Unified Communications related Press Releases

Cincinnati Bell Taps ATC for Business Partner Program

Mike Dolan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:45:37 -0400

Company Signs Sales Agency Agreement, Hits the Ground Running with New Business Orders

CINCINNATI, Oct. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Technology Consulting, Inc. (www.4atc.com) today announced that it has signed a Sales Agency Agreement with Cincinnati Bell Telephone (CBT) to enter its Business Partner Program.

Under the terms of the agreement, ATC will sell CBT's full portfolio of wireline and wireless services. This includes CBT evolve Business Solutions that address the needs of small, medium and enterprise organizations with offerings such as the LAN Advantage family of data transport services, its multi-tier eVantage packages for converged voice and data services, and eMerge - its fully managed IP solution for enhanced VoIP and unified communications.

Within the first week of operating under the executed agreement, ATC signed contracts for CBT products and services with seven new customers valued at $230,000. The company is awaiting signatures on four additional contracts valued at $125,000.

"ATC is highly respected in the marketplace, and the prototypical company we look for in our Business Partner Program," said Tom Lewis, sales director, alternate channels, Cincinnati Bell. "We have a solid match with what we're trying to achieve in having companies represent our products and services."

"The ATC team is very positive and clearly focused on representing CBT well," said Beth Kritz, sales manager, business partner program, Cincinnati Bell. "Their commitment to 'doing the right thing for the customer' was evident immediately, which makes for a model business partnership."

"Cincinnati Bell's products and services reflect a comprehensive understanding of the market and a long-standing commitment to innovation," said David Goodwin, co-principal, ATC. "Regardless of size, today's businesses are looking to optimize their voice, data and wireless services. They want to be able to fully leverage next generation technologies without over-spending. Through its evolve Business Solutions, CBT has delivered. At ATC, we are committed to helping companies reduce telecom costs and complexities, so this partnership brings significant advantages."

About ATC

Advanced Technology Consulting, Inc. removes the complexities of selecting, procuring, managing and maximizing telecom services by leveraging industry expertise and strategic partnerships with 50+ service providers. It derives savings by streamlining key processes and positioning solutions from best-in-class providers, including: Data, Internet, http://www.4atc.com/pages/products/data.html VoIP , audio/video/web conferencing, cellular/wireless, Metro Ethernet, and dark fiber. For details, visit www.4atc.com .

About Cincinnati Bell Inc.

With headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Bell provides integrated communications solutions--including local, long distance, data, Internet, wireless, and entertainment services--that keep residential and business customers in Greater Cincinnati and Dayton connected with each other and with the world. In addition, businesses nationwide ranging in size from start-up companies to large enterprises turn to Cincinnati Bell for efficient, scalable office communications systems as well as complex information technology solutions including data center and managed services. Cincinnati Bell conducts its operations through three business segments: Wireline, Wireless, and Technology Solutions. For more information, visit www.cincinnatibell.com.

SOURCE Advanced Technology Consulting, Inc.

Salesforce.com and Cisco Partner to Deliver the New Face of Customer Service

Mike Dolan — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:45:33 -0400

Salesforce.com and Cisco Partner to Deliver the New Face of Customer Service

Salesforce.com's Service Cloud 2 and Cisco's Unified Communications combine to deliver a complete cloud computing solution for customer service

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing company, and Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) today announced a combined solution to deliver a complete contact center in the cloud. The Cisco and salesforce.com Customer Interaction Cloud brings together salesforce.com's Service Cloud 2 with Cisco Unified Communications. The solution empowers small and medium sized companies to run their customer service completely in the cloud. Salesforce.com and Cisco share a vision about moving technology into the cloud and leveraging social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google to deliver services to their customers where they are already collaborating.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050216/SFW105LOGO)

Cisco and Salesforce.com - Delivering the Contact Center in the Cloud

The combined solution utilizes a connector to integrate salesforce.com's Service Cloud 2 with Cisco Unified Contact Center's functionality. This allows customers to use the salesforce.com CRM application as their primary agent desktop while retaining full Cisco Unified Contact Center capabilities to operate a customer care or support center in any industry.
Through this offering, salesforce.com and Cisco are addressing a growing demand for cloud computing-based customer service solutions in the SMB market.
With the Customer Interaction Cloud, agents may become more productive, and customers can use the cloud to achieve a more rapid time to value with no hardware, no software, no data centers and no telephony equipment to install.
The solution was built to focus on organizations with 30 to 300 reps or agents and reflects both high market demand from prospects as well as requirements from existing customers.

