Joel Shore's Blog

Resell branded Exchange and SharePoint services

Tech Data has jumped into a distribution agreement with USA.NET that looks pretty good. It gives integrators access to several hosted services, including Microsoft Exchange 2007; Microsoft SharePoint 3.0; integrated support for BlackBerry and other mobile devices; and e-mail archiving and security. What’s really nice is that the USA.NET services can all be branded as the reseller’s own; you can then sell the services to your customers as a monthly subscription.

The services available through the arrangement include:

• Microsoft Exchange 2007 - Provides full access to Microsoft Exchange 2007 e-mail, calendar, attachments, contacts and other collaboration capabilities

• Microsoft SharePoint - Boosts productivity through more efficient document sharing and task management from a secure central source

• Mobile Messaging - Enhances productivity and responsiveness with integrated support for ActiveSync, Good Mobile Messaging, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, iPhone and other mobile devices

• E-mail Archiving - Assists with regulatory compliance, legal discovery, storage and business continuity

• Enhanced Messaging - Adds additional services to e-mail, including content filtering, encrypted e-mail, instant messaging and directory synchronization

• Advanced Security Services - Protects critical information assets from e-mail threats with virus protection, spam control and content filtering

With all the bad news we’ve seen lately, this looks like a good opportunity for resellers and integrators. Once you sell the subscription, there’s very little in the way of heavy lifting. And you get enjoy a guaranteed revenue stream. And who can’t use that these days?

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