SharePoint 2010: Finally, A Hostable Version!

SharePoint has been an incredibly successful product for Microsoft in the past few years. What tends to confuse our customers is the fact that the current product ships in two versions: Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007.

WSS can be shared in a "multi-tenant" environment, and hosting companies are thus able to provide significant economies of scale and a very attractive price point for small and mid-sized businesses.

However, while WSS is a strong product, its capabilities are significantly less than those of MOSS - in areas like programmability, search, workflows and so on. Meanwhile, MOSS 2007 cannot operate in a shared environment, and customers desiring a cloud-based version of MOSS need to purchase a virtual server environment in which to operate it.

Enter SharePoint 2010, slated for release on May 12. SharePoint 2010 has been architected from the ground up to support a shared platform. This means that hosting companies can now offer a full-featured SharePoint product without the added overhead of dedicated virtual environments. This welcome development enables completely new scenarios:

• Full-featured, affordable SharePoint for small and medium businesses
• The potential to create shared collaborative environments across multiple companies, particularly in industries where project-based work crosses organizational boundaries - film & television, construction, travel & hospitality are all examples
• The ability to integrate processes both internal and external as part of an overall value chain

Major new product releases are always exciting to service providers such as ourselves. SharePoint 2010 promises to be a game-changer for our customers, and we are looking forward to our offering SharePoint after its release to manufacturing!

Save Your Customers Money by Providing Business Hosting

Small and mid-sized companies routinely outsource on a number of fronts-from payroll processing and accounting to HR and inventory management. But many of these companies have not yet made the leap to cloud communication services-or taken the time to analyze their potential cost effectiveness. And while money certainly isn't the only reason for your customers to outsource their communications, it's a major factor as you help them evaluate savings opportunities and look for innovative ways to help them weather the recession.

Here's how you can impact your customers' bottom line by providing business hosting:

1. Reduce internal staffing commitments: Utilizing business hosting lowers labor costs by (a) freeing up IT experts to focus on mission-critical projects, and (b) reducing the need for personnel redundancy. As full-time staff members begin to shift their attention from routine maintenance and extraneous tasks to value-added undertakings, your customers will realize increasing profits within their own company.

2. Reduced capital expenses: If your customers gasp each time their capital budget comes up for review, business hosting may bring them a welcome breath of fresh air. In addition to saving manpower, outsourced communications reduces cash outlay for infrastructure, equipment maintenance and software/hardware updates. When your customers trust you with their email, voice, IM and social networking, we'll support you by employing the latest Microsoft technologies to deliver cutting-edge hosted communications options to your customers, while helping them avoid costly equipment expenditures.

3. Replacing fixed costs: With Chinook Hosting's communication packages that you can offer, your customers pay only for the support they need. That means they can replace fixed salary and equipment costs with variable costs, which are often lower and easier to manage.

In addition to downsizing staff and equipment, outsourced communications allows your customers to cancel unnecessary software licenses and sell off extra hardware. They'll also reduce miscellaneous costs, like employee travel expenditures.

Outsourcing their unified communications service to your company and Chinook Hosting allows their employees to conference over the Web rather than paying for pricey flights, hotels and rental cars. This small change can amount to significant company savings over time.

Interested in learning more? Contact Chinook Hosting today for a no-obligation consultation. When you partner with Chinook Hosting, you'll not only help your customers save money-but you'll help them benefit from a highly secure, collaborative workspace that connects managers, employees, vendors and clients to the information they need, when they need it. What could be better?

What do you think?

We're interested in hearing from you. What about providing business hosting to your customers sounds most intriguing to you? What questions and comments do you have?