June 30, 2010

Avaya Battling to be Top Dog in Enterprise Telephony market

Filed under: Unified Communications, VoIP — Tags: , — admin @ 10:24 am

TMC recently picked up on a report from Infonetics that reports that Avaya are in a struggle to be top of their field in Enterprise Unified Communications in the US.

The report which covers the first quarter of 2010 states that the acquisition of Nortel by Avaya has allowed them to close on Cisco who currently sit atop the competition in Enterprise VoIP.

Analysts did predict the Nortel deal to be the key event that would put Avaya ahead but issues surrounding the acquisition coupled with Cisco’s strong performance have only enabled Avaya to tie with Cisco at the very most.

The report goes on to point out that Avaya saw a 25% quarterly jump in PBX revenue after absorbing Nortel’s enterprise solutions business, that both Avay and Cisco posted their strongest PBX revenue standings since the end of 2008, and that despite these strong performances, the market overall saw a 4% drop for the quarter.

For more details on the report the TMC article can be found here and the report itself can be downloaded here.

June 29, 2010

Avaya chosen by the Days Hotel Shoreditch for IP Communications solution

Filed under: Unified Communications — Tags: , — admin @ 5:38 pm

More hotel talk from Avaya. The communications systems provider has been picked by Q\DOS Networks Ltd, a specialist in Telephony and IT solutions to the UK hotel industry, as the IP communications system of choice for the new Days Hotel London Shoreditch.

Situated neatly between the City of London and the Olympic park, the Days Hotel London Shoreditch is the first hotel venture for Major Properties, a developer of residential and commercial property. Q\DOS designed, installed and managed the sleak communications system for Days Hotel Shoreditch, and used an Avaya IP Office 500 communications server to host hospitality messaging and guest voicemail system via DuVoice – an Avaya DevConnect Partner.

The DuVoice platform integrates superbly with the current property management and call accounting systems in the hotel, ensuring quick and easy connections for guests and staff. The new system also integrates nicely with the hard-wired and wireless internet access in guest rooms and public areas, wake-up calls services, and TV services.

Avaya’s IP communications system can also reduce hold times, offer print-and-click call management, and check room inventory, reservation details, and other information.

As a cherry on an already substantial cake, the system also highlifghts to staff if a guest is a repeat customer, thus suggesting personal touches based on user history.

For more information on the Avaya and Days Hotel working together, the press release can be found here.

NEC integrates Unified Communications on Mobile and Desktop Phones

Filed under: Unified Communications, VoIP in the Workplace — admin @ 5:12 pm

NEC Unified Solutions have this week released today two new unified communications (UC) solutions – Business ConneCT Mobile Client and XML Terminal Client, The new applications increase and improve the functionality and capabilities of NEC’s communications servers to smart phones and desktop terminals.

Primarily aimed at contact centre environments, Mobile Client and XML Terminal Client are designed to pull together multiple tasks into one fully integrated and affordable solution for all NEC’s existing and future communications platforms.

BCT Mobile Client can greatly boost business productivity by integrating mobile smartphone users with the organisation infrastructure. As mobile calls are routed through the office telephone system, companies can save on mobile phone costs as well as reaping the benefits that come with mobile devices becoming true office extensions , allowing organisations to communicate more efficiently, thus increasing productivity.

Standard services that come with BCT Mobile Client include access to a corporate directory, presence notification, and unique contact numbers and voicemail boxes for each mobile employee.

BCT Mobile Client has been built to be compatible with all modern, popular mobile smartphone operating systems and browsers including iPhones, Android, Windows Mobile smartphones.

As far as desktop ip telephones go, the BCT Mobile Client can function on NEC’s DT700 range of desktop phones including the DT710 Economy, DT730 Enhanced and the DT750 Sophisticated terminals ensuring that all employees can be integrated into the same network regardless of location.

For more information, read the press release from NEC here.

June 5, 2010

Polycom are all for Desktop Phones

Filed under: IP Phones, Unified Communications, VoIP — Tags: , — admin @ 11:51 am

VoIP blog No Jitter picked up on an interview with Tim Yankey, Polycom Director of Product Marketing for Voice Products.

Tim purports that the common desktop office phone is far from disappearing from the workplace due to the fact that alternatives such as softphones built to be used with PC’s are not decicated to the job of handling a phone call but rather they use PC resources that can and will be split between multiple applications.

Reports to back up the trend – that does go against the idea that the modern UC-empowered employee is on the move, using a mixture of smartphones, laptops, headsets and such like to take their office with them – show that companies such as Cisco have seen orders for desktop phone units increase in recent months.

A report by analysts Frost & Sullivan also projects an overall growth in shipments and revenue for IP desktop phones for the coming years.

Interesting reading and something for every business to consider when ooking to upgrade their IT/communications infrastructure.

You can read the entire No Jitter article here.

May 25, 2010

HP and Alcatel team up on the UC front

Filed under: Unified Communications, VoIP — Tags: , — admin @ 4:24 pm

HP and Alcatel-Lucent announced yesterday that they will be working together to provide new unified communication (UC) solutions for their combined client base.

The joining of forces has killer potential with both companies being suitably placed with their own field.

A portfolio of HP’s IT equipment and services, and Alcatel-Lucents VoIP solutions offer their clients a “open and highly scalable solution” that “meet the needs of each individual customer’s requirements”.

Examples of benefits include use of Alcatel-Lucent’s open IP Telephony with HP’s Genesys Customer Interaction management platform, reduction of operational costs, and increase in the effectiveness of enterprise-wide resources.

HP will be employing their consulting services to help clients develop a vision of their UC needs based on their requirements, with priorities being determined for each area of the overall solution.

