groupSPARK Named 2008 Microsoft Partner of the Year for Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Hosting Solutions

June 18, 2008 (PRLEAP.COM) Technology News
BURLINGTON, Massachusetts - June 18, 2008 - groupSPARK, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and the leading provider of private label hosted software services including Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, today announced that it has been named by Microsoft as its 2008 Partner of the Year in the Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Hosting Solutions category.

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Award recognizes partners in a number of categories who are industry leaders and have a proven track record of developing and delivering to their customers best-of-breed, comprehensive Microsoft-based solutions to help them achieve outstanding business success.

groupSPARK was chosen for this prestigious award from a pool of over 2,000 entrants worldwide. The selection as the top Hosting Solutions Partner was based on the company's demonstration of both technical and business marketing innovation. Its integration of Microsoft technology such as Microsoft Exchange Server, Windows SharePoint Services and Dynamics CRM with proprietary, industry leading automation tools enables groupSPARK resellers to go to market more quickly and cost effectively with a full suite of private label hosted services under their own brands.

"We are pleased to see groupSPARK present reselling partners with increased opportunity to deliver richer applications and the power of choice," said Robert Deshaies, Vice President, U.S. Partner Group, Microsoft Corp. "Partners of any size can now offer hosted Microsoft Exchange Server based on groupSPARK's service in as little as 30 minutes to customers using their own brand, domain, and corporate look-and-feel."

"We are exceptionally honored to be selected from among thousands of Microsoft partners to receive the 2008 Microsoft Partner of the Year award in the advanced infrastructure solutions, hosting solutions category," said Ravi Agarwal, founder and Senior Executive Officer of groupSPARK, a mindSHIFT company. "We are delighted that Microsoft has publicly recognized our proven success as the leading provider of private label SaaS applications - worldwide."

groupSPARK's industry leading Private Label Application Delivery (PLAD) platform enables resellers to offer hosted Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 completely under the resellers' brand. This technology is the only one in the industry that allows for complete private label functionality, including every URL seen by the end customer. This unique private label capability enables them to go to market in a significantly shorter amount of time - 30 minutes - incurring significantly less deployment expenses and allowing them to increase customer retention and monthly recurring revenue. Couple that with outstanding customer service delivered via live 24 x 7 U.S.-based technical support and groupSPARK provides an unmatched hosted services solution to its reseller partners.

About groupSPARK
Located in Burlington, Massachusetts, groupSPARK, a mindSHIFT company, is the leading provider of SaaS services, such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services v3.0, and Dynamics CRM, 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 address scalability and uptime concerns by leveraging groupSPARK's 100% uptime SLA, live 24x7 U.S.-based support and proactive hardware and software monitoring capabilities. For additional information, visit www.groupSPARK.com.

Product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.


Contact Information:
Lisa Masiello
groupSPARK
www.groupSPARK.com
781-273-6248 x.652
lmasiello@groupspark.com