Open-Xchange Signs Exclusive Netherlands Distribution Agreement

Webmail provider Open-Xchange has signed an agreement to allow Openprovider to become the only distributor in the Netherlands of its SaaS messaging and collaboration alternative to Microsoft Exchange. For its part, Openprovider will provide Open-Xchange to cloud VARs, ISPs and web hosting and co-location companies in the Netherlands.

By now, longtime TalkinCloud readers can probably sing this by heart: Open-Xchange offers what it likes to call next-generation collaboration and mobility, with an explicit focus on providing extra value for the SMB space. Moreover, Open-Xchange was an early adopter of the movement to integrate messaging with social networks, and to that end Openprovider apparently will also offer the complete range of Social OX tools, according to the press release.

So if the story’s so familiar why am I bringing this up? Two reasons: We’ve been tracking Open-Xchange closely ever since it announced its lofty goal of hitting 42 million users (free and premium) by year’s end, and this is potentially a major last-minute boost to that figure.

The other reason is a little more abstract: None other than Parallels claims that cloud opportunity in that key SMB market is on the rise in the Netherlands (coincidentally, Openprovider also offers other cloud services through the Parallels Plesk Panel, again according to the press release). Locking down its position as the sole major representative of the growing Open-Xchange community in the country may prove to have been a wise move for Openprovider.

I’m sure Open-Xchange will issue at least one more momentum statement before its Dec. 31, 2011, deadline, so stay tuned.