For more information, you can read the full press release from Lucent Alcatel here

May 10, 2010

Avaya’s Hospitality Device

Filed under: Unified Communications — Tags: , — admin @ 6:24 pm

Park Hotel Weggis to Offer Superior Guest Experience with the Guest Media Hub from Avaya

Avaya have launched a sophisticated touch-screen device that is directly marketed at the hospitality industry.

The Avaya Guest Media Hub is an in-room communications device specifically built for hotels and other hospitality venues, and is currently installed in the Park Hotel Weggis on the shores of Lake Lucerne, Switzerland.

The Guest Media Hub utlizes IP Technology to offer guests a combined phone, hotel information service, alarm clock, stock market checker, weather service and much more all from the comfort of their room.

The device can also be tailored to individual guests by looking at the history of returning guests and offering suggestions for services, events and attractions that may interest them.

Park Hotel Weggis have said in press statements that the Avaya Guest Media Hub was chosen to offer their clientele the latest in technology while improving the level of service they offer their guests

For more information, read the full press release here.

Polycom appoint new CEO

Filed under: Unified Communications — Tags: , — admin @ 6:07 pm

Polycom announced today that Andrew Miller is to be their new President and Chief Executive Officer.

In a press release on their website, Polycom stated that Mr.Miller had been appointed by the board of directors and that the appointment was effective as of today.

Mr. Miller succeeds Robert Hagerty who held the post of director for 13 years. Prior to the appointment, Mr.Miller was vice president of Global Field Operations at Polycom. Mr.Hegarty will stay on in an advisory role to both Mr. Miller and the Board of Directors.

Mr.Hegarty is also standing down as chairman of the board of directors and as such, David DeWalt, lead independent director at Polycom, will take on the role of chairman comms giant.

Mr. Miller, joined Polycom in 2009 and has seen through the implementation of projects such as the Polycom Open Collaboration Network. Prior to joining Polycom, Mr. Miller worked in the video and networking industries at companies including Cisco, Tandberg, and IPC Information Systems.

The full press release can be found here.

April 16, 2010

Mitel Launch UC Advanced 3.1

Filed under: Hosted IP Platform, Unified Communications, VoIP — Tags: , — admin @ 1:15 pm

Unified communications provider Mitel, have recently launch the latest version of their VoIP application, UC Advanced 3.1.

3.1 sees improvements web browsing and mobile phone portals, as well as location software for BlackBerry smartphones.

The benefits of the upgrades will be seen most by those who wish to switch from a desk-bound work environment to a mobile environment as the software allows the user to access UC Advanced remotely.

All important business information such as user contacts, call history of calls, and voice mail messages can be accessed via the web portal from either a remote pc or via a smartphone.

The Blackberry addition acts as a locator so that users can update contactsa on their whereabouts while on the move.

If that wasn’t enough, Mitel also announced that UC Advanced 3.1 will be available as a server appliance meaning a low-cost, easily implemented VoIP solution for Mitel-using businesses of any size.

For more information, read the full press release here.

February 22, 2010

Polycom teams up with Microsoft

Filed under: IP Phones, IP System Phones, Unified Communications, VoIP — Tags: , — admin @ 2:49 pm

Polycom recently announced a potentially lucrative partnership that sees their video communications solutions teamed up with Microsoft’s unified communications (UC) solutions such as Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange.

As Polycom Senior Vice President put it, “Polycom and Microsoft are aligned in making people more productive and helping organisations become more efficient and competitive through improved communication and collaboration.”

“Polycom’s integrated solution for Microsoft unified communications environments puts [video conferencing] within the familiar Microsoft applications that millions of people use every day.”

Polycom and Microsoft are definitely leading names in the fields of video conferencing and desktop time and information management respectively and this deal could see both names be carried over into the others domain.

A complete line of Polycom VoIP phones, designed specifically to work with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, is to be launched later this year.

With Polycom Conferencing for Outlook, users can incorporate desktop video conferencing into their meetings and allow invited participants to join links inserted into the meeting invitation notification. A variety of video devices can be used including the Polycom HDX 4000, or room-based video conferencing systems like the Polycom HDX 8000 Series.

In addition, Polycom’s flexible platforms allow people to join video-enabled meetings by phone.

Polycom have stated that the enhanced solutions are planned to be launched in the second quarter of 2010.

Full press release here.

February 19, 2010

VoIP Report: 1 Billion Mobile Workers by the end of 2010

Filed under: Unified Communications, VoIP, VoIP in the Workplace — Tags: — admin @ 12:09 pm

A recent report by US technology analyst firm IDC, has highlighted the fact that due to the growth and accessibility of VoIP Communications, by the end of 2010 there will be 1 billion people working from mobile locations.

Actual predictions of the report state that by the end of 2013, the figure will rise to 1.2 billion – over than a third of the world’s current workforce. The majority of the growth will come from the Asian/Pacific economies where interest in VoIP and Unified Communications (UC) is particularly strong.

The report goes on to make some interesting predictions for the future including,

  • the U.S. while not having the the greatest growth or greatest volume of workers over the next 4 years, will have the highest concentration of mobile workers with 75% of the U.S. workforce being mobile by 2013.
  • Western Europe’s mobile workforce growing by 6% to surpass the U.S. workforce with 129.5 million mobile workers compared to the 119.7 milion in the US.
  • Japan will reach the sustainable limit of it’s ability make workers mobile by 2013 – 49.3 million workers will be mobile.

These figures are quite staggering when put into the context of the VoIP industry as it is now and is a healthy recommendation for any company looking to invest in VoIP telephone systems for their company.

The report has been put together as 5 year forecast of the mobile worker population covering office-based, non-office-based, and home-based workers.

To read the full press release and report, visit the IDC website here

Older Posts »
Sales and Mail Order: 0870 770 1890 Investors In People