The Future of Customer Service

Cisco has led the way in expanding the scope of customer care with the introduction of ground-breaking products such as Cisco Unified Contact Center which delivers intelligent contact routing for all media, call treatment, and network-to-desktop computer telephony integration (CTI) over an IP infrastructure. This helps enable companies to rapidly deploy a distributed contact center infrastructure.
Customers are increasingly turning to the cloud to answer their customer service questions. The Service Cloud 2 lets companies join the conversation with their customers, by providing a cost-effective solution that unites the contact center and the cloud to establish a new model for customer service. 8,000 companies have already selected the Service Cloud 2 for their customer service operations.
Built on the Force.com platform, the Service Cloud 2 transforms customer service through the power of cloud computing, and brings together industry leading cloud computing platforms like Google, Facebook, and Twitter to capture every conversation and utilize every community expert in the cloud. By capturing these conversations, the Service Cloud 2 empowers companies to deliver the expertise of the community to customers, agents and partners regardless of location or device - ensuring that the quality of customer service can be consistent across every channel.

Enabling Transformation from Cisco Unified Contact Center to Customer Collaboration

Cisco Collaboration Solutions improve and accelerate rich personal, team and customer experiences to help organizations drive innovation and improve decisions while building trust and accelerating team performance.
Customer care has seen significant changes in the last 10 years--with new capabilities such as multi-channel contact and introduction of IP-based contact centers--and customer service organizations are now looking to take this to the next level by forging collaborative relationships with their customers and elevating their customer care. This transformation to Customer Collaboration recognizes that customer interactions can take place anywhere online, in social media, blogs, wikis, forums, and online search.
Cisco's Collaboration Solutions and Cisco Unified Contact Center help companies smoothly integrate inbound and outbound voice calls with Internet applications such as real-time chat, web collaboration, and e-mail. Organizations can support customer interactions regardless of which communications channel the customer has chosen.

Comments on the News

"The Service Cloud 2 has seen tremendous momentum and validation from customers, prospects, and partners and truly represents the future of customer service," said Alex Dayon, senior vice president, customer service & support product line of salesforce.com. "The combination of Cisco's Unified Communications and salesforce.com's Service Cloud 2 will provide companies with a true cloud based option when it comes to their customer service needs. Companies will no longer have to manage routers, servers and switches when it comes to their contact center, they can focus on delivering the best customer service possible."
"In the decade since we entered the market, customers have validated Cisco's approach to the customer care market through tremendous adoption of our collaboration solutions," said John Hernandez, General Manager of Cisco's Customer Contact Business Unit. "Now together with salesforce.com and the Service Cloud 2, we're taking customers beyond the contact center to Customer Collaboration, where organizations can be more proactive and effective, create deeper relationships with their customers, and help build their brands through customer advocates. The rise of social media, and the confidence it has spawned amongst Internet users to engage, makes the possibility of collaboration much more of a reality."
"Effective customer service requires a right combination of CRM capabilities and communications mechanisms to properly capture and disseminate timely information," said Jeffrey M. Kaplan, Managing Director of THINKstrategies, Inc. and the founder of the SaaS Showplace. "This alliance allows companies to leverage Cisco and salesforce.com's mutual capabilities to deploy cloud-based, customer service solutions that can better serve their customers in an increasingly competitive environment."

Availability

The solution is currently scheduled to be generally available in the first quarter of calendar year 2010.
Salesforce.com and Cisco will each be offering the combined solution for sale. Details of pricing can be found on Cisco's and salesforce.com's respective websites.

Additional Resources

View more information about the Service Cloud 2 at http://www.salesforce.com/servicecloud2/ and about Cisco Unified Contact Center solutions at http://www.cisco.com/go/cc.

About Cisco

Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

About salesforce.com

Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company. The company's portfolio of Salesforce CRM applications, available at http://www.salesforce.com/products/, has revolutionized the ways that companies collaborate and communicate with their customers across sales, marketing and service. The company's Force.com platform (http://www.salesforce.com/platform/) enables customers, partners and developers to quickly build powerful business applications to run every part of the enterprise in the cloud. Based on salesforce.com's real-time, multi-tenant architecture, Salesforce CRM and Force.com offer the fastest path to customer success with cloud computing.

As of July 31, 2009, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 63,200 customers including Allianz Commercial, Dell, Dow Jones Newswires, Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE, and SunTrust Banks. Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM". For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

Copyright (c) 2009 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce and the "no software" logo are registered trademarks of salesforce.com, inc., and salesforce.com owns other registered and unregistered trademarks. Other names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE salesforce.com

Scicom Americas Selects Sipera Solution to Secure Distributed Call Centers For Fortune 500 and Other Large Enterprises

Jim O'Neill — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:19:56 -0400

RICHARDSON, Texas, Aug. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Sipera Systems, the leader in real-time Unified Communications (UC) security, today announced that Scicom Americas has selected Sipera's UC security appliance solution to provide SIP trunk termination and comprehensive security for its distributed call center services.

Scicom is a progressive and pioneering leader in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) with global expertise in customer contact management and support in more than 40 languages. Scicom has deployed flexible VoIP and Unified Communications technologies supplied by Avaya, and it offers outsourced, distributed call center services to Fortune 500 and other major enterprise clients across this infrastructure.

