[Updated 12:25pm, 10/20/09. See correction below] Seattle-based Azaleos is announcing today it is releasing new software and services to help companies manage Microsoft Office Communications Server, which is a software platform for instant messaging, Internet telephony, and video conferencing over the Web. It’s a strong move for Azaleos that expands its product line beyond management services for e-mail and collaborative software, and into managing “unified communications”—all forms of company communication run by a single system.

Azaleos is best known for the services it provides to help companies manage their Microsoft Exchange e-mail servers and Microsoft SharePoint collaborative networks.

Last spring, Azaleos established itself in the realm of SharePoint server management. The company also merged with North Carolina-based M3 Technology Group, doubling its size and solidifying its position in e-mail and other communications management. Azaleos now has about 125 employees, and is backed by Ignition Partners, Frontier Capital, and Second Avenue Partners.

“Anybody who follows the IT industry sees the promise of the concept of unified communications, integrating real-time and non real-time,” says Scott Gode, vice president of product management and marketing for Azaleos. “It’s important for Azaleos to get in early.”

These days, companies typically implement instant messaging first, Gode says, and then follow up with conferencing and Internet telephony for their employees. [An earlier version of this article mixed up the order of these services. We regret the error---Eds.] Azaleos provides extensive consulting to help companies deal with the complexities of running and monitoring these features using Microsoft’s Office Communications Server. (Microsoft is a leader in the space, though it competes with Cisco and others.) Azaleos breaks even on its consulting service and looks to make its profits on the management service, Gode says. This is different from big companies like Accenture or IBM, which tend to make more on consulting fees.

So who’s the target customer for Azaleos? “The sweet spot in general for our business is a 500 to 5,000-seat company,” Gode says. “They’ll assume a little more risk [in moving from telephony to IP telephony].” He adds that companies typically can save 30 to 50 percent of the cost of running communication systems by using Azaleos.

Gode says the company has also been “pushing aggressively into Europe.” In late August, Azaleos opened a new office in London that employs five people. He says the company is now selling to more companies based in Europe, such as Mediq, a Dutch pharmaceutical firm.

Lastly, I asked Gode where Azaleos is in terms of its cash flow. From his response, it sounds like the company is still in a growth and expansion mode, rather than hunkering down and getting profitable. “We’re flirting with profitability, and I mean that in a good way,” he says. “Business is good.”

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After launching a beta version of its free VoxOx universal communications service in November, San Diego’s TelCentris is rolling out a revision today that could make it easier for VoxOx users to place low-cost international calls.

The privately held startup says it has updated its SMS (text messaging) service so that you can place an international call by sending a text message to a special access phone number. The text message consists of just the international telephone number you want to call. The system automatically dials the phone number in the text message as well as the mobile phone that sent the text, and then connects the two.

The SMS CallBack feature does not require an Internet connection, but users need to set up the feature through an authorization process. VoxOx says SMS CallBack calls are less expensive than standard international calls because they use the TelCentris telecommunications infrastructure to place the calls to each party, and then connect them together.

“We make it possible to make cheap calls from any mobile phone in the world,” says TelCentris CEO Bryan Hertz. Rates vary, and most international calls cost between 1 cent and 6 cents a minute, according to Hertz. A call between the United States and Budapest, Hungary, costs slightly more than 2 cents a minute, while a call between the U.S. and the Central African Republic runs almost 31 cents a minute. The rates are comparable with international calling cards that can be purchased online, but the text messaging feature offers greater convenience.

Hertz says SMS CallBack is part of VoxOx, a service that unifies voice, video, instant messaging, email, fax, text messaging, social media, and other communications channels into a single user interface. “We basically founded the company to give away universal communications services to the masses,” Hertz says, “Kind of what Hotmail did for email.”

Hertz acknowledges that TelCentris faces plenty of competition. “There are competitors out there, but to our knowledge there is no one who does everything, to have all of these different communications channels in a single user interface.”

TelCentris was founded in 2006 by Hertz, his brother Kevin, who is the chief technical officer, and their father Bob, the chief information officer. The startup, which was funded by the Hertz family and angel investors, now has 43 employees.

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Chelmsford, MA-based Aspect Software, which makes call center equipment and software, said yesterday that it has bought most of the assets of BlueNote Networks, a Tewksbury, MA, company with technology that helps companies integrate Internet-based communications into their existing business software. Aspect CEO Jim Foy said the acquisition would help Aspect’s customers treat their call centers as part of an overall “unified communications” strategy—industry slang for the new generation of Internet-based communications techniques such as Voice over IP and instant messaging. Aspect didn’t disclose the terms of the deal.

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