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Cameron and I featured on Microsoft Partner TV last week.
Those of you who can "hand read" can turn the volume down while Cameron speaks. |
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I am a guest with Martin Gregory, Director of Server and Tools at Microsoft Corporation, talking about the launch of Server 2008 and IIS7.
The programme is Ian Yates' A Series of Tubes # 38. Hear the interview here.
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Emantra, with support from Microsoft Corporation, today launched Australia's first free beta hosting for Windows Server 2008 and IIS 7.
We have seen for ourselves with the pre-release versions of this new server technology how it can meaningfully improve performance and versatility both to professional hosting companies and our ISV and ASP customers. Emantra invite hosting customers to test drive the new software themselves to see how it can give a winning edge to their website and web application performance.
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is the most advanced Windows Server operating system yet, designed to power the next-generation of networks, applications, and web services. With Windows Server 2008 you can develop, deliver, and manage rich user experiences and applications, provide a secure network infrastructure, and increase technological efficiency and value within your organisation. New Web tools, virtualization technologies, security enhancements, and management utilities help save time, reduce costs, and provide a solid foundation for your information technology (IT) infrastructure.
Go to www.iis7forheroes.com for more information about this unique no-charge no-obligation service.
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With apologies to The Devil Wears Prada. On second thoughts, this is better than the movie...
BRISBANE, 31 January, 2008 – Emantra, a specialist provider of software-as-a-service, has been awarded Microsoft Gold Partner Certification, the highest accolade available in the Microsoft Partner Program.
Achieving Gold Partner Certification recognises Emantra as one of a select group of companies who have the highest level of competence and expertise with Microsoft technologies. Emantra has been awarded competencies in two areas - Advanced Infrastructure Solutions and Networking Infrastructure Solutions. In addition to proving these competencies, Emantra achievement of Gold Certified Partner status required exceptional customer references, individual staff certification levels, and meeting sales targets.
Emantra’s Advanced Infrastructure Solution competency recognises its proven expertise in the specialist area of Hosting solutions, whilst Networking Infrastructure Solutions demonstrates Emantra’s competency in crafting small to medium-size business infrastructure solutions.
Commenting on the award, Pip Marlow, Small and Mid-sized Sales and Partner Director, Microsoft Australia said, “Emantra continues to gain kudos for its technical expertise as a provider of software- as-a-service in Australia. Microsoft is delighted to welcome Emantra as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. The company has demonstrated a winning ability to deliver Microsoft software and solutions as part of a valuable professional service.”
Managing Director of Emantra, Ross Dewar, said of the achievement, “We are thrilled to enjoy Gold Partner status – it really signifies the coming of age of Emantra. We are now one of a small group of wholly Australian companies who have a recognised specialisation in the Hosting area and as a result we see enormous market opportunities, particularly in the emerging area of unified communications.” Microsoft Gold Partners have access to significant resources and support from Microsoft, including a Technical Services Coordinator, access to the Partner Knowledge Base, priority listing in Microsoft Directories as well as other benefits.
True integration between voice telephony and digital communication such as email and instant messaging will move a step closer with the release later this year of Microsoft’s Office Communication Server (OCS) 2007. OCS 2007 integrates with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and the user’s existing telephone system to deliver Unified Communications without starting from scratch.
Microsoft has paid a lot of attention to making this new technology work with legacy phone systems and to understanding exactly how real users work. The convergence of telephony and IP is inevitable and over time I believe it will become as essential for business as email is today. OCS 2007 is really leading the way forward in this direction.
For example, with OCS 2007 a simple phone call can become a conference call or a video conference on the fly. Voice-mail and faxes move over the network like e-mail and will arrive in the Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 inbox where users can sort, prioritise, and forward them, just like any piece of e-mail. Users on the road can dial in over any telephone to hear their e-mails and appointments.
Emantra recognises the strong potential for managed services around OCS in combination with its existing Hosted Exchange 2007, Windows Sharepoint 3.0 and MOSS 2007 services. We’ve had OCS running internally in a pilot and in federation with Microsoft since July 2007. It is stable but complex software that will demand skilled and disciplined attention.
