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.
Hot on the heels of Avaya’s announcement to supply an Austrian hotel with Unified Comminications (UC) devices, Alcatel-Lucent announced today that they have signed a 3 year contract to supply VoIP equipment to the Accor Group hotel chain.
A press release from Alcatel-Lucnent stated that there will be three different UC solutions available based on the quality of the hotel and it’s size.
As well as services for guests, Alcatel Lucent are also supplying IP phones for Accor staff including neccessary installation, maintenance and training on the new equipment.
From a guests point of view, the new deal will provide VoIP services such as voice mail, a direct-dial telephone number, call forwarding, “do not disturb” notifications and IP TV services.
The partnership’s scope covers the full range of Accor hotel brands except for Etap Hotel and HotelF1. A global implementation is already under way with more than 50 Accor hotels across Europe, Africa, South America and in the Asia Pacific region being served by Alcatel-Lucent IP solutions. In total. Accor Hotels manage more than 4,100 properties worldwide.
For more information, the full press release can be viewed here.
An article on VoIP Monitor points out how the Eastern European business sector have taken to VoIP technology a quite a rate. New VoIP networks are being paired with traditional traditional SS7 PSTN based telephone networks in an effort to improve company effectiveness and reduce costs.
It is news like this that is encouraging not only for suppliers, but also for end users who might be skeptical and harbour doubts about new IP based communications solutions.
Traditional telephone systems are still widely used in the business sector and the switch over can seem like a leap too far for many company’s in terms of cost and also resources needed such as staff training for the new systems that will be installed.
With examples of company-wide transitions to VoIP Phone Systems from European counterparts, more UK businesses might be willing to dip their proverbial toe in the water.
With the economic downturn affecting many businesses, the thought of splashing out on a new communications infrastructure might understandly be the last thing on a finance director’s mind but with the saving acheivable over traditional systems, the a new VoIP telephone system might not be a bad investment.
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.
Rajani Baburajan at TMCnet discusses how VoIP or Unified Communications (UC) could overtake traditional PBX and PSTN by 2014.
This prediction is probably not far from accurate as VoIP systems and services have rocketed in popularity over the last few years. While not visible to the outside world from a B2B perspective, the burgeoning market for cheap international phone services, Skype and the wealth of IP based communication apps for modern smartphones cannot help but point to towards the popularity of the technology today.
Based on research from market analysts Wainhouse, Rajani’s article goes on to states that as one the fastest growing managed services area, VoIP services are being offered by most network service providers in one form or another.
The research report goes on to look at the growth of the hosted and managed UC and conferencing services markets in Europe, noting that combined revenue from both areas should reach $4 billion by the end of 2014, surpassing the revenue collected from traditional PBX and PSTN services.
YOu can read the entire article here
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
Google announced on Tuesday that it made an offer of $68.2m to buy IP technology company, Global IP Solutions (GIPS).
GIPS are the company behind some notable pieces of IP software engineering including codec sused by Google Talk, and previously Skype, that handles issues such as packet loss.
One of the main benefits from Google’s point of view will be the iSac Codec that should see an introduction of VoIP quality voice experiences on Google’s burgeoning mobile products that are currently powered by their Android software.
In a nutshell, the codec allows for a more seamless transition from high-speed to low-speed connection e.g. 3g to EDGE. Voice quality is maintained and the call is uninterrupted.
Additionally, software such as VideoEngine can be applied to mobile phone cameras to improve video recording quality.
The full story can be read on TMC here.
While the country feels the almost Day After Tomorrow-style effects of a fully active Icelandic volcano, over at Fierce VoIP Mike Dolan has highlighted the fact that the economy halting ash cloud cannot stop businesses that have implemented VoIP Solutions into their company communications infrastructure.
Instant messaging, video conferencing and the 21st phenomenon of the mobile workplace are all key to a business surviving natural disasters.
Read the full blog post here.
A study by business analysts Frost and Sullivan, has revealed that 2009 was a good year for VoiP despite all thw worries surrounding the global economic downturn.
The Frost and Sullivan report, focused on the videoconferencing market, revealed a growth of 18 percent (equating to revenues of 184.2 million USD) for the North America market.
The report looked at two primary service models – Hosted Videoconferencing Services (services primarily bought by users that don’t have VoIP equipment) and Videoconferencing and Telepresence Managed Services (services which are operated by a managed service provider (MSP) and offer a full range of end-to-end services).
The article notes that despite the surprising growth in 2009, the videoconferencing marketplace is still far from reaching critical mass, with IT managers having to up bandwidths to cope with both video and communications, and integration between systems both new and old requiring the skills of and increading workforce of experts.
When projected to 2016, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is expected to the be 18.4 percent, equating to a staggering 599.6 million USD.
A more detailed overview of the report can be found here.
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.
