Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and provider of private label hosted software services, groupSPARK’s Senior Executive Officer, Ravi Agarwal, will be speaking at the ISPCon Spring 2008 conference and trade show.
ISPCon Spring 2008 is being held at the Donald E. Stephens (Rosemont) Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois through May 15, 2008. The event brings together 2500+ internet industry professionals including ISPs, webhosting providers, VoIP providers and numerous other Internet industry professionals to discuss all facets of internet business including ways to increase revenue and develop new business opportunities.
Mr. Agarwal noted, ‘’The hosting industry is growing dramatically as more and more SMBs discover that they can pay a small monthly fee and achieved the same level of productivity as large companies by using enterprise class messaging and collaboration tools in a hosted environment. As a result, resellers are looking to take advantage of this trend and offer these services to their customers. However, the recent press surrounding Microsoft’s entry into the hosted Software as a Service market is making many resellers reconsider their decision as they are unsure whether they will be able to compete. This fear is completely unfounded. There are many ways resellers can differentiate themselves and continue to thrive in this rapidly growing market. There is enough room for everyone to be successful.'’
Mr. Agarwal is speaking on ways for ISPs and the service provider community to successfully compete in the expanding hosted services arena. His presentation titled SaaS vs. Software + Service: How You Can Survive Microsoft’s Entry into the Hosted Services Market, will speak to the trepidation now felt by resellers of hosted services worldwide regarding Microsoft’s decision to enter the market with their own hosted services offerings. Mr. Agarwal will address the explosive growth in the market and offer strategies resellers can employ to stand apart from the competition and provide value added products and services to their small and mid-size business customers.
groupSPARK services include hosted Exchange Server 2007, hosted SharePoint Services 3.0, and hosted Dynamics CRM as well as 2-way wireless synchronization with BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Windows Mobile and Good Mobile Messaging. groupSPARK also offers all resellers live 24 x 7 technical support via phone, email and online chat which is staffed by experts based in the United States.
Located in Burlington, Massachusetts, groupSPARK is a mindSHIFT company, which provides of SaaS services, such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services v3.0, and Dynamics CRM, which 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 partners utilize groupSPARK’s 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, private label 24×7 U.S.-based support and proactive hardware and software monitoring capabilities.
Producer of ISPCon, Jupitermedia Corporation, is headquartered in Darien, CT, and provides original information, images and digital content for information technology, business and creative professionals. Jupitermedia includes Jupiterimages, one of the leading images companies in the world with over 7.0 million images online serving creative professionals with brands like BananaStock, Workbook Stock, Brand X Pictures, FoodPix, Botanica, Nonstock, The Beauty Archive, IFA Bilderteam, Comstock Images, Creatas Images, PictureQuest, Liquid Library, Thinkstock Images, Thinkstock Footage, Bigshot Media, Goodshoot, IT Stock Free, Stock Image, Pixland, Photos.com, Ablestock.com, PhotoObjects.net, Clipart.com, FlashFoundry.com, AnimationFactory.com and RoyaltyFreeMusic.com. The online media division of Jupitermedia is JupiterWeb, which operates four distinct online networks: internet.com and EarthWeb.com for IT and business professionals; DevX.com for developers; and Graphics.com for creative professionals. JupiterWeb properties include more than 150 Web sites and over 150 e-mail newsletters that are viewed by over 20 million users and generate over 350 million page views monthly.