Open source SaaS vendor Open-Xchange gained another partner ally this week in its quest to offer an open source alternative to Microsoft Exchange. The partner, ExtendASP, will integrate the company’s OX App Suite into its customer and product manager solutions.

The move, which the companies announced Jan. 21, promises to increase OX App Suite’s customer base. In that way, it strengthens the position of Open-Xchange as it competes with entrenched proprietary foes in the office-productivity suite market.

OX App Suite, which Open-Xchange offers in both hosted and on-premise versions, provides an open source office productivity suite, cloud storage and syncing, email and data encryption and an instant-messaging, video and voice communication platform.

Open-Xchange described the partner deal as a move to that promises to provide a leg up for ExtendASP and similar companies as they compete for customers. “As service providers and hosting companies are faced with perpetual price cutting in an effort to retain customers, additional revenue streams and value added services become more important than ever,” said Rafael Laguna, CEO, Open-Xchange. “OX App Suite gives communications providers a readymade set of tools to attract new users and grow business and integration with ExtendASP Control Panel makes deployment for service providers simpler.”

The agreement is the latest in a series of partner deals for Open-Xchange that stretch back a long time—all the way to when cloud and SaaS were just emerging buzzwords.