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April 22, 2003

When private-label ASP Apptix announced the launch of version 4.0 of TECOS, its service automation and management platform, in late March, it promised to expand its portfolio of on-demand applications beyond Microsoft Exchange (see Apptix Expands On-Demand Service Management Platform).

Less than a month later, the Sterling, Va.-based service provider is already making good on that promise. Today, Apptix announced the launch of an on-demand service for Microsoft's Windows SharePoint Services.

Using Apptix's hosted service, resellers and service providers will be able to deploy Windows SharePoint Services (Microsoft's Web-based file sharing and team collaboration software), which is currently in the beta stage and will be available in mid-2003. "Working with Microsoft, it became clear that to quickly add a service, Windows SharePoint Services was the best fit in terms of readiness and applicability," Alex Hawkinson, CEO of Apptix, told ASPnews. "It's a logical follow-up to messenging."

Even though TECOS 4.0 is less than 30 days old and Windows SharePoint Services is still in beta, Hawkinson said service providers are showing strong interest in the services. "There needs to be some education around it, but the new version of Windows Sharepoint is more mature both as a product and as a hosted service."

Hawkinson also said that Apptix has applied what it learned from its existing services. "It took a lot of time to develop TECOS for Exchange, to incorporate multiple tiers of service, for example. We've incorporated that learning into TECOS 4.0 and Sharepoint and the service is built for multiple tiers from the get-go."

Microsoft Office 2003 products are designed to use Windows SharePoint Services as a central workspace and take advantage of its new functionality, according to Apptix. The integration of SharePoint with Office will produce some "pretty powerful features," Hawkinson said. For example, it will offer characteristics of a content management system. Hawkinson said that these capabilities will allow developers to create vertically oriented products based on SharePoint services.

"With Apptix making Windows SharePoint Services available on a software-as-a-service basis, customers of Microsoft Office programs can experience enhanced integration of Office 2003 with a new set of Web services and Web collaboration tools," said Mike Gelon, director of information workers servers product management for Microsoft.

Pricing has not been set, but Hawkinson said it will be consistent with Apptix existing model of wholesale pricing.

Apptix is listed by ASPnews as a Top 30 Service Enabler..

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