Scicom's services are designed to meet the most stringent security and privacy requirements, and Scicom has selected Sipera's UC-Sec appliances to provide comprehensive security and SIP trunk termination for the distributed call centers.

"Our clients can rest assured that their mission-critical call center communications handled by Scicom are secure," said Ramesh Ariyanayakam, Chief Operating Officer, Scicom Americas. "We chose to work with Sipera because its innovative VoIP and Unified Communications security solutions enable our clients to rely on us to safeguard their communications."

Cross Telecom and Sipera have collaborated on the project for Scicom, which includes:

Scicom employs secure SIP trunks terminated on the Sipera security appliance.
Sipera's UC-Sec security appliance provides comprehensive VoIP / UC security: privacy (encryption), access control, threat mitigation, and security policy enforcement.
Routing of calls to distributed call centers provides low-cost, highly flexible and efficient outsourced call center services.

The added security assists Scicom clients with adhering to specialized security requirements, such as PCI DSS (credit cards), HIPAA (healthcare privacy), GLBA (consumer data protection), FERPA (student record privacy) and others.

By utilizing SIP trunking, Scicom is able to quickly provision additional services globally for clients, offering advanced features such as multi-lingual support and seamlessly integrating their globally diverse contact centers. Scicom's project yielded these benefits while also enabling it to increase efficiencies and decrease operational costs, benefiting clients with fully featured services at highly competitive prices.

"Scicom's secure SIP trunk project is a prime example of a well-executed SIP deployment, enabling Scicom to offer its clients low-cost yet highly flexible and efficient call center services," said Adam Boone, Vice President of Marketing for Sipera. "At the same time, Scicom is ensuring that these services are secure and protected, providing reassuring peace of mind to their enterprise clients about the privacy of their essential communications."

The Sipera UC-Sec products are comprehensive, real-time VoIP security and UC security solutions that simplify and protect next-generation communications over any network to any device. Dozens of customers around the world rely on the UC-Sec appliances to safeguard their communications, deploy SIP trunks, and boost compliance with privacy laws, regulatory mandates and mission-critical confidentiality requirements. Backed by the extensive vulnerability research of VIPER Lab, the UC-Sec solutions provide threat protection, policy enforcement, access control and privacy in a single, real-time appliance.

About Scicom

Scicom is a progressive and pioneering leader in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) with global expertise in customer contact management.

Scicom believes in providing "Total Customer Delight" and its mission is always to help clients get to know their customers better. Scicom services clients in 70 countries and 40 Languages from 14 strategically located facilities throughout the globe. In 2006, the company established corporate headquarters for the Americas in Tampa, Florida, with a diverse, multi-lingual workforce that supports English, Spanish, and French for the United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean.

About Sipera Systems

Sipera Systems, the leader in real-time UC security, enables enterprises to simplify and confidently deploy their VoIP and unified communications over any network to any device while service providers can protect and quickly offer new IP-based communication services. Backed by the extensive vulnerability research of the Sipera VIPER Lab, the Sipera UC-Sec products provide comprehensive threat protection, policy enforcement, access control, and privacy in a single, real-time appliance. For more information, visit http://www.sipera.com .

About Cross

Cross is a premier Avaya National Platinum Business Partner and Cisco Silver Certified Partner providing Voice, Data, IP Telephony and Professional Services solutions as well as technology training through Cross University. Headquartered in Bloomington, MN, Cross has developed one of the largest and most experienced technical teams within the industry. By combining technical expertise with excellence in customer satisfaction, Cross has established itself as a recognized industry leader and trusted advisor to businesses nationwide.

Unisys Employs QuintumÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Tenor VoIP Gateway in Service Offering for Customer Trials of MicrosoftÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Unified Commun

Jim O'Neill — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:39:49 -0400

EATONTOWN, NJ July 22nd, 2008

Quintum Technologies, LLC, an innovator in VoIP technologies and a subsidiary of Network Equipment Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: NWK), announced today that Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) deployed Quintum’s Tenor VoIP gateway in its “unified communications hosted trial” service. The service allows customers to test Microsoft Corp.’s unified communications technology at no cost, including Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, and Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

Unisys was selected by Microsoft for its deep expertise in developing communications solutions on the Microsoft platform and its ability to manage reliable enterprise-class applications. Similarly, Unisys evaluated the Microsoft-certified gateway vendors and selected Quintum based on its long term working relationship with Microsoft in providing support for Office Communications Server 2007 in the Tenor line of VoIP switches and gateways. The Tenor CMS (Carrier MultiPath Switch) was adopted because it provided back-end support for the unified communications platform and had the capacity to support a hosted platform.

Unisys developed, implemented and manages the hosted trial service in conjunction with Microsoft. The program allows Unisys and Microsoft salespeople to sign up to 20 accounts per customer to evaluate the latest unified communications technology from Microsoft for 30 days, including e-mail, calendaring, unified messaging, multi-party instant messaging, and voice and video conferencing.

