Nortel launches SIP-based Unified Communications for SMBs

Nortel is introducing a SIP-centric unified communications solution for small and medium businesses (SMBs) based on open source technology and complete with presence/instant messaging, IP telephony, conferencing, and other advanced applications. Capabilities once only available to large enterprises – with bigger budgets – are now within the grasp of smaller players looking for a competitive edge thanks to the Nortel Software Communication System (SCS) 500.

An easy to manage, user-friendly solution that works across different networks and devices, SCS500 is available this month on industry-leading hardware systems through Nortel's collaborations with IBM and Dell. Suddenly, it's simple for SMBs to tap the power of both IT and communications to transform their businesses and create new opportunities for market differentiation and growth.

For the SMB, a unified communication solution has to score high in five areas: productivity, efficiency, flexibility, cost savings, and mobility, especially with today's dispersed workforce," added David Downing, general manager, Enterprise and SMB Communications Systems, Nortel.

The introduction of SCS500 signals Nortel's move into a new market targeting SMBs with 30 to 500+ employees in highly collaborative work environments, including finance, real estate, manufacturing, and professional services. SCS500 addresses their top five unified communications considerations in the following ways:

Productivity: integrates communications infrastructure and business processes such as voice, video, instant messaging, and conferencing with key office applications to dramatically improve employee collaboration and business velocity, resulting in 30 to 50 minutes saved per employee per day.

Efficiency: offers plug-and-play simplicity throughout installation, configuration, and management. The user experience is intuitive and straightforward with a Web portal graphical user interface, giving employees the ability to personalize applications and settings in seconds.

Flexibility: is a highly scalable, open source, SIP-based solution allowing for a stronger return on communications investments, more efficient information flow and the flexibility to grow and evolve. While ideally positioned for up to 500 employees, it's scalable up to 1000.

Cost Savings: saves employees time and speeds up resolution of business issues. Hard dollars are saved in conferencing (as much as 30 percent), cellular/toll, and travel costs.

Mobility: offers presence to quickly locate individuals and gauge their availability, so you can communicate using the most effective method. Get back 30 or more minutes of your day with the ability to reach coworkers on the first try.
 

Nortel's SCS500 is a software-based solution currently offered with leading hardware server platforms from Dell and IBM. The Dell OptiPlex 755 offering gives small and medium businesses an affordable, integrated solution. Dell and Nortel expect to also extend the SCS500 to the PowerEdge R300 server. Both will provide single-purpose unified communications solutions ideal for customers looking for one-stop-shopping, remote management, and diagnostic capabilities.

On the IBM System i platform, SMB customers also benefit with a robust and highly scalable unified communication solution that includes IBM Lotus Sametime and IBM Lotus Notes collaboration software on a single, multi-purpose application server. Going forward Nortel plans to integrate SCS500 with more of IBM's SMB server portfolio, including Power Systems, System x, and Blades.

SCS500 was developed with the agility and strength of the open source community within the SIPfoundry project, sipXecs, and represents more than 250 contributions from Nortel leveraging its expertise in telephony, data and multimedia applications.

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