December Promotion Start private labeling your Hosted Exchange offering today! 
The key aspect of a true private labeled solution is that your customers only see your URLs - everywhere. Now, instead of using a generic domain, you can use your own URL for all the Exchange functions that your customers access. We provide a SSL certificate for your custom URL which is then used for SSL-enabled OWA, ActiveSync, OMA, and RPC/HTTPS.

Along with not having any setup or monthly minimums for mailboxes, we’re waiving the SSL setup fees for the month of December. 

Marketing Tip Pre-Launch Marketing 
When you decide the time is right to offer more hosted services, like SharePoint or CRM, be sure to generate some buzz about it with your customers. 1- 3 months Prior to launch, be sure and start getting your marketing collateral in place. Email your customers and begin educating them on your new service so when the time comes for you to begin offering it, your customers will already know the features and benefits the new service can bring them. 

Dynamics CRM  Hosted Customer Relationship Management 
groupSPARK is now offering Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0. Dynamics CRM is a premiere Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software available in the marketplace today with an easy to use web-based interface and full Outlook integration.Cost and complexity of building and maintaining a Hosted Microsoft CRM solution have prevented deployment by service providers across the world. As the first Private Label Hosted Microsoft CRM solution in the marketplace, groupSPARK empowers you to instantly add Hosted Microsoft CRM to your suite of services. 

New Control Panel Same functionality - New look 
We have been working very hard these last few months to make improvements to our control panel. Based on feedback from you, we have made significant changes that will improve usability and the overall look of the tool. 

As with our previous control panel, this one is fully private labeled, but we’re included much more flexibility in changing the appearance of elements like fonts, colors and styles. 

SharePoint 2007 
groupSPARK will be one of the first private label providers to offer SharePoint 2007. This is a another great opportunity for you to be the first providers in the nation to offer SharePoint 2007.

New functionality in 2007 includes the ability to implement team-based blogs and wikis, enhanced integration with Outlook 2007, and the ability to easily create new application templates (you will find that the 60+ templates we already provide will satisfy even your most demanding customers).

SharePoint is being used by more and more SMBs every day. If you don’t already offer it, now is the time to. You will be able to take advantage of all the additional marketing and PR coming out of Microsoft. 

ISPCon Santa Clara  Good to see everyone 
For those of you that attended this year’s Fall ISPCon in Santa Clara, CA, we wanted to thank you for stopping by our booth. Events like ISPCon are great opportunities for us to not only meet prospective new clients but also speak to existing ones and hear their success stories. 

Dynamics CRM  Hosted Customer Relationship Management 
groupSPARK is now offering Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0. Dynamics CRM is a premiere Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software available in the marketplace today with an easy to use web-based interface and full Outlook integration.Cost and complexity of building and maintaining a Hosted Microsoft CRM solution have prevented deployment by service providers across the world. As the first Private Label Hosted Microsoft CRM solution in the marketplace, groupSPARK empowers you to instantly add Hosted Microsoft CRM to your suite of services. 

New Control Panel Same functionality - New look 
We have been working very hard these last few months to make improvements to our control panel. Based on feedback from you, we have made significant changes that will improve usability and the overall look of the tool. 

As with our previous control panel, this one is fully private labeled, but we’re included much more flexibility in changing the appearance of elements like fonts, colors and styles. 

SharePoint 2007 
groupSPARK will be one of the first private label providers to offer SharePoint 2007. This is a another great opportunity for you to be the first providers in the nation to offer SharePoint 2007.

New functionality in 2007 includes the ability to implement team-based blogs and wikis, enhanced integration with Outlook 2007, and the ability to easily create new application templates (you will find that the 60+ templates we already provide will satisfy even your most demanding customers).

SharePoint is being used by more and more SMBs every day. If you don’t already offer it, now is the time to. You will be able to take advantage of all the additional marketing and PR coming out of Microsoft. 

ISPCon Santa Clara  Good to see everyone 
For those of you that attended this year’s Fall ISPCon in Santa Clara, CA, we wanted to thank you for stopping by our booth. Events like ISPCon are great opportunities for us to not only meet prospective new clients but also speak to existing ones and hear their success stories. 

When you decide the time is right to offer more hosted services, like SharePoint or CRM, be sure to generate some buzz about it with your customers. 1- 3 months Prior to launch, be sure and start getting your marketing collateral in place. Email your customers and begin educating them on your new service so when the time comes for you to begin offering it, your customers will already know the features and benefits the new service can bring them. 

