HMC 3.5 is an integrated software solution that enables Web hosts to deliver enterprise-class email messaging, collaboration and real-time communications capabilities to small and medium-sized business customers with between 10 and 250 users.

"More and more small and mid-sized businesses require advanced enterprise-class features once reserved only for corporations with extensive IT budgets," Pascal Martin, general manager of Worldwide Hosting at Microsoft, said in a release. "The latest release of Hosted Messaging and Collaboration addresses that issue with unprecedented new features for these organizations."

The latest version of HMC is built on the upgraded Exchange Server 2003 SP2, which is the foundation of Microsoft's messaging capabilities and also supports mobile device synchronization. This lets hosts take advantage of Microsoft's latest mobile advancements such as direct push technology, enabling up-to-date synchronization of email, calendaring and contact information for users of phones and PDAs running on Windows Mobile 5.0.

The mobile messaging enhancements to HMC 3.5 were the product of extensive market research and feedback from Microsoft's Web hosting partners and end users. "What we found was that most SMB's were very interested in mobilizing their work forces, giving them anytime, anywhere access to mobile messaging capabilities, be it on the Internet through things like Outlook Web Access, or through mobile devices utilizing mobile messaging," explains Morgan Cole, senior product manger for Hosting at Microsoft.

Another new capability in HMC 3.5, also driven by partner feedback, is expanded deployment automation capabilities. Cole says hosts have expressed their concerns with time to market and want to be able to upgrade efficiently from one version to the next. With HMC 3.5, over 85 percent of the deployment procedures have been automated. Coles says upgrades from HMC 3.0 to 3.5 should now only take a few days, while new HCM deployments will take between one and two weeks, assuming the right hardware is in place.

The third central improvement in HMC 3.5, Cole says, are the enhanced customer migration tools. Microsoft has added migration guidance to help hosts move from Exchange 5.5 to a hosted version of Exchange Server 2003. And it has upgraded customer-provisioning functionality, enabling hosts to easily set up bulk quantities of users.

HMC 3.5 also features upgraded security to help reduce spam and viruses, in addition to new mobile security features such as the ability to erase data from lost or stolen mobile devices and automated rule implementation to prevent access by unauthorized users. Other key technology components integrated into HMC 3.5 are Windows Server 2003 SP1, Live Communication Server 2005 SP1, support for Microsoft's new enterprise-level instant messaging client and automated password synchronization between host directory and end user accounts.

Microsoft says HMC 3.5 will help hosting service providers improve application deployment efficiency and overall customer satisfaction. But most importantly it helps generate customer acquisition opportunities and increases revenue per user, says Stephan Schirrecker, director of Hosting at Microsoft.

He explains that Web hosts are eyeing the hosted Exchange offering because they want to reach a wider and more lucrative cross-section of the small business market. "A lot of the guys we talked to basically told us: 'Look we are in the hosting business, but we'd like to move up market; we'd like to scale up and get more revenue per user'," Schirrecker explains. "And the way do that is to add business critical services such as Exchange."

Adding mobility brings even more possibilities. Schirrecker says an average per-user revenue rate for Exchange is around $10 per month, but if mobility is factored in, $20 per month is very possible. "That creates quite substantial margins  - and the Web hosters are very interested in that."

Microsoft will be touring the United States, Canada and Europe beginning in early December to promote the HMC 3.5 through a series of (msattend.com/default.aspx) one-day technical seminars.

"We're going to be going through, in depth, the different components of the HMC solution as well as the business case for different types of Web hosters that might be interested in delivering this kind of capability to end customers," says Cole.

Furthering its strengthened commitment to the hosting space, Microsoft also announced on Monday that it had launched the Microsoft Hosting Program, a free service that provides technical tools and resources to help Web hosts deploy and manage Microsoft-based hosting solutions.

The program qualifies members for the Microsoft Server Provider License Agreement and gives them access to free downloads of the Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting and the Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration. Hosts must join the Microsoft Hosting Program and sign the SPLA in order to be able to offer hosted HCM on a pay-as-you-go basis. Members also receive a monthly newsletter that provides technical information, product updates, case studies and marketing resources.