“This new service allows our clients to experience the power of unified communications across their enterprises,” said Jim Boak, vice president, Microsoft and Intel Alliances, Unisys. “We chose the Quintum Tenor for our trial service platform because it was easy to install, provides excellent voice quality and is very reliable.”

“The ability to try the service without needing to deploy equipment will allow more companies to experience the value of unified communications,” said Chuck Rutledge, Vice President of Marketing for NET/Quintum. “We are pleased to be supporting this service along with Microsoft and Unisys.”

For more information on Microsoft unified communications technologies, visit Microsoft UC.

For more information on Unisys Communication and Collaboration solutions, visit Unisys Solutions.

About Unisys

Unisys is a worldwide information technology services and solutions company. We provide consulting, systems integration, outsourcing and infrastructure services, combined with powerful enterprise server technology. We specialize in helping clients use information to create efficient, secure business operations that allow them to achieve their business goals. Our consultants and industry experts work with clients to understand their business challenges and create greater visibility into critical linkages throughout their operations. For more information, visit Unisys.

About Quintum

Quintum Technologies, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Network Equipment Technologies, Inc., is headquartered in Eatontown, NJ. Quintum delivers VoIP solutions designed to bring the reliability and voice clarity of public telephone networks to Internet telephony. Quintum's intelligent VoIP access solutions integrate easily into existing PBX and IP infrastructures, making them an ideal choice for service providers and enterprises alike.

Quintum was awarded the Frost & Sullivan 2007 Global Product Differentiation Innovation Award. Quintum is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, a Nortel Developer Partner and an Avaya Developer Connection Partner.

Quintum sells its switches worldwide through its direct sales force and a network of resellers and distributors. For more information, call 1-877-SPEAK IP (1-877-773-2547), 1-732-460-9000 outside the US, or visit http://www.quintum.com.

About Network Equipment Technologies, Inc.

For nearly a quarter of a century, Network Equipment Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: NWK) has provided voice and data communications equipment for multi-service networks requiring high degrees of versatility, interoperability, security and performance. NET’s broad family of products are purpose-built for mixed-service, multi-protocol networks; bandwidth-sensitive site communications; high-performance, security-sensitive transmissions; and converged communications. The company’s NX Series for network exchange solutions and VX Series for voice exchange solutions enable interoperability and integration with existing networks for seamless migration to secure IP-based voice and data communications. In addition, Quintum, a subsidiary of NET, delivers VoIP access solutions that bring the reliability and voice clarity of public telephone networks to Internet telephony. For more information, visit http://www.net.com.

Deloitte Selects Nortel to Provide Managed Global Telepresence Services

Jim O'Neill — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:57:37 -0400

TORONTO – Known around the world for the excellence of the professional services provided by its member firms, Deloitte's global organization has chosen Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT] as a global managed services provider for telepresence, video conferencing and associated multimedia services.

Under a new managed services agreement with Nortel, Deloitte's global organization and as many as 130 Deloitte member firm locations around the world will be able to obtain telepresence and open standards-based video conferencing services.

With oil prices fueling skyrocketing airfares and an increasing global outcry for environmental responsibility, organizations like Deloitte are seeking viable business alternatives to travel. Managed telepresence is one such alternative.

"Being able to meet clients and colleagues in real time without travel is an efficient, effective and environmentally considerate way to address their needs," said Yezdi Pavri, managing partner for Deloitte Canada's Toronto office.

"We expect to drive real savings in time, cost and carbon footprint," said Dietmar Wendt, president, Global Services, Nortel. "We're providing a reliable, 'always on' resource for making more timely decisions, building stronger team and client relationships, and enhancing productivity. And all with a rapid payback that makes it surprisingly affordable."

By Nortel's calculations, a company spending as much as US$23 million annually on travel can use telepresence to recover as many as 385,000 hours of lost productivity, reduce its carbon footprint by up to 4,200 tons and save up to US$7 million.

One company cited in "Building the Successful Virtual Workplace," a 2007 Nemertes Research benchmark of IT executive best practices, found that it could cover the cost of multiple, dedicated, high-end telepresence facilities and managed telepresence service with as little as a two- to three-percent reduction in international travel.

Nortel's services-powered Telepresence Solution makes set-up and operation of video meetings as easy as walking into a conference room. This will allow Deloitte professionals to focus on the meeting rather than the mechanics.

By using Nortel's global infrastructure of Multimedia Network Operations Centers (MNOCs), professionals from Deloitte and its member firms will be able to seamlessly connect with each other and with clients using open video systems, even at times when travel is restricted.

Making real-time visual communications and collaboration across town and across borders more immediate and effective lessens the need for travel, resulting in lower costs, higher productivity and reduced carbon footprint.

