Open-Xchange, the number one supplier of open-source groupware, today made an announcement about the 1st Open-Xchange Partner Peak taking place October eight at the RheinEnergie Stadion in Cologne, Germany.  Thru its partner community, Open-Xchange is successful selling open-source collaboration services as both an on-premise solution and Software-as-a-Service ( SaaS ) using precisely the same source code.

Open-Xchange enables SaaS suppliers and on-premise channel partners to get together and leverage their various strengths, while system integrators and resellers can partner with service suppliers to supply hosted Open-Xchange to their client base without any upfront investments to line up a complicated and secure hosting infrastructure.

“With its partners, Open-Xchange brings together the advantages of on-premise and SaaS, which ends in an increasing number of buyers for both system integrators and service providers,” expounded Rafael Laguna, Chairman of Open-Xchange.

“SaaS is a disruptive way for an increasing number of companies to gain from groupware technology without a preliminary investment or on-going administration efforts at peerless price points. At the same time, we have seen large ventures realize lower price by moving their on-premise installation from their exclusive client-server solution to a modular open source stack employing a full-featured web client.

Highlights of the Summit include:
• Rafael Laguna, CEO of Open-Xchange, sharing ideas about how channel partners can benefit in this challenging economy from industry trends such as SaaS, mobility and open source by offering new services based on Open-Xchange.
• Frank Hoberg, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, explaining how system integrators, hosting providers and independent software vendors (ISVs) can take advantage of Open-Xchange’s on-premise and SaaS offerings in different market segments.
• Presentations by industry executives from Open-Xchange, Parallels, Univention and SEP providing perspectives on integration, security and mobility technologies.

The Open-Xchange Summit features separate tracks for system integrators, SaaS providers and ISVs. Keynotes and tracks provide in-depth technology and marketing strategy sessions for business and technical professionals interested in learning more about how to grow their business with Open-Xchange messaging and collaboration solutions. The Open-Xchange Partner Summit concludes with an evening networking event. For the detailed agenda and free registration, visit www.open-xchange.com/en/partnersummit.

Open-Xchange is installed by more than 3,500 companies and organizations worldwide with the Open-Xchange Hosting Edition used by more than 10 million users worldwide as hosted business-class e-mail, along with personal information management (PIM), and full groupware. Open-Xchange works together with top-tier technology partners like Parallels, Novell, Red Hat, and Univention, as well as to more than 500 system integrators and resellers worldwide.

About Open-Xchange
Open-Xchange is the innovator of scalable and integrated open source e-mail and collaboration solutions for enterprises, academic institutions, and government authorities. The company provides on-premise versions called Open-Xchange Server Edition and Open-Xchange Appliance Edition, along with Open-Xchange Hosting Edition, which enables web hosting companies to provide an easy-to-use and feature-rich application delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS). The Open-Xchange Hosting Edition is architected to integrate into a hosting provider’s existing infrastructure, such as authentication, provisioning, billing, and e-mail storage and does not require that these systems be replaced.

Open-Xchange AG is a privately-held company headquartered in Nuremberg, Germany with offices in Olpe, Germany and Tarrytown, N.Y. For more information, please visit www.open-xchange.com.