CHANNEL PARTNERS New Jersey-based Outreach Telecom & Energy (Booth #2001 at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo) has announced the release of the IBM Foundations product suite to businesses and agents nationally.

IBM Lotus Foundations Start is a small business appliance that provides the essential software businesses need to focus on running the business, not managing computer systems. E-mail, calendars, office productivity, file management, backup and recovery, network security, remote access, applications, and more, are all in a single package at an affordable price, according to the company. IT can help a business to run more smoothly, but most businesses dont have the luxury of an IT staff. Lotus Foundations Start is designed with those businesses in mind.

“The addition of the IBM Lotus Foundations Start system to our portfolio is a quantum leap in our development as a Business Solutions Master Agent,” said Joel Allinson, VP of Outreach Telecom and Energy. “This product set, as a standalone IT infrastructure or combined and fully integrated with the ShoreTel Unified Communications system, allows businesses from five to 500 employees [to] spend their time and money managing their business, not their IT infrastructure.”

A growing number of small and medium businesses (SMBs) and other organizations are finding innovative ways of doing business by building their operations on the new Lotus Foundations appliance, IBM’s new “plug-and-play” SMB solution combining software and hardware. The multiple vendor hardware and software purchases associated with traditional information technology (IT) solutions make it difficult for businesses to ensure they have a fully integrated solution to meet all their needs. The San Miguel School in Camden, N.J., had acquired technology piecemeal over several years, resulting in an assortment of servers running different, and often incompatible, software. “Now, with Lotus Foundations, we have everything we need to run seamlessly, in one box,” said San Miguel president and principal Brother Joseph Juliano. “The system doesn’t require any regular attention, which is great since we don’t have any IT staff members.”

IBM Foundations can be purchased from Outreach as a standalone product where applicable or for a fully integrated IT and UC system. The companys says ShoreTel for IBM Foundations is a powerful and highly reliable collaboration and unified communications (UC) solution for small and midsize businesses with limited or no in-house IT resources. Fully integrated ShoreTel UC on the IBM Lotus Foundations platform can be installed and configured quickly by Outreach. The system automatically maps the environment around itself, and self-management and self-healing capabilities let organizations stay focused on running the business.

IBM Foundations Start and the combined ShoreTel for IBM Foundations Start are available for demonstration and quoting by Outreach concurrent with the Channel Partners Conference & Expo. Agents have a huge opportunity to enhance their position with their customers by expanding into this platform set. They receive substantial compensation while being fully supported by Outreach Telecom and Energy.

The systems are available beginning Sept. 20, 2010, through Outreach Telecom & Energy.