Integral to its Unified Communications offering, Nortel's services-powered Telepresence Solution includes implementation, proactive network monitoring and 24/7 support for carrier-grade reliability, network performance management, and such concierge-like amenities as assisted scheduling and conference set-up.

Nortel's services-powered Telepresence Solution integrates open systems from multiple equipment providers, allowing customers to take full advantage of investments in both new and existing video systems.

About Nortel

Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that make the promise of Business Made Simple a reality for our customers. Our next-generation technologies, for both service provider and enterprise networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications. Nortel's technologies are designed to help eliminate today's barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people to the information they need, when they need it. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries around the world. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news.

Certain statements in this press release may contain words such as "could", "expects", "may", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "targets", "envisions", "seeks" and other similar language and are considered forward-looking statements or information under applicable securities legislation. These statements are based on Nortel's current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the operating environment, economies and markets in which Nortel operates. These statements are subject to important assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict and the actual outcome may be materially different from those contemplated in forward-looking statements. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, see Nortel's Annual Report on Form10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other securities filings with the SEC. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, Nortel disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

*Nortel, the Nortel logo and the Globemark are trademarks of Nortel Networks. Polycom is a trademark of Polycom, Inc.
**This is a 3rd party link as described in our Web linking practices.
Use of the terms "partner" and "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership between Nortel and any other party.

Deloitte provides audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries. With a globally connected network of member firms in 140 countries, Deloitte brings world-class capabilities and deep local expertise to help clients succeed wherever they operate. Deloitte's 150,000 professionals are committed to becoming the standard of excellence.

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a Swiss Verein, and its network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and its member firms.

Covergence Appoints James M. Moran as CEO and President

Jim O'Neill — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:53:19 -0400

MAYNARD, Mass., July 7, 2008 – Covergence®, the leading provider of next-generation Session Border Control and Session Management solutions to the Fortune 1000, today announced that it has named James M. Moran as its president and chief executive officer. Moran brings over 20 years of experience as a senior operating executive with a proven track record of successfully leading edocs, Virtusa Corporation, and CheckFree Corporation through rapid growth.

As CEO of Covergence, Moran will lead the company as it further solidifies its leadership position in enabling organizations to efficiently transition to Voice over IP (VoIP) and Unified Communications.

“Making the transition to Voice over IP (VoIP) and Unified Communications is just too complex and costly for most organizations,” said Moran. “Covergence has developed a game-changing suite of award-winning solutions that enable organizations to quickly transition to VoIP, roll-out Unified Communications and recognize significant telecommunication cost savings from the transition.”

Jim was a co-founder and EVP, of Massachusetts-based edocs which was the pioneer in delivery of enterprise-class web-based self service solutions for the Global 1000 market. edocs was acquired by Siebel Systems (NASDAQ: ORCL) in 2005. His experience as a senior executive with Virtusa Corporation and CheckFree Corporation, recently acquired by Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), rounds out his skills as a hands-on leader, with significant experience in sales, marketing and operations.

“Jim is the ideal choice to lead Covergence through its next stage of growth,” said Sean Dalton, General Partner, Highland Capital Partners. “With the enterprise market rapidly emerging, Jim’s strong enterprise background and proven track record, combined with his ability to create and manage high-performance teams will ensure that Covergence is well positioned for its next phase of growth.”

About Covergence

Covergence is the leading provider of next-generation Session Border Controllers and Session Management solutions to the Global 1000. Covergence enables large enterprises to transition to Voice over IP and Unified Communications by ensuring that all real-time communications comply with the organization’s security, regulatory and business requirements. The award-winning Covergence Session Management Suite© is the most comprehensive solution available for integrating, controlling, managing and protecting SIP-based applications and services.

Aspect Software Acquires BlueNote Networks

Jim O'Neill — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:30:47 -0400

CHELMSFORD, Mass. – 9 July 2008 – Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on Unified Communications for the Contact Center™, today announced it has acquired substantially all of the assets of BlueNote Networks based in Tewksbury, Mass. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition furthers the company’s recently announced unified communications for the contact center strategy with the addition of IT-ready, software-based products that communications-enable business processes (CEBP). Leveraging the BlueNote Networks technology, Aspect Software customers will now be able to extend session initiation protocol (SIP)-based voice, video and other real-time interactive communication services to enterprise users as an integral part of a service oriented architecture (SOA).

Gartner defines CEBP as the ability to enable “communications functions to be directly and tightly integrated with the IT systems and applications that individuals may be working with at any time.” In its March announcement, Aspect said that unified communications for the contact center streamlines and enhances customer-facing business processes by providing organizations with complete visibility and control. In addition, it enables businesses to seamlessly extend those processes beyond the traditional boundaries of the contact center to reach knowledge workers or subject matter experts in the enterprise in order to enhance collaboration.

