As the successor of Open-Xchange Server 5, the new version facilitates communication and teamwork by offering companies with tools such as email, calendar, contacts, tasks and document sharing. The solution also offers features such as smart links between calendar appointments, task lists, contacts, documents, bookmarks and knowledge articles.

Using an AJAX-based user interface, Open-Xchange Server Edition enables management of emails, contacts, tasks and document sharing without previous training. It also provides support for latest Enterprise Linux distributions, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Linux 10.

"Mashup" capabilities powered by Netvibes Universal Widget API enable easy integration of web applications, such as RSS feeds, podcasts, video channels, Salesforce.com, and SAP Business One, so that the Open-Xchange software serves as the user's central information portal.

Other features include plug-in architecture for the graphical user interface, customization of the user interface, fully-modular architecture and OSGi framework.

The company says it plans to release Open-Xchange Server Edition in the third quarter of 2008, adding that Open-Xchange Server is currently installed by more than 3,500 companies and organizations worldwide.

"Today, we're making available to users and IT professionals a free preview of the upcoming release of Open-Xchange Server Edition, which is the only remaining open and independent collaboration platform that can scale to millions of users," says Juergen Geck, CTO of Open-Xchange. "We welcome participation by the open source community and are fully committed to open standards and enabling industry partners and community members to extend this Java- and OSGi-based communication platform far beyond traditional groupware functionality."

Last month, Open-Xchange released a new tool to enable iPhone users to have access to its business-class email, calendaring and collaboration solutions.