"They've obviously studied the market and know where they're going. They're customer-oriented and in touch with their market," Terpstra added.

"Basic e-mail communication has become ubiquitous, yet the focus of corporate email systems has primarily been on the knowledge worker," said Julie Hanna Farris (pictured), Scalix founder and chief strategy officer, when interviewed on SYS-CON.TV by Roger Strukhoff, SYS-CON Media's West Coast bureau chief.

"Scalix Community Edition gives everyone in the organization cost-effective access to e-mail," she continued. "Our hope is that Community Edition will help to ensure that no employee, student or member of any organization is left out in the era of electronic communication."

LinuxWorld's Product Excellence Awards are managed by the editors of LinuxWorld Magazine in close collaboration with LinuxWorld Expo show organisers IDG World Expo. They were announced yesterday at the show in a ceremony emceed by Strukhoff.

Scalix Community Edition was created in response to demand by organizations looking for an affordable e-mail and calendaring platform that can support the varying functional needs of different types of users.

"These organizations commonly have diverse populations of users, often large in numbers, many with roles that lend themselves to less frequent e-mail use than the typical knowledge worker,"  Farris continued. 

Examples include commercial industries with large labor workforces, such as retail and manufacturing, academia where the e-mail requirements for students can vary widely from those of faculty and staff, and government agencies among others, she explained.

"The Scalix product line now makes e-mail and calendaring accessible and affordable at all levels of an organization, supporting Scalix's goal of providing the most powerful and flexible e-mail and calendaring solutions in the industry," Farris added.

• SYS-CON Radio Interviews Julie Hanna Farris of Scalix
• Scalix Extends Linux Functionality to Wireless