partner Guide EMEA 2010
implement.com guest blogs on Microsoft Communications Sector Hosting Insights Blog
We were invited to provide a guest blog on the Microsoft Communications Sector Hosting Insights Blog about the work we are doing with Microsoft on how to migrate to their forthcoming Exchange 2010 SP1 release. This is the first version of Exchange that will be officially supported by the product group for multi-tenant hosting. You can read the details on the blog, but I will say that this was a great opportunity to showcase our thought leader ship in the Hosted Exchange ecosystem and our role over the last 11 years as a partner of Microsoft and its customers for deploying the Microsoft hosting platform.
Guest Blog by implement.com: Native Multi-Tenancy Provisioning in Hosted Exchange 2010 SP1
Posted by Steve Schwartz on Mon, Apr 26, 2010
We are pleased to announce that implement.com has been invited to present at the 2010 Microsoft Hosting Summit. Our presentation is on Hosted Unified Communications and Unified Messaging, and how to go to market with Hosted Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS) and Microsoft Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging. Our presentation is part of the invite only portion of the conference for Microsoft's most successful hosting partners.
This is a nice acknowledgment of our thought leadership in the Hosted Unified Communications industry in general, and of our deep expertise with Hosted OCS 2007 specifically.
We are uniquely qualified to deliver this presentation for a couple of reasons:
First, we have been focused on how to deliver hosted Microsoft Exchange and Office Communications Server for as long as these products and markets have existed, Exchange since about 1999, and OCS (with it's first iteration as Live Communications Server) since 2006. In the nascent world of cloud computing, that makes us pioneers.
Second, we actually deliver the service! When we started our hosting operation in 2006, Chinook Hosting, we intentionally started it to deliver Hosted Unified Communications, including Hosted Unified Messaging. We were a little early. However, that early entry allowed us to amass key experience on how to deliver Hosted Unified Communications. It wasn't easy, but it paid off for us when we launched at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2008 the very first Hosted Unified Messaging offering based on Microsoft Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging.
This was truly ahead of it's time, but as cloud computing emerges in 2010, hosted communications services will be one of the key areas of focus for the successful service provider.
implement.com is already acknowledged and continuing to move forward as one of the thought leaders for the Microsoft hosted solutions ecosystem and this presentation is a validation point that makes us think we are on the right track in Hosted Unified Communications.
Posted by Steve Schwartz on Thu, Mar 18, 2010
A short note to telecommunications companies about "Cloud" computing services, but first some pertinent questions:
How do you define what services are delivered when you offer "Cloud" computing? Is it limited to hosted servers/OS/Database/Web Services billed by complex metering? Hosted Desktops? Virtual Servers? Cloud is a tough term to use and even define, and I eagerly await its being phased out.
This blog comes from my long and arduous experiences helping telcos deliver cheap and cheerful free PoP3 email... I have been in the ASP/Hosting/SaaS/Cloud business since 1999, and in the process worked with many telcos globally. During that time I have seen only one application service ever garner some success outside of the traditional offerings of broadband and voice services. In this context I gauge "success" as a service that actually generates revenue because customers want to buy it from the telco (i.e. the right target market), in the way the telco sells it (very cheap, or free bundled with broadband), and the way they want to buy it (online and anonymous).
Guess which application? PoP3 email! Mostly delivered to very small businesses or consumers. Transitioning to selling more advanced email and calendaring, let alone "Cloud", to real live SMB's with high expectations for support and customer service is a massive transition. This is not a technology problem.
The latest logical extension to email is Unified Communications and to me, the successful telco that wants to drive towards success in the "Cloud" will focus very narrowly on hosted Unified Communications, especially Hosted OCS (Microsoft Office Communications Server), for the smaller end of the SMB market. The accompanying diagram shows how Microsoft views the future of Unified Communications.
Posted by Jarmo Paukkunen on Fri, Mar 05, 2010
If you work remotely as much as I do, one of your areas of frustration is probably the situation where you are at a customer's location and need Internet access. Many companies provide guest WiFi but most do not. Wired networks may have firewall settings that stymie connection attempts. Thus, demonstrating software solutions is often reduced to PowerPoint slides rather than demonstrating the live system. In my case, a live demonstration of our hosted business applications platform is the most powerful way to show real-life performance and user experience.
Smartphones like the iPhone are great for consuming content but not really suitable for creating content or doing demonstrations. While I use my iPhone to show integration with our unified communications solution it does not work for software demos. Also, the existing 3G networks are too slow for showing any meaningful near real-time applications.