“The addition of BlueNote Networks’ intellectual property allows Aspect to further enhance the way our customers implement their unified communications for the contact center strategies, whether they do service, sales or collections,” said Jim Foy, CEO, Aspect Software. “They will be able to seamlessly communications-enable their processes and make these interactive, multichannel capabilities easily available to contact center agents and knowledge workers alike to help companies enhance the customer experience they deliver, increase their first call resolution rates and improve their overall productivity.”

Aspect can now deliver the features, services and tools necessary for building and deploying real-time interactive communications as Web services in an enterprise applications architecture. By combining the features of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) with Web services, organizations will be able to drive innovation in the contact center and across the enterprise while radically lowering the cost and complexity of their voice, video and data services. Specifically, Aspect customers and prospects will now be able to:

Quickly and easily incorporate SIP-based interactive multichannel communications into their contact centers and internal and customer-facing business processes using industry-standard interfaces and technology.
Leverage existing IT and telephony application investments and development resources to build and deploy communications-enabled business applications and lay the foundation for enabling globally-reachable communication services and integrated workflow applications.

Michael Regan, a co-founder and vice president of engineering of BlueNote Networks, joins Aspect as vice president of Unified IP development. Regan has 20 years of professional experience at leading communications companies and has delivered complex voice and data networking products to market for large enterprises and public service providers.

“I am thrilled to be joining Aspect in the midst of its strategy to inform the market about how unified communications for the contact center can really transform the way companies interact with their customers,” said Regan. “The position that Aspect has taken on the topic of UC is unique and really sets the company apart from its competitors. I am looking forward to being part of this team and helping Aspect customers and prospects navigate the path to a successful unified communications for the contact center implementation.”

About Aspect Software

Aspect Software Inc. founded the contact center industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on unified communications for the contact center. Our all-in-one, IT-ready solutions communications-enable customer service, collections and sales & telemarketing business processes for small and medium enterprises as well as for two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.

Sangoma Agrees to Acquire Paraxip Technologies

Jim O'Neill — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:50:11 -0400

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - July 7, 2008) - Sangoma^® Technologies Corporation (TSX VENTURE:STC), the premium provider of PC-based hardware and software for proprietary and open source networking and telephony solutions, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire all of the shares of Paraxip Technologies Inc. for $4.8 million, payable as to $1.9 million in cash and 2.3 million Sangoma common shares. Paraxip is a leading developer of IP connectivity software that empowers the deployment of IP Telephony applications. Founded in 2003, Paraxip's customers include IBM, Genesys (a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent), First Data Corporation and the State of California.

The integration of Paraxip's SIP based NetBorder^TM suite into Sangoma's product line provides Sangoma with a growth path that includes the Unified Communications market, IP contact centers, commercial interactive voice response solutions and other SIP-based telephony markets. The combined products and channels of the two companies considerably extend Sangoma's current addressable market range by providing support for all software-based telephony applications.

"This acquisition is part of Sangoma's strategy for addressing the expanding market for telephony applications of all types, particularly the segment of the market that demands proprietary, well supported solutions," said David Mandelstam, President and CEO of Sangoma Technologies. "The Paraxip transaction not only bolsters Sangoma's Windows-based offerings, but also represents a major advancement for the Open Source community. By combining Paraxip's gateway products with our premium hardware and drivers, we will provide the Open Source telephony community with a new level of compliance, reliability and scalability."

"The acquisition is a natural fit that opens up a sizeable Open Source market for Paraxip's gateway products and lets us leverage Sangoma's worldwide channel of distributors," said Serge Forest, Paraxip's President and CEO. "The deal provides Sangoma, in return, with highly differentiated connectivity solutions, including our patent-pending Call Progress Analysis technology, for servicing the fast-growing Contact Center market, as well as access to that market through Paraxip partners. We believe this to be a very synergistic combination."

In addition to at least four other nominees designated by the current Board of Sangoma, Paraxip shareholders will be entitled to nominate two individuals to the Sangoma Board at Sangoma's next annual shareholders meeting. The transaction is expected to close on or about July 14, 2008.

About Sangoma Technologies Corporation

Sangoma Technologies Corporation is the premium provider of PC-based hardware and software for proprietary and open source data and telephony transport solutions. The company develops and manufactures the most scalable and reliable voice and Wide Area Network data cards in the industry, including the award-winning Advanced Flexible Telecommunications (AFT) product line. Founded in 1984, Sangoma Technologies Corporation is publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX VENTURE:STC). Additional information on Sangoma can be found at: www.sangoma.com.

About Paraxip Technologies

Paraxip develops and markets connectivity products that empower the rapid and cost effective deployment of IP Telephony in the contact center and in the enterprise. Paraxip's flagship software product, NetBorder, leverages standard computing platforms to provide smart connectivity to sophisticated telephony applications. The patent-pending NetBorder architecture reduces deployment costs and allows IP Telephony solutions in the enterprise to seamlessly extend their reach to numerous external devices and networks. Additional information on Paraxip can be found at: www.paraxip.com.

