January 2008 Archives

The Virginia-based ePlus has achieved both the Master Unified Communications Specialization and the Master Security Specialization from Cisco.

The importance of receiving both designations is the reorganization that ePlus has fulfilled the training requirements and program prerequisites to sell, deploy, and support highly sophisticated Cisco unified communications and security solutions.

“Achieving Cisco Master Specializations in both Unified Communications and Security simultaneously is a significant accomplishment for ePlus, and a testament to our proven success and commitment to delivering advanced solutions,” said Philip G. Norton, chairman, president and CEO of ePlus. “As one of a small number of Cisco partners holding both master specializations, our clients can continue to benefit from our process-oriented approach to providing the best technologies in both categories.”

Read more about it here.

American audiences may not be that familiar with the game of cricket but there is a whole Asian Subcontinent just as passionate about seeing England and India square off on the pitch as baseball fanatics who look forward to watching the World Champion Boston Red Sox battle the New York Yankees.

So when CRM vendor Epicor Software announces that the International Cricket Council (ICC) has implemented its Epicor enterprise resource planning product, it’s a big deal.

Headquartered in Dubai, the ICC—the global governing body for cricket—picked Epicor iScala for "cost and time savings" across the organization, Epicor officials say, adding that the ICC selected Epicor to streamline the sports body's budgeting, analysis, tournament accounting and overall financial management functions.

Read more about it here on TMCnet.

Jigsaw, an online directory of more than 7 million business contacts, continued putting the business pieces together this week as it announced it had reached the 400 company customer milestone with the Jigsaw enterprise products introduced in fall 2007.

The San Mateo, Calif.-based company’s directory now includes more than 7.4 million contacts at more than 600,000 companies.

Jim Fowler, co-founder and CEO of Jigsaw, said the company's enterprise products "dovetail with CRM and SFA systems to provide business contact information… thanks to the collective contributions of its many members."

Read more about what Folwer had to say in this TMCnet article.

British Telecom has enlisted SPIRIT's audio technology for concept testing of its next generation telecommunications services to ensure the highest quality audio experience for its customers, according to the companies.

The deal is important because today's communications space is extremely competitive and service providers have to offer different value-added services to their customers in order to stand out in this fast-paced market.

Find out more here.

There was loads of movement today in the Unified Communications space today. Now comes the last installation of the day (maybe) in an article by Tracey E. Schelmetic, Editorial Director at Customer Interaction Solutions magazine.

The short of it is the Unified IP business communications solutions provider Interactive Intelligence announced today that it has been recertified to ISO 9001:2000, marking its third consecutive year of compliance.

The ISO 9001:2000 standard is important as it communicates that a company meets the stringent quality markers laid down by the International Organization for Standardization, an international reference for quality management requirements and continuous improvement of business-to-business interactions, according to Tracey’s article.

To get the long of it, read the rest here.

Siemens says it has produced “significant enhancements” — and the new brand name OpenScale — for its professional and managed services portfolio.

In addition, the company has also announced that it will invest significant resources into strengthening its existing global service infrastructure, and accelerating its capabilities in delivering software based Unified Communication (UC) services.

According to Siemens, the initiative will also substantially improve customer visibility of global service performance, increase speed of resolution, and provide a global Service Management platform for the design and delivery of IP-based Unified Communication environments.

To learn more about it, read this article by TMCnet’s Anshu Shrivastava here.

Toktumi today introduced its new small business phone service based on Global IP Solutions (GIPS) new REX SDK softphone platform.

The Toktumi platform is a feature-complete hosted PBX phone service is the first-available product to be built on the REX SDK platform, which delivers voice processing, NAT and Firewall traversal, and PBX features to Toktumi users.

Read more about it here.

Juniper has launched its EX-series switches, designed for high-performance businesses to deploy as part of a family of switches that deliver the High Availability (HA), unified communications, integrated security and operational excellence required today, with the ability to support the requirements of tomorrow.

The EX-series switches are right-sized for campus, data center and remote office environments and feature many of the same carrier-class hardware and software architectures found in Juniper's core routers that were purpose-built to support the convergence of data, voice, and video onto a single always-on network.

There is more about it here.

Ok, that headline was a set up. I’m not talking about the Patriots. I’m talking about Houston-based INX announcing today that it has begun deploying a wireless mesh mobility component of a unified communications solution for Subaru of New England.

Subaru of New England, the franchise ownership for all Subaru dealerships in New England, said it expects the new communications solution to dramatically improve customer service for its client base across multiple dealerships in the South Boston area.

Check out the TMCnet article on the subject.

Patton Electronics, a Business and carrier-class network access, and Voice-over-IP equipment firm, is doing its best to helping develop a stronger Unifed Communications space. The company today announced the new Unified Communication Agent (UCA) for SmartNode VoIP Gateway Routers.

