Serguei Beloussov, head of software developer Parallels, announced the launch of Parallels Automation 5.0 (PA5.0) in his keynote presentation at HostingCon 2010 in Austin, Texas.

Parallels Automation 5.0 introduces more than 100 new features including support for delivering Microsoft Exchange 2010, unified communications with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 services, improved cloud syndication capabilities, and customer on-premise directory integration.

“With the competition to attract small businesses to the cloud heating up, service providers need to deliver profitable cloud services to market at an ever-increasing pace,” said Beloussov, who is chief executive officer and chairman of Parallels. “Adding Microsoft Exchange 2010, Office Communications Server and customer directory integration to Parallels Automation 5.0 allows service providers to increase average revenue per user, reduce operational costs and attract new customers.”

Beloussov noted in his presentation that messaging and colaboration services lead to high levels of customer retension. "Service providers can now be amongst the first to offer their customers Hosted Exchange 2010 email,” he said. “It also enables them to increase ARPU and decrease churn by cross-selling the latest Microsoft unified communications services."

This release of Parallels Automation 5.0 also introduces improvements to its Open-Xchange-based services capabilities, enabling service providers to add business class email providing as an additional source of revenue.

Chris Damvakaris, sales and business development vice president at unified communications provider Apptix, said that the Parallels platform enabled Apptix to expand its product portfolio, making it, in effect, a one-stop-shop for clients' communication and collaboration needs. “On top of being able to offer Hosted Exchange, Hosted SharePoint, and VoIP, Parallels Automation allows us to roll out Web conferencing, secure IM, online backup, DNS hosting and website hosting,” Damvakaris said in a statement.

The release of PA5.0 also includes Parallels Business Automation 5.0 (PBA) which boasts PCI Payment Application DSS certification, which simplifies PCI audits for service providers that require PCI DSS compliance.