Sangoma is a registered trademark of Sangoma Technologies Corporation. NetBorder is a trademark of Paraxip Technologies. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Nortel Combines Old With New Telephony for PerthÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Hollywood Hospital

Jim O'Neill — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:49:45 -0400

JULY 03, 2008--PERTH, Australia – Hollywood Private Hospital, part of the Ramsay Health Care group, is deploying a new healthcare voice communications solution from Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT] that allows it to retain existing phones while adding modern call functionality and providing an easy upgrade to unified communications.

The hospital wanted to enhance the long-term reliability of its voice system without sacrificing current investments in handsets and cabling with a solution that would support future technology without requiring additional equipment. Nortel's solution provided the doctors and patients with call functionality and added capabilities they didn't have before – like voice mail and unified messaging for remote retrieval of important messages to enable more rapid response.

Located in the Perth suburb of Nedlands in Western Australia, Hollywood Private Hospital is a private teaching hospital recognised as a centre for excellence in surgery, medicine, psychiatric care, rehabilitation and palliative care. It is currently undergoing a $128.5 million dollar redevelopment of its facilities and services to ensure they remain one of the largest and most modern private hospitals in Australia.

"As a teaching hospital we rely on our communications infrastructure to properly support and assist our interns while providing quality healthcare for our patients," says Richard Jackson, IT service manager, Western Australia, Ramsay Health Care. "At the same time we're working in a competitive, budget-conscious industry, so we're careful about investing in technology that gives us the features we need at the right price."

"We were very clear on what we required from a new voice system, and our long-term supplier PABX Service Group Western Meridian worked together with Nortel to deliver a solution on spec," Jackson said. "We're also in the process of building a new extension to the hospital and we didn't want the expense of refitting our existing facilities with IP phones. The Nortel solution gave us the option to extend our current network investments while providing a foundation for easily expanding our services with new technology further down the line."

"Many organisations are daunted by the prospect of replacing their existing communications systems with new technology even though they can appreciate the benefits that IP telephony and unified communications will bring to their business," says Mark Fioretto, general manager, Enterprise Solutions, Australia and New Zealand, Nortel.

"Nortel supports integrating legacy and new technology on the same platform as an approach that makes business sense to most Australian organisations, especially in healthcare where equipment investments run into millions of dollars," Fioretto said. "Giving customers like Hollywood Hospital the choice of using their existing phones while building a platform that supports gradual migration to new technology also means they can fit the technology to their business growth rather than investing in technology they might never use."

Nortel and PSG's solution for Hollywood Hospital is based on Nortel's flagship Communication Server (CS) 1000 platform, a full-featured IP PBX that supports legacy equipment including analogue and digital handsets, while offering native integration with next-generation unified communications solutions from industry leaders like Microsoft. The CS 1000 will run 1,100 extensions at the hospital, including 270 additional digital handsets, and be capable of supporting a full suite of mobile solutions for greater employee productivity and patient responsiveness. In 2009 the hospital will open new patient wards fitted with a high-speed data network, with the option to run voice services, including unified communications applications, over the network.

Nortel has recently made inroads in the Australian healthcare industry, with its CS 1000 platform helping Acsess Health, one of the country's leading aged care service providers, introduce new unified communications applications like video conferencing alongside existing telephony and emergency services.

In a recent report on healthcare in Australia, IDC's** research shows that key investment areas for the healthcare sector would be focused around updating infrastructure. According to IDC, the current infrastructure is old and needs updating as it's at a point that many institutions need to upgrade their infrastructure in order to operate more efficiently and reduce operating costs.

About Nortel
Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that make the promise of Business Made Simple a reality for our customers. Our next-generation technologies, for both service provider and enterprise networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications. Nortel's technologies are designed to help eliminate today's barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people to the information they need, when they need it. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries around the world. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news.

Mitel Launches Advanced IP Telephony and Unified Communications Solutions for SMBs

Jim O'Neill — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:55:59 -0400

OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada - June 30, 2008 – Mitel®, the trusted provider of unified communications solutions for growing businesses, today announced several enhancements to its market leading solutions that drive efficiency and productivity and help small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB) increase customer satisfaction and grow revenues. As the leader in the fast-growing SMB IP communications market, Mitel today announced new products that address top requirements for SMBs including simple-to-deploy messaging, audio and web conferencing, mobility solutions, and easy-to-use IP desk phones.

Pre-integrated IP applications for SMB

According to research conducted by Yankee Group1, SMBs are looking for help to manage IP communications and high priority productivity applications. The Mitel Applications Suite 1.1 is a robust communications solution that unifies business critical applications in an easy-to-use, cost-effective package. The Mitel Applications Suite delivers multiple applications on a single server with a simple administration interface, and offers pre-integrated packages that simplify deployment and upgrades. The Mitel Applications Suite provides:

• Easy-to-use audio and web conferencing to allow businesses to collaborate more effectively, increasing productivity and reducing travel costs,

• Unified messaging to provide superior customer service and reduce operational costs, and

• Single-identity mobile integration and secure teleworker support for road warriors and remote workers.