The latest agent provides any-to-any multipath-switching, Voice-over-VPN security, dial-backup and IP-link redundancy for VoIP and Data Survivability, and SIP Registrar for presence/reachability, the SmartNode UCA streamlines deployment of unified communications into existing business voice-and-data networks, according to Scott Whittle, vice president of product management.

Check out this TMCnet article to find out more about the news here: http://hdvoice.tmcnet.com/topics/unified-communications/articles/19339-patton-
announces-unified-communications-agent-smartnode-voip-gateway.htm

Marc St-Ong, vice president of marketing at TelcoBridges, took a time out from manning his company’s booth at the ITEXPO this week to discuss with me some recent news and TelcoBridges continued advance throughout the world.

TelcoBridges, a global provider of telecom platforms for developers of carrier-grade VoIP and TDM solutions for the media gateway and switching announced PhoenixSoft has selected TelcoBridges’ Tmedia TMG3200 to expand its portfolio of solutions.

To read more, please see the TMCnet article here:

http://businessvoip.tmcnet.com/topics/applications/articles/19289-phoenixsoft-
selects-telcobridges-tmedia-tmg3200-media-gateway-platform.htm

Iwatsu Voice Networks took the opportunity of having a large and diverse telecom crowd this week at the Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO in Miami to announce the expansion its Valued Integrated Partner program (VIP) with the addition of TeleDirect International, Inc. (TDI), a provider of technology solutions for the contact center industry.

Iwatsu’s VIP program is designed to offer products and services that provide value that can be integrated with the Iwatsu Enterprise Communications Server (ECS), Iwatsu’s flagship call processing solution for small to medium sized business.

To learn more check out this TMCnet article at:

http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/unified-communications/articles/
19201-iwatsu-adds-teledirect-vip-program.htm

Of course we couldn’t blog about the ITEXPO without discussing SIP. So here is the scoop: The SIP Forum today announced at the Internet Telephony & Conference Expo that it has ratified version 1.0 of the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation with the unanimous approval of the SIP Forum Board of Directors.

The SIPconnect Technical Recommendation v.1.0, an important initiative of the SIP Forum, is a standards-based approach to direct IP peering between SIP-enabled IP PBXs and VoIP service provider networks, and specifies a reference architecture, required protocols and features and implementation rules necessary for seamless interconnection between IP PBXs and VoIP service providers.

For more information about the news, please read the TMCnet article at:

http://sip.tmcnet.com/topics/enterprise-communications/articles/
19269-sip-forum-announces-ratification-
version-10-the-sipconnect.htm

Perhaps one of the coolest things in Unified Communications that I’ve seen in some time comes from the folks at PhoneFusion.

This week at the ITEXPO the team from the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company demonstrated some pretty unique enhancements to its PhoneFusion One. The product is a Unified Communication service that keeps customers in control with just one phone number. That’s right, no more carrying around business cards with six different contact numbers.

Subscribers receive a permanent telephone number to give to clients, colleagues, family or friends. When callers dial the subscriber’s number, PhoneFusion One will contact him on the numbers previously programmed. The features like call forwarding, voicemail, fax to email, conference calling, call screening and many more, PhoneFusion One supports all communication needs.

In addition, PhoneFusion One also hosts VoIP (Internet) phone services as well as a PBX-type phone system for businesses with no equipment to purchase.

Louis Libin, CEO of PhoneFusion, told me this week that the service offers the reliability and security of regular phone systems, and with the simultaneous Find Me/Follow Me feature, we guarantee our customers the ability to receive calls no matter where they are - on any phone.

Told you it is pretty cool!

To read more about PhoneFusion, check out this article here: http://internetcommunications.tmcnet.com/topics/broadband-mobile/articles/19235-phonefusion-unveils-enhancements-its-phonefusion-service.htm

Paul King, president and chief operating officer of Aperio CI, took some time with me at the ITEXPO today to discuss Aperio CI and the industry as a whole before his roundtable panel discussion this afternoon.

He will participate in the "IP Contact Center State of the Market" at the CALL CENTER 2.0 portion of the Internet Telephony Conference & Expo scheduled for 2 pm.

The roundtable discussion with industry leaders promises to be a lively and informative session. In a departure from the usual conference "vendor-neutral" format, speakers will have the latitude to discuss specific products, and answer direct questions regarding marketplace drivers and competitive offerings.

"As Voice over IP communications is increasingly adopted by businesses and consumers, the need for reliable information and dependable, customizable web-based self-help solutions becomes increasingly more important,” says King. “The Call Center 2.0 program offers us an exceptional platform to share our insight into ways businesses can use these new technologies to enhance customer services, reduce costs and ultimately increase profitability."

Aperio CI is regarded as a provider of advanced analytics solutions that empower service providers to maximize revenue and profitability. The company applies proprietary software applications and techniques to a client’s complete transaction records, creating a detailed view of customer usage and/or purchasing behavior.