Merce provides a browser-based interface. The underlying OS is hidden from the system administrator for all normal activities.

Merce stores all meta-data in a relational database. This allows the secure and robust storage of information like user lists and passwords. It also allows extensions to be built to integrate Merce data into business applications or reporting tools.

In Merce, each human user is given a unique Intranet ID and a password. He can use this Intranet ID to access all services which require identification, e.g. email, Web access, Merce administrative pages, file servers, etc.

Merce servers work in a master-slave architecture, with one master server in an enterprise, plus any number of slave servers. All servers can potentially provide end-user services, since the master server's administrative role does not require or justify dedicated hardware. The master and slave servers communicate using secure public-key-based cryptographic channels and share information. All user management and other administrative commands are issued by the system administrator via the browser-based GUI on the master server. These get relayed to the slave servers via the internal synchronisation layer. The slaves report all usage statistics, logs, etc. to the master a few times a day. This two-way communication is very robust and works flawlessly in the presence of unreliable data links.

This synchronisation layer allows Merce to scale up to handle large, worldwide organisations. A Merce-enabled enterprise can easily deploy more than a hundred servers in a single integrated network.

A Merce server can act as a file server for user data. Users can use their regular desktops running popular MS Windows operating systems to store and retrieve files on these servers --- they will usually not be aware that the server they are connecting to is running Merce.

The Merce synchronisation layer ensures that users and passwords created using the Merce admin interface are synchronised with the file server authentication database. Therefore, the Merce user will "map network drive" to access his file server shared area, by supplying the same Intranet ID and password that he uses for email or Web access. There will be no need to remember multiple passwords.

The power of Merce data protection will apply to the user data stored on file servers. Thus, Merce AutoD2D backups will protect user data against accidental disk failure. Merce also supports soft disk quotas, which will allow the administrator to keep a watch on the server disk consumption of each user. If a user exceeds his quota limit, his account will automatically be disabled by Merce. The administrator can re-enable the account.

Merce provides an enterprise email infrastructure. One or more Merce servers can work in a synchronised manner to provide email services for small or large organisations. This facility provides location-independent email addresses, i.e. all users in a company will have email addresses of the form user@companydomain.com irrespective of which location or office they work out of. Merce will hide the location information, and will internally route each user's email to the correct server.

Merce mail servers support POP3 and IMAP4 for mailbox access, and SMTP for outgoing emails.

Emails in Merce can be archived on the server for future record. A copy of each incoming and outgoing email is archived in a special location on the server and can be accessed by an authorised system administrator. If an employee leaves the organisation, his emails are available in this archive for future reference. If a company uses insecure or unstable desktop computers whose contents periodically get wiped out due to viruses or hardware faults, then email will not be lost forever; they are there in the archive on the Merce server(s).

Merce tracks and reports email traffic volumes. The system administrator gets reports of total email traffic, with per-user figures. Like all Merce reports, these are consolidated across all sites and servers and integrated into one location for an enterprise-wide view.

Merce can perform virus checking of all messages on the fly. It supports a variety of anti-virus systems including commercial virus filters from Trend Micro. Virus signature databases are downloaded from the Internet automatically and updated on all Merce servers at frequent intervals, to ensure effective virus filtering.

Merce can provide controlled Web access to users. The keyword here is "controlled". Merce provides various features which allow an organisation to decide its Internet access policies. This allows you to provide Web access for business purposes but cut down wasteful and non-essential business access, e.g. enormous time spent on checking cricket scores or online share trading. This not only improves employee productivity, it also reduces the bandwidth needed for Internet links, thus saving money for the enterprise while improving profitability.

Different groups of users often need different set of access restrictions to browse the Web. This is supported by Merce.

In a Merce-enabled enterprise, Web access requires typing in the user's Intranet ID and password. Access is granted or denied based on the Intranet ID, not based on the desktop computer's location or IP address. Thus, a user gets to experience a uniform set of access rights when he accesses the Web, irrespective of which desk he is sitting at today.

Web access is tracked and reported. The accesses initiated by users at all sites are consolidated into aggregate reports, with details per user and per Website. If a user accesses the Web from various offices of the company, all of these accesses are aggregated into the consolidated report under his user ID.

A user on Merce can register a reminder request for a specific date. Merce will send her the reminder by email on the given date. A user on Merce can register a vacation message, which will be sent out automatically to anyone who writes email to her, whenever an email comes into the Merce user's mailbox. A user may also choose to forward her own incoming emails to any other user, or to an external account outside the enterprise. While doing this, she may choose to retain one copy of messages in her local mailbox on Merce.

When a Merce user writes email to anyone else in her enterprise, the mail client can look up the Merce address book on the fly. This is provided using the LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) service and all modern email clients support it. Merce automatically synchronises its LDAP address book with its user database.