Siemens Provides New Voice and Unified Communications Solutions

Siemens Enterprise Communications (SEN) has announced a new range of IP-based, software-driven solutions for enterprise voice and unified communications. These solutions are intended to help mid- and large-sized customers become more competitive and efficient, by providing them with essential UC features, with licensing at the same price-point as voice-only solutions.

The new offerings allow users to benefit from a single integrated voice solution providing in-house multi-part audio conferencing, unified messaging, and UC productivity tools. Siemens is providing two key OpenScape offerings, on top of several new deployment options and products for new and existing HiPath customers alike.

Among the new solutions are the OpenScape UC Server Enterprise, an integrated voice and UC software solution aimed at large enterprises but deployable from a single server as a starting point; OpenScape UC Server Xpress, a UC conferencing and entry-level contact center solution for mid-sized market customers; and HiPath 4000 Evolution, with new software and data center deployment options for migration to converged IP-telephony, along with an IT-ready rack mountable hardware chassis for running gateways and modules.

The offerings are delivered as integrated, packaged solutions, and as such the cost of ownership, complexity, and implementation time are reduced and do not require any prerequisites. They can work in almost all existing IT or telephony environments, regardless of vendor.

"Much of the challenge for migrating enterprise telephony to a UC framework involves maintaining the basic 'person-to-person' nature of voice contacts that users already have with legacy TDM technologies and the existing telephony network," says Art Rosenberg of UCStrategies. "Preserving such capabilities, while opening up the new UC capabilities is the essence of what Siemens brings to the market. By preserving the same implementation costs for an open, UC capability, it should be a practical no-brainer for anyone ready to either replace or extend their current premise-based telephony facilities with IP telephony."

Art continues, "Siemens' announcement also includes a practical migration step for moving telephony to the data center, which will be a boon to IT groups, but we should expect 'cloud-based' UC services to start making changes here as well."

He concludes, "Many user organizations are getting frustrated with 'all talk and no action' about UC, but Siemens, with its open, software-based approach and its experience, is making it simple to make a first, voice-based person-to-person move that is flexible for today and tomorrow. Many of the UC capabilities that will be based on self-service person-to-process and proactive process-to-person applications will need customized implementations, which can be done after basic person-to-person UC has been taken care of. So, Siemens is making it easier to do practical first things first."

OpenScape UC Server Enterprise and OpenScape UC Server Xpress will be available during the first quarter of 2011. HiPath 4000 Evolution will be available near the middle of 2011.

For more information, visit www.siemens-enterprise.com.