07/19/2004

Kurant, a provider of e-business software for small and medium-sized businesses, and Hostopia.com, a wholesale provider of turnkey Web, e-mail and e-commerce hosting solutions, say Hostopia will resell Kurant's StoreSense e-business solution to its network of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Web Service Providers worldwide.

The vendors offered these details:

Hostopia is one of the world's fastest growing private label wholesale Web hosting serving over 270 service providers who, combined have over 125,000 merchants. According to Paul D. Engels, vice president, marketing for Hostopia, "StoreSense is in high demand by our partners because it appeals to novice users and sophisticated e-businesses alike. Unlike other branded solutions we have tested, Storesense defines Telco-grade reliability and delivers combined business benefits of enhanced revenue flow and margins with reduced support costs and customer appeal for end-users."

Kurant's StoreSense is a four-time winner of PC Magazine's "Editors' Choice." Business pay a monthly recurring fee to use it, and have a choice of four progressively scalable license types: "Starter," "Standard," Professional'" and Professional Plus." The benefit of a monthly license is constant upgrades for users delivered via a hosted ASP-type model that can be scaled centrally to meet the most demanding merchant needs.

"With 70 percent of small businesses in the U.S. having an online presence, or planning to have one by the end of the year, the market demand for e-business solutions is at an all-time high," said Curtis Pierce, president and CEO of Kurant. "Merchants want a solution that combines ease-of-use with advanced features and scaleable technology. Hostopia has powerful reach into a vast network of service providers who serve end-users and they have the proven high-performance infrastructure and support to ensure optimal market success."

Hostopia is pre-releasing Kurant's Storesense to selected private label partners in July and launching worldwide on its network in August.