mindSHIFT Expands Market Reach with the Acquisition of Collaboration Online, Limited Company

April 02, 2008 (PRLEAP.COM) Business News
Fairfax, VA - April 2, 2008 - mindSHIFT Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of managed IT and VoIP services, has acquired Burlington, MA-based Collaboration Online, Limited Company, a privately owned, rapidly growing provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions to small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Collaboration Online does business under multiple brands such as groupSPARK and AgileWave CRM selling hosted Microsoft Exchange Server, Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

"Collaboration Online dramatically expands our market reach," said mindSHIFT Chairman and CEO Paul Chisholm. "We are now able to provide small and mid-size businesses with additional enterprise-class messaging and collaboration tools which will assist them in increasing growth and corporate productivity. It also enables us to expand our geographic reach considerably."

"We are delighted to join forces with mindSHIFT, an East Coast powerhouse of managed IT and VoIP services," said Ravi Agarwal, CEO of Collaboration Online. "Their considerable resources will enable us to more quickly become the market leader in hosted services, reach more customers, and offer additional industry-leading hosted software services."

Founded in 2002, Collaboration Online provides hosted Microsoft Exchange Server, Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Dynamics CRM to partners and small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) under multiple brands.

The company also markets its hosted SaaS offering as a private label service through a strong reseller channel. These resellers are able to market the company's hosted services under their own brands using the company's state-of the-art Private Label Application Delivery (PLAD) platform. The PLAD platform enables channel partners to resell the services as part of their own product offering, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in development and support costs.

The acquisition provides mindSHIFT with strategic value in three areas:
1. a high growth opportunity in the SMB market to provide a larger breadth of industry-leading enterprise-class hosted services
2. an automated and scalable provisioning and support platform that dramatically lowers the costs of customer acquisition and support
3. a successful and mature reseller program


About mindSHIFT Technologies, Inc.
With operations in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., mindSHIFT is a leading Managed Services Provider (MSP) offering managed IT services, software-as-a-service (SaaS), VoIP, compliance, e-business application development and professional services to small and medium-sized organizations. The company's portfolio of managed services provides a comprehensive solution which includes such critical services as email management and administration, electronic backup for servers and desktops, virus and spam protection, desktop support, and server management – either at the customers' premises or completely off-site. Managed services customers are supported by both a 24-hour Network Operations Center for proactive management support and a call center which diagnoses and resolves all end-user desktop issues. For advanced and larger businesses, the company provides business application migrations, storage area network upgrades and complex hosting applications. Additionally, mindSHIFT has superior expertise and experience in meeting the compliance requirements of financial services firms, as well as the complex demands of the legal community for the integration of applications such as document management. For additional information, visit www.mindSHIFT.com.

About Collaboration Online
Headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, Collaboration Online, Limited Company is the leading provider of hosted enterprise-class messaging and collaboration solutions including hosted Microsoft Exchange Server, Windows SharePoint Services and Dynamics CRM. These hosted services are offered on shared and dedicated servers to small and mid-size businesses around the world. Full mobile access is also offered for BlackBerry, Treo, PocketPC, SmartPhone and Windows Mobile handheld devices. Hosted Exchange customers receive free Outlook 2007, live 24x7 U.S.-based technical support, advanced spam and virus filtering and a 100% uptime guarantee on dedicated servers.

mindSHIFT Technologies is a registered trademark of mindSHIFT Technologies, Inc.
All trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

Media Contacts:

mindSHIFT Technologies, Inc.
Vicki J. Brown
617-243-2729
vicki.brown@mindSHIFT.com


Collaboration Online, Limited Company
Lisa M. Masiello
781-273-6248, ext. 652
lmasiello@groupSPARK.com