Phoenix, Arizona – (The Hosting News) – September 29, 2009 – A recent licensing agreement between Microsoft Corp. and SmarterTools Inc. extends Microsoft’s patented Exchange ActiveSync technology to more than 15 million end users through the latest version of the SmarterMail mail server.

The agreement provides a patent license to SmarterTools for this industry-leading technology and allows Microsoft to expand its reach to include SmarterTools’ robust customer base, which encompasses hosting/service providers, enterprises, and small to medium sized businesses.

David Kaefer, general manager of intellectual property licensing at Microsoft offered, ”We are pleased to work with SmarterTools to provide Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to SmarterMail users. This technology is being sought out by our partners and competitors alike because it enhances their value proposition to their customers, and we believe that to be a testament to the innovation taking place at Microsoft.”

Microsoft has been licensing the Exchange ActiveSync protocol for mobile devices since 2003, and SmarterTools joins a growing number of companies licensing the Exchange ActiveSync patents for implementation on a server.

Tim Uzzanti, CEO of SmarterTools noted, ”With the growing number of mobile manufacturers adding Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync compatibility to their devices, the technology is the standard for mobile synchronization and communication. Mobile devices are becoming the primary device for communication and the ability to accept a calendar event, read email immediately, and track tasks from a mobile device while syncing with the server is a necessity. The addition of Exchange ActiveSync to the SmarterMail mail server is part of our continuing commitment to provide individuals and businesses the tools necessary to compete in today’s marketplace.”

Under the terms of the patent licensing agreement, SmarterMail 6.x users have the ability to synchronize emails, calendars, contacts, and notes between mobile devices in real time using Exchange ActiveSync’s Direct Push technology. SmarterTools has packaged the SmarterMail 6.x Exchange ActiveSync add-on differently than other providers, resulting in a yearly subscription priced well below competitive solutions.

In addition, SmarterTools allows customers to add Exchange ActiveSync to only the mailboxes that need the technology, making adoption of the add-on easy and affordable for small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) and the ISP/hosting industry. Scalable and easy to manage, SmarterMail 6.x features a rich, Webmail interface; reporting; events/notifications; throttling; message archiving; intrusion detection/prevention; advanced synchronization with Microsoft Outlook; over-the-air support for BlackBerry, iPhone, and Windows Mobile devices; and optional add-ons for Exchange ActiveSync and Commtouch Antispam. Enhanced antispam, antivirus, and security features provide superior protection out-of-the-box. SmarterMail is available at the SmarterTools Web site and through authorized resellers.

Founded in 2003, SmarterTools Inc. is an information technology-management software company based in Phoenix, Arizona. SmarterTools builds a Windows mail server, customer service software, and a Web log analytics reporting tool that simplify and automate the day-to-day IT operations of businesses and hosting environments.

To learn more, please visit: www.smartertools.com.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands – (The Hosting News) – September 29, 2009 – Dedicated hosting provider, LeaseWeb, has made significant upgrades for its Support Department over the past six months in response to signs that the customer support experience could be improved.

Rolph Haspers, Operations Director of LeaseWeb remarked, ”Various developments caused our Support Department to become somewhat overburdened at the end of 2008.In Q4 2008, LeaseWeb experienced a tremendous growth spurt that had repercussions on the Support Department. This department was facing extra difficulties due to the unfortunate lack of engineers at that time, and the fact that it had too many lower qualified engineers. Also, we are traditionally a highly technology-oriented company, which is not always conducive to customer-friendliness and which became more apparent during this stressful period.”

The most recent semi-annual customer survey held among more than 1,300 customers showed that the measures are having a positive effect. The upgrade of LeaseWeb’s Support Department included the hiring of 20 more highly qualified engineers and the improvement of the terms of employment. In addition, all support engineers completed a series of communications training courses to improve their ability to operate in a more customer-friendly manner. These measures have resulted in an impressive 20% increase in the number of fully satisfied customers over the past six months.

More than six months ago, immediately after the disappointing support results from the previous customer survey, both short-term and long-term measures were implemented in order to provide the customers with renewed confidence in a positive support experience. Haspers: The survey results confirmed our gut feeling and we immediately took action. Our short-term measures included the temporary hiring of additional Support staff, partly from the UK. These highly experienced employees were able to relieve some of the pressure and provide effective support to less experienced staff.

For the longer term, LeaseWeb immediately started looking for more highly qualified engineers in an effort to expand its Support Department with additional permanent staff. Haspers: This expansion process is still continuing, although the current staffing of the department already has significantly improved the ability to handle peak loads. This positive effect is clearly reflected in the most recent semi-annual customer survey. In addition, six months ago, we immediately decided to relieve the burden on the Support Department in a structural manner through additional investments in automation, among other areas, and by unlinking the provisioning process, i.e. the process of making servers and other hardware available. That should also help to lighten the work load of the department and improve the quality of support.

Many of LeaseWeb’s customers are Internet professionals or specialists such as system integrators, Web developers and application developers who resell LeaseWeb’s hosting services and integrate them into a total solution. As a result of this particular customer focus, customers have a relatively extensive knowledge of hosting. Support nonetheless remains vital. Haspers: Hosting has become a commodity for these companies. They have some knowledge of hosting, but they want to have the ability to fully concentrate on the services they provide in addition to LeaseWeb’s basic hosting products. In that sense, support remains vital for them.

Are there any other needs when it comes to support? Haspers: The customer survey confirms that we are on the right track and that our quality improvement operation has been successful, but we want to optimize our support to an even further extent. Our focus for the coming six months is to further improve the response and resolution times for issues. In addition, we are continuously working on expanding our engineers’ knowledge, e.g. through additional certification processes, in order to take the customers technical support experience to yet a higher level.

LeaseWeb is an international provider of hosting solutions that is primarily geared towards the professional market. The company is among the top-20 hosting providers worldwide and its services include server virtualization, dedicated servers, collocation, streaming, webhosting, and domain name registration. LeaseWeb is the proprietor of a first-class network that offers a bandwidth of more than 750 Gbps, spanning four data centers in the Amsterdam region via major telecom carriers. LeaseWeb is also present via Internet exchanges in Amsterdam, Londen, Frankfurt, New York, Brussel, Kopenhagen, Parijs, Budapest, Boekarest, Warschau, Praag, Bratislava, Milaan, Wenen, Stockholm, Oslo, Zuumlrich and Madrid. This way, LeaseWeb enables companies around the world to create and continue their online presence in a simple and affordable manner. Since its founding in 1997, hosting provider LeaseWeb has expanded its network to include more than 22,000 servers. LeaseWeb’s clients include Royal Joh. Ensched OGD, 123Video, Jaap.nl, Relatieplanet, MijnAlbum, Starbucks, Hyves, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Twenga, Direct Wonen, Heineken, Wikipedia, and Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

To learn more, please visit: www.leaseweb.com.

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