Emantra plans to offer a fully managed and outsourced pay-by-the-month service encompassing both Exchange 2007 and OCS 2007 from November 2007. Different layers of capability within the service will be offered for different needs. Smaller companies like the hosted model as often the the ownership and operation of such technology, hardware and software, is out of their technical and financial reach. Larger corporate and government entities are attracted because of the speed with which the hosted model can hit the road, as well as the reduced distractions and risk of having the service externally managed.
We also see interest from very large organisations, traditionally not users of hosted services, who will utilise the software-as-a-service model to minimise costs and risks during the “proof of concept” stage. Interestingly, we retain much of this business in the long term.
The price for using Emantra’s hosting model for OCS 2007 will be less expensive compared to a company buying and installing the software in-house, and then writing off the capital and operating cost over three years. Businesses communication systems just have to work properly all the time. By implementing a hosted version of OCS 2007 through Emantra, customers leverage the investment that Emantra has made in skills, systems, network and data centre facilities to have OCS delivered to an agreed and guaranteed service level.
Microsoft has more in store for this technology over the next few years. You’ll see products such as the RoundTable 360 degree video conferencing camera, IP-phones with Outlook embedded, and improvements in voice recognition and text-to-speech capabilities. From a service provider’s perspective, it’s exciting to see Microsoft’s recently announced alliance with Cisco in this area, which means those two leaders can build on their respective strengths rather than fighting it out in the trenches.
Emantra feels right up to the challenge of maintaining our edge in technical strength and support as the release date for this new technology nears.
MEDIA RELEASE
Emantra Delivers Solution To Provide Single National E-mail Presence for BDO Kendalls Australia
BRISBANE, 31 July 2007 – Emantra, a next generation provider of software as a service, has announced that BDO Kendalls, one of Australia's largest associations of independently owned accounting practices, has implemented a solution to establish a single national e-mail presence. The mail connector and redirector service provided by Emantra gives BDO a single consistent naming convention and centralised address book across all nine Australian offices. It makes internal and external e-mail communication easier and more efficient for employees, business partners and customers.
BDO provides standard accounting services plus business advisory services to corporations and individuals. The organisation currently has over 1200 staff in Australia across office locations in Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Each office is independently owned but operates as part of BDO Kendalls through a partnership structure. This structure has meant that each office has its own technical infrastructure and mail server with individual office e-mail addresses.
In early 2007 a business decision was made to centralise with a single consistent e-mail presence for its customers in Australia, in line with its single national web presence. BDO went to the market to look for a solution that would establish a single national e-mail domain and single national address book. As part of the selection process, BDO developed a requirements specification and design document and distributed this to a broad range of vendors for response. Of the ten proposals received back, six proposals correctly addressed the requirements and met implementation timeframe and budget constraints. Proposals were weighted by selection criteria and submitted to each state office selection committee for feedback prior to short-listing. Emantra was ultimately chosen in March 2007.According to Chad Coulin, National Technical Services Project Manager, BDO Australia, “We chose Emantra because of their outstanding references as well as the fact that we felt they would provide a high level of personal service, which is in line with BDO’s own business philosophy of personal service. They also proposed the most elegant solution and were able to commit to the implementation timeframe and budget.”
Emantra provides a fully managed hosted redirection and connector solution delivered to a high service level agreement. A national server sits on the public network and receives and routes e-mail to all offices. BDO’s national e-mail address book also sits on the same server. Connectors link the national server to each branch office and individual office e-mail addresses have now been replaced with a single @bdo.com.au e-mail address. “Emantra has implemented a transitional solution which enables the national BDO firm to operate with the advantages of a single email domain with collaborative capabilities while still maintaining local office mail servers of differing types and versions, including Lotus Domino, Novell Groupwise and Microsoft Exchange,” said Mr Coulin. “From an image perspective the solution reinforces BDO’s single national presence and has allowed us time to manage the longer term goal of migration to a single centralised mail server platform.”
