Last year we broke the news on NEC partnering with Infovista on UC-SDN with Ipanema SD-WAN.

Ram Menghani, VP of Product Management said to us in an in-person interview, “Customers have invested a lot of money in their business process such as CRM and our UNIVERGE Integration Platform is a very powerful tool with connectors that are APIs that function like an app store.” He continued, “This allows a quick drag-and-drop business workflow without needing a developer or integrator.”

Now, the company has launched Network Connect, a service that can reduce telecom spend by 30% or more as well as providing other benefits. It uses AI and machine learning to automatically route each call with the most cost-effective and reliable carrier solution available. Network Connect utilizes the wholesale telecom ecosystem available through 46 Labs Communications.

In addition to wholesale cost savings, NEC Network Connect offers visibility and control of voice network traffic. Businesses can access important insights, like Quality of Service and other performance metrics, which are typically monitored by carriers behind the scenes. Using AI and machine learning, Network Connect can help businesses detect issues, provide reporting and mitigate quality issues before they unfold.

In a way – this solution mirrors the benefits of SD-WAN; Lower costs and better quality of service, as well as visibility. But this solution is more voice-centric which may be appealing to organizations with heavy contact center traffic. These organizations can likely save more as well.

“For the first time, Enterprise customers have visibility and control of their voice networks,” said Joe Salisbury, Vice President of Enterprise Sales & Marketing, NEC Corporation of America. “This solution not only comes at a wholesale cost savings; it eliminates the network vulnerability that comes from relying on a single-carrier.

“Each day the 46 Labs system routes more than a billion calls for the carrier wholesale marketplace. Working with NEC, we now have the world’s first system for connecting enterprises directly to the wholesale telecom market,” said Max Adams, Chief Revenue Officer of 46 Labs. “Because carriers compete on a call-by-call basis to earn your business, you’re always getting the best possible price and quality.”

The Network Connect carrier hub includes hundreds of global voice carriers. This ecosystem works collaboratively and competitively to send and receive phone calls. Benefits include:

• Visibility and Control of enterprise-wide call traffic through a single-pane of glass management system
• Wholesale pricing based on usage with call-time charges accurate to the second, not rounded up
• Next Generation Redundancy eliminates dependency on a single carrier as customers leverage all available carriers
• Ability to manage multiple business sites and consolidate spend for an entire organization within a single monthly billing statement.
• Improved call center KPIs with higher quality, connect rates and enhanced call routing capabilities
• Fully scalable system that supports existing phone numbers
• Simplification of call center operations eliminating the need for multiple carriers, multiple bills and multiple 1.800 numbers for support.

Enterprises purchase per-port access into the Network Connect carrier hub and simply establish a SIP Trunk connection to the nearest PoP. The platform will automatically handle all carrier selection, taxation, security, cost and quality optimization. Providing full access to an up-to-the-minute assessment of telephony usage enables businesses to set daily and monthly spending limits and integrate multiple sites globally into a single dashboard.

See the ONLY Contact Center, Tech and Communications companies that matter at the ITEXPO #TECHSUPERSHOW:

2020 participants included: Amazon, Cisco, Google, IBM, ClearlyIP, Avaya, Vonage, 8×8, Comcast Business, BlueJeans, CoreDial, Dell, Edify, Epygi, FreeSWITCH, Grandstream, Granite, Intrado, Frontier Business, Fujitsu, Jenne, West, Konftel, Intelisys, Martello, NetSapiens, OOMA, Oracle, OpenVox, Peerless Network, Phone Sentry, Phone.com, Poly, QuestBlue, RingByName, Sangoma, SingTel, Spracht, Spectrum, Sprint, Tallac, Tech Data, Telarus, TCG, Teledynamics, Teli, Telinta, Telispire, Telstra, TransNexus, Unified Office, Vital PBX, VoIP Supply, Voxbone, VoIP.MS, Windstream, XCALY, XORCOM, Yealink, Yubox, and ZYCOO. Full List.

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