Ericsson

March 18, 2007

The holy grail of communications is being able to truly integrate the fixed and mobile phone worlds and in an ideal scenario users would have access to corporate resources such as directories from any mobile device they choose. As technology evolves corporate user’s brains must evolve as well using a variety of devices and interfaces. Telecom is really a mess when you think about it. Press 3 to delete voicemail in the office, press 7 to delete it on the cell phone, etc. Add people to this directory and then that directory.

For all the advancement we have seen these past years, syncing directories seems to be the punishment we all have to deal with as a byproduct of what we call progress.

Thankfully it seems Ericsson has solved the problem of the separate mobile and fixed line lives many of us suffer with.

Ericsson has recently launched their Mobility Gateway and the mobile world will be forever better off for it.

The gateway is a Linux-based solution which supports the integration of most major cell phones with all major IP PBXs. Mobile client support includes Symbian, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Windows XP/Vista. Host PBX support includes Nortel, Cisco, Avaya, Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent and Surprise! Ericsson.

Sophisticated tariff management is built into the client and it can actually determine the most cost effective way to get your call delivered. In some countries a callback is the best solution and in others, IP though the corporate PBX is the best choice.

The typical find-me follow-me services are supported allowing multiple phones to ring at once. There is web management, a mobile SIP client, voice recording support, directory integration, the ability to scale beyond 1,000 users/system, click to dial, remote management, presence view and more.

There is also the ability to do a soft client handover from WiFi to cellular and back. Presence and calendar integration allows the Ericsson Mobility Gateway to stop you from being bothered by calls during meetings or when your presence is anything but available.

The kicker in all this is the IMS integration as Ericsson is selling systems to service providers as well. This entire solution can be sold as a managed service allowing enterprise customers to integrate these mobility applications with other applications not yet imagined.

Part of my discussion with Frank Puglia, Director of Corporate Communications centered around the possibility of Ericsson working with companies and providers to provide access to a universal corporate directory allowing more seamless business to business communications. While this last point is more theoretical than the rest of my discussion it shows Ericsson is really thinking about the future of unified communications and more importantly is leveraging its strength in mobility to make life better for business professionals everywhere.

What I really like about this solution is the appliance-based nature of the gateway and its ability to be put in between just about any device and any phone system. Hats off to the Ericsson for developing such a productivity boosting solution.