“We have found the technical support provided by Emantra to be of a high level. Occasionally integration issues pop up because offices have different e-mail platforms and these are always resolved quickly thanks to Emantra’s in-depth Microsoft focus and knowledge. We also get to talk directly to technicians rather than an automated system – this type of personal service is not really the norm anymore so it’s good to know you can still get this sort of service,” concluded Mr Coulin.
Ross Dewar, Managing Director of Emantra, said “We’re thrilled to be providing a business critical solution to an organisation of the size and calibre of BDO. Emantra’s connector and redirector solutions are a terrific way for organisations with multiple offices, franchises or acquisitions to establish a single e-mail presence across the entire entity by utilising our proven infrastructure and expertise.” The cost of the solution provided to BDO Kendalls is approximately $4,000 per month on a pay per month basis.
MEDIA RELEASE
First Specialist Australian Provider To Offer Exchange 2007 and SharePoint 2007 in a Fully Managed Software-as-a-Service Environment
BRISBANE, 19 June, 2007 – Emantra, a Microsoft Certified Partner and leading Australian provider of software-as-a-service, has launched a hosted version of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, the world’s most popular corporate e-mail and messaging solution. Emantra is the first specialist Australian provider to offer Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and SharePoint 2007 in a fully managed software-as-a-service environment.
Emantra’s offering, known as Hosted Exchange 2007, combines the functionality of Exchange 2007 with a professionally managed, outsourced service and is available immediately. Emantra’s solution is designed for companies who do not wish to run in-house mail servers because of the high costs and associated risks. It complements Emantra’s upgrade to Hosted Microsoft Sharepoint - Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 - which was launched last month.
Emantra has built a strong retail business delivering enterprise software solutions for business messaging and collaboration and has been offering a hosted version of Microsoft Exchange 2003 for the past two years. It was a logical next step for Emantra to upgrade its hosted offering to the latest version of Microsoft’s e-mail and messaging solution. New Emantra customers utilising an outsourced mail service will automatically benefit from the enhanced features in Hosted Exchange 2007 whilst customers currently using Exchange 2003 will be able to upgrade to Hosted Exchange 2007 as their requirements dictate.
Hosted Exchange 2007 offers customers standard mailbox benefits that include enhanced anti-virus and built in defenses against spam and phishing e-mail. It also feature new Exchange Unified Messaging that delivers more types of communications to the inbox, including faxes and voice mail, as well as offering new capabilities such as voice access from any standard phone.
According to Phil Meyer, Regional Hosting Specialist, Microsoft, “Emantra has proven its capability and successfully established its retail customer base around its Hosted Exchange 2003 offering. Emantra customers will now benefit from the enhanced functionality of Microsoft Exchange 2007 without having to invest in their own in-house installation.”
Ross Dewar, Managing Director of Emantra, said “Emantra’s agile business model has enabled us to implement a hosted version of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 quickly and easily and our customers will benefit from e-mail functionality that is truly scalable, secure and available anywhere, anytime. We are seeing a growing trend from businesses to look at selective outsourcing, on a pay-as-you-go basis, particularly for areas such as e-mail provision, so they don’t have to build and maintain expensive IT installations and support teams.”
Emantra’s Hosted Exchange customers range in size from one or two mailboxes to over 500. They include government authorities and national corporate entities. “This is a service which is attractive not only to small business because of its low risk and entry cost, it also fits well with large organisations who just don’t want the distraction, volatile expense and long lead times an internal implementation involves,” concluded Dewar.
Hosted Exchange 2007 is available now from Emantra. Pricing is unchanged from Hosted Exchange 2003. A new standard 100MB hosted mailbox is available for less than 50 cents per mailbox per day and a 1 GB hosted mailbox is available for less than one dollar a day on a month by month contract. For additional information on Hosted Exchange 2007 please contact Emantra on 1300 728 953.