Web hosting software provider EMS-Cortex (ems-cortex.com) says it has been working to simplify the management and deployment of these applications through its flagship product, the Cortex provisioning platform.

EMS-Cortex calls its platform an advanced service provisioning product designed to meet the expanding demand for hosted services and business applications. The Cortex provisioning platform, says the company, brings a new level of accessibility to the managed services market by offering flexible and affordable option for solutions based on Microsoft hosted messaging and collaboration, along with other applications.

EMS-Cortex says its platform provides Web, email, messaging, archiving, security and reporting applications and delivers them through a common user interface, enabling telecommunication providers, ISPs and service providers to streamline provisioning and reduce operations costs, customer churn, engage additional distribution channels and reduce time-to-market for new hosted services. Some of the available applications include Microsoft HMC, Microsoft Sharepoint portal server, Citrix, FTP provisioning, Exonet ERP software and integration of spam protection, Web filtering and various exchange archiving and desktop back-up solutions.

Ivan Wells, the general manager at EMS-Cortex says one of the main factors of the Cortex platform?s appeal is the simplicity in the user interface design.

"All our management screens were built as wizards so that there's no more than three to five options for a user to select on a given screen, so that kind of thing really cuts training time for both us and our customer service providers," says Wells. "We also use Ajax quite extensively, and that's a flexible, intuitive and a fairly desktop-like application."

EMS-Cortex says the platform is easy to use, and has benefits for both users and service providers. Users will be contented with the convenience of a complete solution that manages most of their business application needs. Service providers will benefit by being able to resell a reliable and efficient product that is quick to install and delivers savings in customer servicing and support costs, says the company.

Wells says there are obvious benefits for Web hosts as well.

"Web hosts who are willing to move up the value-chain can use Cortex to automate their current operations and prepare them for delivery of new hosted services," says Wells. "With Cortex, a Web hosting provider can start offering hosted Exchange, for example, straight after the hardware and software has been configured."

The Cortex provisioning platform stands out from similar products because of its high degree of integration, says Wells, combining Microsoft and non-Microsoft services into one easy-to-use interface. He says EMS-Cortex's product is the only solution on the market that enables service providers to automate Windows-based hosting, Microsoft's hosted messaging and collaboration and managed desktops on Citrix technologies leading to simple up-sell paths and unprecedented flexibility in providing both hosted and managed services to customers.

"Looking ahead, you can expect to see more technology and innovation, as well as support for the latest versions of applications," says Wells. "We'll follow the market. We'll listen to the market and look at its trends, look at what applications customers are demanding and we'll do our best to prepare service providers to capitalize on those SaaS opportunities, so to speak."