Leading productivity solution offered as a cloud service PwC Exordia launches Exordia X-Link

The future of productivity met the future of IT today as PwC Exordia launched the world’s leading unified communications solution as a cloud service.

“Exordia X-Link is Microsoft® Lync™ 2010 delivered as a cloud service,” says Albie Bester, associate director at PwC Exordia.  “For the first time, southern African organisations of all sizes can now take advantage of Lync 2010 in the cloud, with all the benefits associated with cloud computing.”

Chief among these advantages are dramatic cost-savings.  Exordia X-Link eliminates the need for businesses to acquire the hardware, software and technical expertise to set up and operate their own Lync 2010 environments.
The Microsoft solution provides a single interface that unites voice communications, instant messaging (IM), audio, video and Web conferencing into a rich, contextual offering. It offers a connected user experience, transforming every communication into a collaborative interaction, accessible from anywhere.

“Lync 2010 is recognised as the next generation of unified communications and it is not surprising that Microsoft sustained its leadership position in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications, 2011, for the sixth consecutive year,” says Bester.  “Lync 2010 is also the first unified communications product to pass Miercom’s SIP Torture and Attrition Test, during which it achieved a record four million SIP  (Session Initiation Protocol) calls completed without error.”

Exordia X-Link enables users to communicate and interact with others inside and outside their organisations.  They can see the online status of colleagues and connect through instant messaging, audio or video calls.  They are also able to host online meetings, share and transfer files, share their desktops and use whiteboards on their PCs, saving the results.

“The fact that we deliver Lync as a cloud services means predictable monthly costs to our customers,” says Bester. “We have created economies of scale by investing in high-end technology and skills and breaking down the costs across multiple customers to make these affordable.”

PwC Exordia has an excellent track record having run ASP, hosted and cloud services over the past ten years. The organisation currently provides hosted and cloud services to approximately 15 000 users across 60 customers.

“With their track record and Microsoft Gold Hosting partner status, PwC Exordia is perfectly positioned to take Lync 2010 to market as a cloud services,” says Felix Honigwachs, product marketing manager at Microsoft South Africa.

Organisations that will benefit from Exordia X-Link include those that need to replace their current PABX systems, those currently using a diverse mix of productivity solutions and businesses with distributed offices.

“Many organisations will need to replace their end-of-life PABX systems by mid-2012, requiring large capital reinvestment,” says Bester.  “By going the Exordia X-Link route, companies will not be required to make any upfront payment apart from the cost of soft phones or headsets.”

Exordia X-Link is also ideal for companies using diverse products for voice over IP (VoIP), web conferencing and messaging.  Instead of having to buy licences for each system and investing in the skills to keep them all up and running, companies can invest in one single hosted solution.  

Guaranteed cost savings will also accrue to organisations whose employees need to travel extensively between branches.  The solution offers Web conferencing, which can include people external to the organisation, as well as sophisticated video conferencing that closely approximates face-to-face meetings.