INDUSTRY NEWS
Aastra unveils new portfolio for SMBs
AASTRA has revamped its SMB product portfolio and launched a new series of prod- ucts sitting under the Aastra 400 series banner.
The new range is made up of three comms servers: Aastra 415 for 4-12 users, Aastra 430 for up to 50 users, and Aastra 470 for up to 400 users. The system incorporates UC and collaboration applications, mobility solutions and user cen- tric devices into a single sol- ution, with a migration path for BusinessPhone, IntelliGate or MD-Evolution customers. The desk terminals, SIP phones, DECT handsets, appli- cations and softphones all fol- low the same navigation and user concept.
range of features integrated into the product such as one num- ber, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and email notification of voicemail messages.
Thomas Stephan
“Our R&D departments in Switzerland, France, Germany, Canada and Sweden collaborated on the development of the Aastra 400.”
According to Aastra the embedded UCC applications are a key strength of the product. Businesses will benefit from improved responsiveness for customers and colleagues with a
The product also aids team- work, with group voicemail boxes, instant messaging (IM), presence management and con- ference call capabilities. Thomas Stephan, Head of Product Line Management for SME and Wireless Systems, said: “Our R&D departments in Switzerland, France, Germany, Canada and Sweden have col- laborated on the development of the Aastra 400, a best of breed product which is simple to use, scalable, cost effective and, above all, brings tangible benefits to SMBs.”
Business insolvencies slow down
THE Insolvency Index from global information services firm Experian shows a year-on-year improvement in business insol- vencies during February. The total number of insol- vencies fell by 12.5%, from 1,834 in February 2010 to 1,605 in February 2011, bringing the rate of insolvencies down from 0.10% to 0.08%.
The financial strength score of UK businesses continued to improve, from 81.18 in February 2010 to 81.60 in February this year. The score also saw a small month-on-month improvement from 81.49 in January.
Max Firth, MD of pH, an Experian company, said: “The period of stability continues to head in a positive direction.
However, while smaller and larger companies are improving insolvency rates, the mid-sized companies (20-100) continue at the same rate month-on-month. “In more challenging times they could fall victim to being too large to be flexible and too small to rely on a solid, estab- lished business structure and long-term contracts.”
THE hit TV show I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here inspired the final event of a staff morale building exercise put on by Nimans and Siemens Enterprise Communications. The lucky Bush Tucker Trial contestants sampled a menu of home cooked bugs and grubs such as crickets, worms, maggots and sheep testicles, all watched over by Ant and Dec look-a-likes. Nimans’ Siemens Business Manager, Yvonne Tierney-Neave, commented: “This was a great way to build internal morale and drive sales further forward, as staff competed for a £1,000 prize fund. Sadly we didn’t uncover the next Susan Boyle but there are plenty of other star performers at Nimans.”
Partnership lengthens life of Nortel systems
DISTRIBUTOR Vcomm (a wholly owned subsidiary of Coms plc) has entered into an exclusive distribution agree- ment with E-MetroTel to market UCx, a new unified commu- nications system that enables users of BT supplied Nortel sys- tems to keep their hardware and run VoIP services.
According to E-MetroTel’s analysis of the market, around 1.4 million user endpoints of Nortel’s Norstar and BCM sys- tems have been installed in the UK by BT since 1992.
UCx services and apps come out-of-the-box with no incre- mental feature license costs. Mark Thompson, President
of EMEA at E-MetroTel, said: “The UCx portfolio provides an affordable path to UC and preserves the investment made by many business in their Nortel phone systems.”
Richard Bennett, CEO Coms plc, commented: “The addition of E-MetroTel to the Vcomm portfolio is powerful, giving a genuine way in to the installed base of Nortel customers.”
Bring your own device strategy takes off
RESEARCH by Mitel has tapped into some key trends in the ‘bring your own device to work’ fashion. The vendor’s research revealed that most respondents expect that their organisations will move to a ‘bring your own device’ strategy in the future. “Organisations should be establishing their unified com- munications strategies now to prepare for new ways of work- ing that are already on the hori- zon,” said Graham Bevington, MD EMEA, Mitel.
Graham Bevington
“With a UC solution in place, such shifts in working prac- tices can be simply and securely accommodated while enabling the benefits of reducing costs
and flexible working practices that can improve productivity and attract the best staff.” The global survey of IT pro- fessionals, conducted during a webinar that launched Mitel’s new Freedom architecture, also showed that 90% of respon- dents said virtualisation will take on greater importance in their network in 2011, with over a third of these suggesting that voice virtualisation will be the most important element. Almost 75% of respondents believed that a best-of-breed net-
work approach would achieve a stronger RoI than being limited to a single vendor. “Virtualisation has been a hot topic for some time, but it’s great to see virtual voice com- ing to the top of the agenda,” said Bevington. “We’ve been passionate about giving organisations the freedom from a single vendor and design a communications network based on best-in-class technologies. Our new Freedom architecture was designed spe- cifically with this in mind.
“Allowing organisations to tailor their own networks should be a given, and this will become ever more important as the ‘bring your own device’ trend becomes more prevalent.”
ANALYSIS
The introduction of tablet devic- es that can synchronise appli- cations with their smartphone equivalents has also opened up new possibilities and made mobiles all the more attractive as part of a unified communica- tions strategy.
16 COMMS DEALER MAY 2011
www.comms-dealer.com
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