Open-Xchange, a provider of business-class open source e-mail and collaboration software, announced today an agreement with NetCologne, one of the largest regional telecommunication and Internet service providers in Germany, to replace its existing webmail solution with Open-Xchange. Plus, NetCologne will offer its users additional Open-Xchange groupware and mobility features as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

NetCologne provides more than 500,000 customers around the Cologne and Bonn areas with phone, Internet, mobile phone and TV services. Now, NetCologne is replacing its existing webmail with the AJAX-based Open-Xchange PIM (Personal Information Management). At no additional charge, NetCologne customers will now have a modern and easy-to-use solution that integrates e-mail, calendar and contact management.

The base package can be extended with additional features, such as online storage, groupware and mobility. With Open-Xchange, NetCologne customers get everywhere and any-time access to e-mails, contacts and appointments. The integrated central document management system, called "InfoStore," saves documents, photos and music securely in the modern NetCologne datacenter and enables coordinated and secure access.

"Telephony, Internet and mobility are converging at a phenomenal rate - and we see that customers prefer to get all their communication services from one source," said Stephan Bramey, head of residential customer marketing at NetCologne. "With Open-Xchange, we are at the forefront of this development and offer our customers a mobile office - to which they have access anywhere at any time. The new features will delight our customers - as even the free basic package is very attractive and flexible and can be expanded at any time."

"Thanks to software-as-a-service, all users - from residential customers to small businesses - can benefit from innovative software solutions," said Rafael Laguna, CEO of Open-Xchange. "For very little money, they receive secure and complete e-mail, PIM and storage - and do not have to worry about hardware, system administration and backup."

Open-Xchange software integrates e-mail, calendar, contact and task management with advanced groupware features such as information management and document sharing. With recently introduced "Social OX" features, Open-Xchange also gives users the ability to consolidate any kind of existing webmail accounts - for example from Google and Yahoo - into a folder in Open-Xchange so they can be managed more easily. In addition, contact details from social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Xing can be added automatically to the Open-Xchange address book - giving users easy access to the latest contact information within their personal network. Users can now integrate and merge their address books from Google Mail and Facebook into Open-Xchange, as well.

To simplify team and project work with external business partners, friends and family, Open-Xchange can provide contact information and documents to users without an Open-Xchange account in a safe and secure way, as well.

Net Cologne uses Open-Xchange Hosting Edition, the only groupware specifically designed to meet the needs of SaaS providers. Open-Xchange can be easily integrated into existing infrastructures without changing the existing authentication, user setup, system administration, provisioning and billing tools. Open-Xchange Hosting Edition is built on proven open source technologies like Apache and MySQL, and can scale up to a million-plus users.