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Siemens Launches Dedicated Unified Communications Appliance for SMEs
HiPath OpenOffice ME designed to boost productivity, efficiency and responsiveness
Siemens Enterprise Communications today announces the launch of the HiPath OpenOffice ME, an IP-based, unified communications toolset designed specifically for enterprises of 20-150 users. Productivity and collaboration features, such as intuitive presence-aware management and ‘drag-and-drop’ conferencing, provide SMEs with the tools to optimise both internal and external communications.
Siemens avoids the pitfalls inherent in downsizing enterprise class products by designing the HiPath OpenOffice ME exclusively for SMEs, their users and the sales channels that serve them. Equally, the system has been engineered to be installed in just a few hours, with no additional devices, applications or accessories for channel partners to stock, purchase and install.
For SMEs and their users, HiPath OpenOffice ME unifies communications to solve problems of inefficient communication like ‘phone-tag’ and the efforts needed to set up multi-part conference calls. Its extensive range of mobility options further supports the varying demands of the modern workforce. Its features include:
Presence capabilities
Combined with an Attendant Console, users can control their availability and indicate the best ways to reach them, reducing time wasted on fruitless communications
With permission, users can also check others’ voicemail for important messages or change presence status
Instant messaging to reduce superfluous email traffic
Conference management
‘Drag-and-drop’ conference management leverages presence, so users can select available persons to initiate multi-party conference calls quickly. Alternatively, conference calls can be set up and it can be selected whether the system dials out to participants, or whether participants dial in
‘Call Me!’ scheduling for each party to receive an automated call bringing them into the conference at the agreed time
File sharing capabilities to work in tandem with calls
Microsoft Outlook plug-in
Allows users to access the features of HiPath OpenOffice without leaving their Outlook inbox
Provides a single mailbox for managing not only emails, but voicemails and faxes
Pop-up screens to alert users to calls they may want to take – from their laptops, if they wish
Call functionality
‘Call Me!’ reverse dialling feature allows users take advantage of their home office calling plans, to save hotel or international roaming charges over mobile phones, eliminating the need for a softclient
Call journal allows managers to track calls to customers, vendors and other contacts
These features offer SMEs new levels of productivity, efficiency and collaboration that will allow them to more effectively utilise current resources of time, people and expertise. Advanced presence aware functionality delivers flexibility and agility to the workforce, improving responsiveness to all concerned parties.
The HiPath OpenOffice ME platform is available exclusively through Siemens channel partners. To encourage their support and to broaden its base of channel partners, Siemens intentionally designed the appliance with the following qualities:
Easy to sell, with a compelling business case based on just 30 pence per day savings per user for 50 users
Easy installation, taking just a few hours with no extra inventory required
Ability to generate healthy margins and help grow channel partner profits
“Siemens is launching a winning product in the HiPath OpenOffice ME,” said Jim Robertson, Commercial director, MTV Telecom “Not only did they design and engineer it for the needs of the small and medium-sized businesses we serve, but also for our needs to sell, service and support our customers efficiently and effectively. It’s a pre-installed and end-to-end solution for our customers as well as for us.”
“To bring HiPath OpenOffice ME to market, we took a new and open approach to meet the needs of smaller businesses and the channels serving them,” said Martin Northend, director of SME Portfolio Marketing, Siemens Enterprise Communications. “We are eager to bring the Siemens Open Communications architecture to this significant segment of the marketplace, as well as further enable growth, profitability and business success for SMBs.”
The HiPath OpenOffice ME platform is available in the UK from January 2008.
Source: Siemens Press Releases
Samsung complete OfficeServ7000 range with OS7100
The Samsung OfficeServ 7000 series hybrid communications platform provides a traditional or IP-based wired and wireless solution for voice and data communication. Businesses can deploy OfficeServ 7000 systems to build sophisticated telephony applications, secure data communications infrastructure and policy-driven networks.
The OfficeServ 7100 entry-level system is designed specifically for the small to medium sized company, supporting up to 32 extensions and a maximum of 30 trunk lines with either analogue or digital connections. It is highly configurable and can be tailored to your individual requirements, so that you do not pay for features and functions that you do not require. At the same time the OfficeServ 7100 can be upgraded easily and expanded as business needs change. It is fully compatible with larger systems in the OfficeServ 7000 series, protecting your investment in Samsung solutions.