The key aspect of a true private labeled solution is that your customers only see your URLs - everywhere. Now, instead of using a generic domain, you can use your own URL for all the Exchange functions that your customers access. We provide a SSL certificate for your custom URL which is then used for SSL-enabled OWA, ActiveSync, OMA, and RPC/HTTPS.

Along with not having any setup or monthly minimums for mailboxes, we’re waiving the SSL setup fees for the month of December. 

November Promotion
FREE Mobile Setup!

For the month of November, you can offer your customers FREE setup on either BlackBerry or Good Messaging mobility services through groupSPARK. All you have to do is add mobility to at least five mailboxes, and once you hit that mark, all of your November activations are FREE, including the first five.

If you have been waiting for the right time to push mobility services on your customers, this is it!
 

 

 

 

Marketing Tip
Use Our Promotions!
Each month we’ll be presenting our partners with a new promotional offer. Take advantage of these opportunities by letting your client base know about them through phone or email campaigns. Short, concise emails with stand-out subject titles will catch the attention of your clients and the additional contact will help to reinforce your relationship with them.
Lower Support Costs
Outlook Zero Config Tool
Our new pre-setup software will automatically create a new Outlook profile for your Exchange Hosting mailbox. Whether using the Zero Config Tool for new accounts, or to administer current accounts, the Zero Config Tool will help cut down your Exchange support costs drastically.
For more on the Outlook Zero Config Tool, login to your Control Panel, and visit the Support Answer Center
Ferris Research
Exchange Hosting Webinar
groupSPARK and Ferris Research are pleased to extend an invitation to join our Exchange Hosting webinar coming up on November 7th at 11:30 (EST)

Outsourcing Microsoft Exchange is becoming more practical. In this free webinar, we’ll discuss considerations for organizations thinking about outsourcing their messaging function, look at the types and sizes of organizations that hosted exchange appeals to, and explore what a typical implementation look like.

This is going to be a great chance to get answers to questions you may have and to hear from industry leaders on how they see the market evolving.
What’s New
groupSPARK Archiving Solution

groupSPARK has partnered with Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services to provide customers with an industry-leading Archiving solution; delivering a security-enhanced and virtually tamper-proof archiving answer for your e-mail needs.
Corporate message retention has become a way of business life. With laws being passed that govern the length of time business e-mail is retained, the manner in which it must be preserved and specific message review requirements, the need for a centralized, multitasking mail repository is growing. In addition, the increasing likelihood that e-mail will be required for legal discovery encourages enterprises to take a proactive approach to e-mail retention policies to mitigate risk.
This service is designed to help enterprises meet a variety of regulatory and legal demands placed on their electronic communications systems. It’s deployed over the Internet, which helps eliminate up-front capital investment, free up IT resources to focus on value-producing initiatives, and mitigate messaging risks before they reach the corporate network.
SharePoint Templates
New SharePoint Templates!

To further improve our SharePoint offering, we have recently installed more that 60 new templates. Use these templates to easily create a customized Intranet site to share information with your Co- Workers. The new templates include everything from “Absence and Vacation Schedules” to “Travel Requests” and quite a bit in between. Have a look at the new site templates; you’ll be amazed at what you can do with SharePoint!
Private Labeling and SSLs
Private Label Your URLs
The key aspect of a true private labeled solution is that your customers only see your URLs - everywhere. Now, you can use your own domain name, i.e., Exch.YourDomain.com - instead of rpc.myoutlookonline.com, for the RPC/HTTPS URL that your customers type into their Outlook to connect to Exchange Server. We get an SSL certificate for your custom Exch.YourDomain.com which is then used for SSL-enabled OWA, ActiveSync, OMA, control panel and RPC/HTTPS.

Lower Support Costs
Outlook Zero Config Tool
Our new pre-setup software will automatically create a new Outlook profile for your Exchange Hosting mailbox. Whether using the Zero Config Tool for new accounts, or to administer current accounts, the Zero Config Tool will help cut down your Exchange support costs drastically.
For more on the Outlook Zero Config Tool, login to your Control Panel, and visit the Support Answer Center
Ferris Research
Exchange Hosting Webinar
groupSPARK and Ferris Research are pleased to extend an invitation to join our Exchange Hosting webinar coming up on November 7th at 11:30 (EST)

Outsourcing Microsoft Exchange is becoming more practical. In this free webinar, we’ll discuss considerations for organizations thinking about outsourcing their messaging function, look at the types and sizes of organizations that hosted exchange appeals to, and explore what a typical implementation look like.