So I was delighted to find that Comcast is providing a 4G networks across the greater Seattle area, based on the WiMax standard. While Comcast sells the service, it is provided by ClearWire Communications in which Comcast has a significant capital investment. Coverage is limited in much of the country, however network rollouts are continuing. Visit http://www.comcast.com/highspeed2go/#/coverage for the current coverage map.
So how does it work? You subscribe to a plan for a minimum of 12 months. As I work principally in Seattle I chose the Metro2Go plan which costs $30/month plus $49 activation fee. National roaming is available at additional cost. The system falls back to 3G when 4G coverage is unavailable while roaming.
Comcast shipped me a USB device which is about the size of a USB thumb drive. Install the communications software, plug in the USB device and you are live. I have run connection speed tests and the typical speed recorded is 10Mb download, 1Mb upload. This is comparable to DSL speeds.
To determine coverage I placed my laptop on the passenger seat of my car and established an audio connection to one of my colleagues using Office Communicator running on our OCS platform. With a wireless headset I was able to maintain a constant phone conversation at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. I found 2 dead spots on my 9 mile commute, similar to dead spots you find with cell phones.
So far I am absolutely delighted. I have attended several customer sales meetings on their site and so far found only one office where I could not get signal. Phone calls made over the connection are free saving me cell phone minutes. The speed of my laptop is the same or better when compared to being on a WiFi network at the office or at home.
I can imagine that 4G services will be a boon to mobile workers in sales, construction, real estate and many other professions and industries.
True location transparency is here.
Posted by Jarmo Paukkunen on Wed, Feb 17, 2010
This is, word for word, what a customer recently shared with our team.
Stripping away industry hype, what most end-customers are looking for are business solutions.
Most likely that solution is business hosting of applications, communications and other services, and the smaller the company, that solution becomes increasingly more appealing. It is difficult for a small business to invest resources-in terms of headcount and capital-into technology, which paradoxically is essential for the business to prosper.
Often the idea of "outsourcing" is thought of as solely the province of large companies. However, businesses in the US with fewer than 100 employees actually employ almost 40 million people in the United States. These enterprises today have access to business hosted applications and services that are equivalent to the tools the largest companies are using: email, customer relationship management, accounting, project management, collaboration and many others.
Save on Capital Costs
Business hosted solutions are based on a subscription business model that does away with up-front capital outlays, the need for internal IT expertise, and continual upgrades. Customers pay for exactly what they consume each month, particularly useful for businesses having significant seasonal fluctuations in employee or contractor numbers.
Collaborate
Sharing of information between employees as well as external parties is critical. Business-hosted applications like Exchange email, SharePoint and Office Communicator provide the means to share documents, calendars and other collateral. They allow you to hold an impromptu meeting with voice and video while avoiding the cost of conference calls or travel. It's possible, today, to add a complete unified communications (UC) solution that fully integrates business applications and telephone and includes a very competitive calling plan.
Work From Anywhere
Business hosted applications allow for true location transparency, since you can work from anywhere with an Internet connection. Similarly, you can connect with your cell phone or other device. With workforces moving to telecommuting and an increasing number of professionals rarely coming to the office, hosted applications provide the same user experience-regardless of where you are. No need to establish virtual private network (VPN) connections, since all data is encrypted by default.
The bottom line
Finally, small and mid-sized businesses can avail themselves of technology that reduces costs and increases productivity, at less than the cost of the average cell phone bill.
Tell us what you think
How will Unified Communications drive your business? What are your expectations?
Posted by Jarmo Paukkunen on Mon, Feb 15, 2010
At implement.com, we realize that your clients are under pressure to innovate in response to an ever-changing IT landscape. That's why we're excited to announce our acceptance into the Technology Adoption Program (TAP) for Microsoft Exchange 2010.
The TAP was created to evaluate the partner and multi-tenant hosting capabilities of Microsoft's new product version so the company can (1) get early product feedback and (2) ensure that its features are fully capable of managing real-world scenarios.
So, why is this important to implement.com clients? It's great news, for several reasons.
- Since deploying Exchange 2010 RTM is not supported in a hosting scenario, we want to be ready to deploy Exchange 2010 in a fully supported scenario-so our clients can be comfortable with our hosting solutions.
- Due to our unwavering customer commitment and our dedication to solidifying an already-productive relationship with Microsoft, we were one of only a few companies chosen for the TAP program.
- Because of our affiliation with Microsoft and our opportunity to be among the first providing Hosted Exchange 2010 in a supported environment, implement.com remains at the forefront of the hosting world. That's good news for us-and great news for our clients.
The TAP program is widely recognized within the IT sector, which is just another reason why the implement.com team is excited about working closely with Microsoft.
Not only will we get a hands-on preview of Hosted Exchange 2010's revolutionary features-but we'll also be able to assist our clients in benefitting from its strategic business implications.