Offers unified communications to its hosted Microsoft Exchange customers.

Intermedia, a web hosting and business email services provider for small and medium enterprises, yesterday launched its hosted PBX service. The company articulates that the service is VoIP-based and integrates with its hosted Exchange email service - enabling customers to access not only hosted PBX features such as unlimited domestic calling and extension dialing, but also unified communications (UC) features such as "voicemail to email" and "click to call." Hosted PBX, like all other services provided by the company, is managed from its proprietary HostPilot Control Panel, providing customers a single point of communications control.

The company avers that its hosted PBX service includes:

• Voice menu that greets callers and routes incoming calls
• Hunt groups to route calls across sales, customer service or other teams - assuring important calls are always answered quickly
• Flat-rate, per-user monthly charges with unlimited calling in the US and Canada
• Easy online administration through its HostPilot Control Panel
• Quick in-office dialing with extension dialing
• Find me/follow me so employees can set up another phone number - such as a mobile phone or home office phone - that rings when their primary phone isn't answered
• Voicemails delivered via voicemail-to-email to an email inbox as a .wav attachment, making it easy to store or forward to anyone with an email address
  

It states that hosted PBX expands into a full unified communications service when customers add hosted Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) and the OCS Calling feature. OCS is a business-class instant messaging service. With the company's service, calls can be placed to any instant messaging contact in OCS or any contact in Outlook just with a click of the mouse. Every hosted PBX account also comes with end user features including a direct phone number, unique extension, E911 Service, caller ID, call waiting, call transfer, call forwarding and 3-way calling.

The company further states that it is offering hosted PBX at a promotional rate of $25+taxes/month per user for the first three months. The VoIP service is provided to its customers exclusively by its VoIP partner, Unison Communications, Inc. More information about its hosted PBX service and the promotion can be found at http://www.intermedia.net/products/hosted-pbx.aspx.

"We developed hosted PBX in response to feedback from our customers," says Serguei Sofinski, CEO, Intermedia. "Just as they use our Exchange service to avoid the cost and complexity of on-premise Exchange servers, they want a hosted PBX service to avoid the cost and complexity of on-premise PBX systems. By connecting email and voice, we are bringing unified communications - and all its productivity benefits - to small businesses that it was previously inaccessible to."

"Many SMBs who are still using basic telephone service to run their business will benefit from the professional image a hosted PBX service like Intermedia brings. Through the Intermedia offering, companies can set up Exchange-based unified communications - enabling employees to manage email and voice services from Outlook," says Michael Osterman of industry analyst firm Osterman Research. "An organization that makes extensive use of email, telephony or real time communications - or that will want to do so in the future - will realize enormous benefits from the use of a unified communications infrastructure."