This is going to be a great chance to get answers to questions you may have and to hear from industry leaders on how they see the market evolving.
What’s New
groupSPARK Archiving Solution

groupSPARK has partnered with Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services to provide customers with an industry-leading Archiving solution; delivering a security-enhanced and virtually tamper-proof archiving answer for your e-mail needs.
Corporate message retention has become a way of business life. With laws being passed that govern the length of time business e-mail is retained, the manner in which it must be preserved and specific message review requirements, the need for a centralized, multitasking mail repository is growing. In addition, the increasing likelihood that e-mail will be required for legal discovery encourages enterprises to take a proactive approach to e-mail retention policies to mitigate risk.
This service is designed to help enterprises meet a variety of regulatory and legal demands placed on their electronic communications systems. It’s deployed over the Internet, which helps eliminate up-front capital investment, free up IT resources to focus on value-producing initiatives, and mitigate messaging risks before they reach the corporate network.
SharePoint Templates
New SharePoint Templates!

To further improve our SharePoint offering, we have recently installed more that 60 new templates. Use these templates to easily create a customized Intranet site to share information with your Co- Workers. The new templates include everything from “Absence and Vacation Schedules” to “Travel Requests” and quite a bit in between. Have a look at the new site templates; you’ll be amazed at what you can do with SharePoint!
Private Labeling and SSLs
Private Label Your URLs
The key aspect of a true private labeled solution is that your customers only see your URLs - everywhere. Now, you can use your own domain name, i.e., Exch.YourDomain.com - instead of rpc.myoutlookonline.com, for the RPC/HTTPS URL that your customers type into their Outlook to connect to Exchange Server. We get an SSL certificate for your custom Exch.YourDomain.com which is then used for SSL-enabled OWA, ActiveSync, OMA, control panel and RPC/HTTPS.

Each month we’ll be presenting our partners with a new promotional offer. Take advantage of these opportunities by letting your client base know about them through phone or email campaigns. Short, concise emails with stand-out subject titles will catch the attention of your clients and the additional contact will help to reinforce your relationship with them.

For the month of November, you can offer your customers FREE setup on either BlackBerry or Good Messaging mobility services through groupSPARK. All you have to do is add mobility to at least five mailboxes, and once you hit that mark, all of your November activations are FREE, including the first five.

If you have been waiting for the right time to push mobility services on your customers, this is it! 

Burlington, MA November 30, 2006 – groupSPARK, the #1 Private Label Exchange Hosting provider, announced their recent findings from a three-day research project.  In the week following the Thanksgiving holiday (dates ranging from November 27 – 28) email traffic during business hours has dropped over 12%.
 

The data collected during this research project was minimal and no actual facts were collected during the process.  “The information presented is completely anecdotal,” said Duane Batista, groupSPARK’s Partner Manager.  “We’re basing this information almost solely on the behavior of IT departments country wide.  We have seen that recovering from what is one of the biggest eating days of the year and the lingering effects of the ‘turkey coma’ have slowed down everyone here.  It stands to reason that the same thing is happening all across the country.”
 

The Thanksgiving Research Project is the first of many such projects planned for groupSPARK’s marketing department in the coming year.  Plans for the first set of research projects include the “Are people still hungover January 3^rd,” the “what’s the first day when everyone in the office is officially sick of winter,” and the “most amount of Quarter Pounders one can eat before needing medical attention” projects.
 

groupSPARK is hoping to learn absolutely nothing from these research projects other than to continue to show that productivity drops throughout the year by IT departments can be alleviated partially by Hosted Exchange, SharePoint, Dynamics CRM and other messaging and collaboration solutions provided by groupSPARK and their partners.
 

About groupSPARK
 

groupSPARK is the leading provider of hosted services, such as Microsoft Exchange Hosting, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, that can be completely private labeled and resold by partners as a part of their own product offerings saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in development and support costs.
 

Its GAIN partners utilize its turnkey Private Label platform to provide hosted services to their users in minutes.  Partners are able to address scalability and uptime concerns by leveraging groupSPARK’s 100% uptime SLA, 24×7x365 support and proactive hardware and software monitoring capabilities.
 

groupSPARK, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, is a privately owned company.  Headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts it is the leading provider of Private Label Microsoft Exchange Hosting. 
For more information please contact:
 

Al Maguire
Marketing Manager
groupSPARK
781-273-6245 x641
amaguire@groupspark.com
www.groupspark.com