SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwired - Jan 21, 2014) - PanTerra Networks, the leading provider of unified cloud services for mid-market enterprises, today announced SmartBox™, the world's first file-sharing service with built-in unified communications. SmartBox consolidates multiple cloud services into one, allowing mid-market enterprise customers to securely share, sync and store files while seamlessly communicating and collaborating with users anywhere. The integrated service delivers ultra-high reliability and Quality of Service (QoS), as well as enterprise-grade security features to ensure employees are always protected whether in the office, at home or on their mobile devices. By consolidating multiple services into one, mid-market organizations can realize total cost of operations (TCO) savings of up to 70 percent over multiple separate solutions.

"Mobility has impacted the data center in numerous ways, and one of the biggest areas of impact has been the exponential increase in the number of tools and applications IT has to manage and secure. Collapsing core collaboration platforms, like file sharing and communications, into one application makes sense," said Terri McClure, senior analyst at ESG. "I've been waiting for a vendor to converge file store, sync and share capabilities with unified communications. Employees have a single platform, and IT now only has to administer one platform that handles person-to-person collaboration from file sharing to IM, email and VoIP."

Clearly separating itself from the multitude of other file-sharing services, SmartBox seamlessly integrates real-time communication and collaboration capabilities once information has been shared. By adding unified communications to store, sync and share functionality, PanTerra gives enterprises a true competitive edge that increases productivity, reduces "sales friction" and ultimately contributes to top-line revenue. With SmartBox, once content is shared with a user or group, it instantly and automatically shows each individual's real-time presence and notifies you when a user downloads the file. You can then instantly call, IM, email, deskshare or conduct a web or video conference meeting with anyone in the world, all within the same application.

SmartBox significantly improves upon the store, share and sync features that have been available as separate offerings for several years by providing consistent ultra-high service attributes. Deploying full end-to-end management of its cloud services, last-mile bandwidth and associated networking equipment, PanTerra Networks delivers superior service attributes far exceeding industry averages in availability, reliability, security, scalability, QoS, Service Level Agreement (SLA) and support. This ensures optimal performance while guaranteeing complete IT peace of mind. Sub-folder sharing and flexible share privileges make it possible to organize and securely share any document exactly the way you want and with exactly who needs it. With data being shared and synced automatically across an organization, sharing and collaborating is quick and easy. With SmartBox, team members can use the online workspace to monitor, view and modify content from anywhere on any device -- all in real time.

"The combination of sharing and cloud storage services with collaboration and real-time unified communications has significantly streamlined our business and reduced our administration and infrastructure costs," said Russ Withers, managing director with GJ Tunes. "Having a single service and cloud access from anywhere saves human hours on administrative functions and troubleshooting issues with noticeable productivity gains for staff and users across the company."

SmartBox's offering of secure file sharing and built-in ultra-reliable collaboration and communication services provides significant TCO savings. Each independent cloud service requires users to pay a minimum monthly fee to offset the provider's overhead costs. Because it combines multiple services into one solution, SmartBox could save a mid-market enterprise with 1,000 users between $65,000 and $100,000 per year.

"There has been little innovation in the file-sharing and unified communications spaces in recent years," said Arthur Chang, CEO of PanTerra Networks. "Collaboration happens on multiple levels, and while new store, sync and share technologies have added some enhancement features, there's still a huge gap in the market to create IT solutions that impact the top line and truly give businesses a competitive edge. With SmartBox, we've combined the best of both the cloud file sharing and unified communications worlds to create a truly powerful, game-changing solution for mid-market enterprises."

SmartBox integrates PanTerra Network's Admin 5.0 enterprise-grade administration portal, which is designed to significantly enhance security and reduce the need to implement and manage third-party security applications. Built-in management tools provide:

• Authentication of all devices accessing SmartBox, which significantly enhances security and eliminates the need for mid-market enterprises to purchase, implement and manage separate or multiple security applications.
• Remote management and control of all access devices, should a device be lost or stolen.
• The ability to define any user or users within an account to be an administrator and define multiple administrator levels and group administration capabilities.
• Enhanced feature-management capabilities, allowing administrators to restrict features on a per-user basis.

Availability and Pricing
SmartBox is available immediately through PanTerra Networks directly or a participating PanTerra partner. Pricing starts at $15 per month for new SmartBox users -- existing PanTerra Networks' WorldSmart™ customers can upgrade for $5 per month -- with pooled cloud storage costs of $10 per 100 GB per month. To try a free version of SmartBox or to start a free 14-day trial click here.

About PanTerra Networks
PanTerra Networks is a unified cloud service provider, delivering WorldSmart, its family of secure, ultra-reliable, future-proof unified cloud services. WorldSmart includes SmartBox, the world's first file sharing service that communicates. It also includes CloudUC, a complete unified communications service that can upgrade and replace an enterprise's existing communications infrastructure with a next-generation cloud-based communications service. With PanTerra's unified cloud service solution, enterprises gain the highest levels of security, scalability, reliability, availability, quality of service, service level agreement and support available while significantly lowering their total cost of operations and IT administration complexities. PanTerra Networks solutions are available through a global network of channel partners. For more information, call us at 1.800.805.0558 or visit www.panterranetworks.com.