More enterprises than ever deploy Siemens’ HiPath 8000 SIP-Based Unified Communications platform for greater collaboration and productivity
New features extend enriched functionality and offer new options for a HiPath 8000 customer base that has grown by 400 Percent over the last year
Siemens Enterprise Communications customers worldwide are continuing to move rapidly to open, IT-based, unified communications to solve real business problems. That is why the customer numbers for the Siemens HiPath 8000 Real-Time IP System have jumped over 400 percent in the last year, with success in all market sectors, and in enterprises of all sizes and industries.
To continue its market leadership, Siemens announced today the latest HiPath 8000 feature release, including over 40 new Unified Communications (UC) Foundation features, such as enhanced one-number service for UC, larger business-groups for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), new class-leading business continuity and disaster recovery options, expanded ENUM, and UC interworking with IBM and Microsoft systems.
Highlights of the HiPath 8000 platform’s new feature set include:
* Enhanced Call-Admission-Control for UC and Multimedia
* Class-leading business continuity and disaster recovery with improved geographic node separation at much lower connectivity costs between redundant IT data centre nodes, elevating business resilience to another level
* One-number service as a core feature for delivering anytime, anywhere, any device access to information and people, enabling much greater personal efficiency and productivity as well as collaboration – especially when interworking with other presence capabilities
* Secure UC interworking with HiPath 4000
* Enhanced CALEA encryption support for UC as well as Voice
* Larger Business Groups for MSPs, so that they can support more customers with many more branches and almost unlimited numbering-plans simultaneously, and also enabling the simplest possible migration from existing systems
* Expanded ENUM capabilities, which provide lower cost interconnectivity across IP networks compared to transcoding required and feature limitations for communications relays via the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
During 2008, Siemens will deliver the HiPath 8000 platform to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the world’s largest broadcaster with 23,000 employees for whom real-time communications and media-rich collaboration are vital to its mission of gathering, producing and delivering content to UK license fee payers.
Also using the HiPath 8000 to cost-effectively deliver unified communications as a Managed Service is Global Crossing, providing services for the UK Government.
Both companies consider the HiPath 8000’s carrier-grade architecture, open standards, SIP-based capabilities and extreme resiliency to be instrumental in the reliable, cost-effective delivery of competitive and high-quality managed services.
Anthony Christie, managing director EMEA, Global Crossing said, “By combining the HiPath 8000 platform with end-user access to one of the largest managed IP network services in Europe, we are able to create a rich set of capabilities that will transform how UK government departments and our commercial customers work in the future. Their workers will gain new efficiencies through a full suite of advanced IP services supported by a completely secure and flexible working environment.”
“The migration to IP-based enterprise communications is in turn leading to the integration of real-time communications with business applications. The worlds of IT and communications are, therefore, rapidly coming together, and platforms such as the HiPath 8000 are facilitating that shift,” said Jerry Carron, Vice President, Research, Current Analysis.
According to Thomas Zimmermann, Chief Operating Officer, Siemens Enterprise Communications, large enterprises today do not need to replicate the old-world PBX feature set.
“Today’s large enterprises, institutions and managed service providers don’t need ways to deliver yesterday’s communications capabilities,” Zimmermann said. “Instead what they need is a strategic IT technology like the HiPath 8000 to integrate real-time communications and presence into their day-to-day business processes. That way they can optimise the performance and potential of their employees or managed service customers.”
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About Siemens Enterprise Communications:
Siemens Enterprise Communications is one of the world’s leading vendors of Open Communications solutions for enterprises of all sizes, enabling business processes to be more productive, faster and more secure – with any device, network or information technology infrastructure. The company is headquartered in Munich and employees around 15,000 people globally. In the UK Siemens Enterprise Communications Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens plc.
For further information, please contact:
Dan Purvis / Becky Kiely
Octopus Communications
+44 (0) 845 3700655 or siemens@octopuscomms.net
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