The Mitel Applications Suite provides effective unified communications capabilities for small business, reduces communication complexity and reduces operating and management costs. The Mitel Applications Suite is currently available for the Mitel 3300 IP Communications Platform (ICP) and will be available for the Mitel 5000 Network Communications Solution by the end of 2008.

“The combined portfolio that resulted from the Mitel’s acquisition of Inter-Tel further strengthened our extensive choice of feature-rich, cost effective solutions that help small- and medium-size businesses to grow,” said Doug Michaelides, vice president of global marketing at Mitel. “No one understands the needs of SMBs better than Mitel with unified communications solutions such as the Mitel Application Suite that are secure, affordable, easy to install, manage and use.”

Royal Oak Industries, a leading manufacturer of engine, fuel system, powertrain and other components for the automotive, heavy truck, and defense industries with operations throughout North America, has completed the upgrade of seven Mitel 5000 NCS systems.

“We were seeking a reliable communications system to connect our seven locations with customers and suppliers,” said Jen Pineau, IT manager, Royal Oak Industries. “The decision to upgrade was based on the seamless integration between locations, the significant reductions in total cost of ownership and the presence management and automatic call routing functionalities of the system’s unified communicator, system manager, and networked attendant consoles.”

Rebranded Mitel 5000 Network Communications System

Mitel 5200, 5300 series IP phones, recognized for their advanced design and reliability, are now available for the Mitel 5000 with Release 2.4. The robust and cost-effective 5200 series IP phones provide users improved and easy access to the features and applications enabled by the Mitel 5000 communications platform. The 5300 series IP phones provide users with improved ease of use and flexibility for different job types and skill levels, large graphical displays, wideband audio support, and programmable self-labeling keys for one-touch access to speed calls, features, and much more. In addition, important accessories such as the Mitel Wireless LAN Stand, and the Mitel Gigabit Ethernet Stand are now available for the Mitel 5000.

“The integration of Classic Mitel and Classic Inter-Tel products and services delivers significant channel value,” commented Scott Bussey, national director of Sales for Integra Telecom, Mitel's #1 Dealer in 2007. “An example of this is the former Inter-Tel 5000, now the Mitel 5000, supporting the Mitel 5200 and 5300 series IP self-labeling phones as well as Gigabit Ethernet Stand and Wireless LAN Stand. These new capabilities enhance the competitiveness of the Mitel 5000 and allow partners to approach their installed base and new customers with enhanced offerings.”

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, CDX Gas is an environmentally conscious, independent oil and gas company focused on the exploration, development and production of onshore North American unconventional natural gas resources located in coal, shale and tight gas sandstone formations. With a dedicated focus on its core business, CDX Gas is taking advantage of the enhanced feature functionality of the Mitel 5000 with the outsourced management and maintenance of their entire communications infrastructure through the Mitel TotalSolution managed services offering.

“As an organization, we long ago decided that our mission is not in the maintenance of nine networked Mitel 5000s, or management of 250 endpoints and applications,” said Craig Gaumer, IT director at CDX Gas, Inc. “With a set 60 month fee and a one source contact, our users can access advanced telephony features and enhanced applications such as contact center suite, unified communicator and audio and web conferencing.”

The Mitel SMB portfolio boasts industry-leading platforms, a unified phone portfolio ranging from cost-effective entry level phones to full-featured IP sets, and powerful but simple unified applications solutions including messaging, audio and web conferencing, and mobility solutions that are in high demand by SMBs. With former Inter-Tel communications platforms now fully integrated and branded under the Mitel portfolio, the company has tailored solutions that are uniquely suited for micro, small, and medium businesses. This includes the Mitel 1000 (<5 users), the Mitel 3000 (<50 users) and the Mitel 5000 (<250 users). The SMB offering is complemented by the Mitel 3300 ICP that scales to address the larger or distributed organization with up to 65,000 users in a network.

“These are key announcements demonstrating the value of Mitel’s acquisition of Inter-Tel last year,” said Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president, Yankee Group. “The significant Inter-Tel installed base of small business customers now have the assurance that their communications investment can cost effectively migrate to the full value of unified communications whether through a straight up purchase or managed service offer.”

About Mitel

Mitel delivers flexibility and simplicity in smart unified communications solutions and applications for organizations of all sizes. Combined with a full range of managed services that include voice and data network design and traffic provisioning, custom application development, and attractive financing options, Mitel is reinventing how successful organizations gain competitive advantage by easily collaborating and communicating over distance and time with customers, colleagues and partners. Mitel’s (www.mitel.com) US headquarters are in Phoenix, AZ. Global headquarters are in Ottawa, Canada, with offices, partners, and resellers worldwide.