Some major players in the VoIP and IP communications market --
Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft and Nortel -- last week made important
announcements at VoiceCon Spring 2007 outlining their unified
communications and VoIP initiatives, and a host of other vendors
stepped up with key product announcements to help ease VoIP
deployments and ensure that users are getting the most out of their
voice systems.
Here is some other news from the VoiceCon show floor:
Extreme rolls out deployment, provisioning tools
Extreme Networks releases the Handset Provisioning Module and
Universal Port software that allow the network to automatically
discover and configure phones and provision customer network
resources as devices come onto the network.
The Handset Provisioning Module, paired with the Universal Port
software framework, is an extension of the ExtremeXOS modular
operating system. The module is designed to help IT managers
improve accuracy and avoid tedious edge-configuration tasks by
applying a pre-defined edge port profile whenever a phone is
connected to the network. The module can recognise phones from
major vendors, including Avaya, Cisco, Mitel, Nortel and Shoretel.
Network parameters related to access control, network topology,
power and bandwidth allocation, and quality of service can be
consistently configured on an event-driven basis, which can help
reduce configuration errors and save time when installing or moving
devices on the network. The module also configures the handsets
themselves if they support the IEEE standard link-layer discovery
protocol.
The source code to the Handset Provisioning Module software will
also be released, encouraging users to enhance it to support other
phone brands, networked devices and other capabilities.
Clarus Systems announces new IP telephony management
services
Clarus Systems, which makes IP telephone testing tools, announced
Clarus Certification Services, new consulting services to help
customers ensure top performance and ROI from their IP telephony
systems.
The certification services are part of Clarus' new Flexible
Engagement Model, a menu of software and services for IP telephony
deployment for enterprises, systems integrators and managed service
providers.
According to Clarus, enterprises can use a comprehensive IP
telephony testing and documentation solution that is completely
managed by Clarus experts using ClarusIPC software, the vendor's
flagship product that tests and validates user functionality in an
IP telephony system and enables industry best practices of active,
end-to-end testing of every networked phone.
Tandberg extends video functionality
Tandberg announced Entrypoint, a system that allows any
videoconference user to connect to a conference via one main number
and URL and access information over a video menu system, which
lists available resources.
Using Entrypoint, users can connect to a videoconference
through:
- Video menus, through which a welcome screen greets video
callers and guides them through various menu options.
- A 3G gateway for mobile devices, which lets an enterprise add
3G video services to internal communication resources. Employees
can call in from a 3G device and participate visually from wherever
they are.
- Audio gateway, through which a user can attend video meetings
or use the organisation's video system as an audio
speakerphone.
Adomo releases tools for mobile unified
communications
Adomo Inc. announced the latest generation of its advanced
messaging solution, Adomo 6.0, which builds on the vendor's
enterprise messaging solution to give users unified communications
capabilities and offer IT an easy migration approach for
integrating with their existing infrastructure.
Adomo 6.0 integrates with Microsoft Exchange and existing PBXs
and includes SmartMobility capabilities that keep mobile users
connected. SmartMobility features include:
- SmartNumber: A "find me/follow me" capability that gives users
a single phone number with a priority caller option to ensure that
important calls are routed immediately to avoid delays.
- BlackBerry Play on Phone: Adomo 6.0 lets users select a menu
option on the BlackBerry email client to initiate a telephone call
from the Adomo system to the user's phone to play a message.
- Messaging management: Users can categorise voice messages for
easier access.
Citel converts PBX phones to IP phones
Citel released the Portico Telephone VoIP Adapter (TVA), which lets
enterprises convert existing PBX phones into IP phones over
existing wiring infrastructure, eliminating the need to rip and
replace.
The Portico TVA connects legacy PBX handsets to a premise-based
IP PBX or to a hosted IP service provider network. VoIP features
and services pass through Portico TVA directly into existing PBX
handsets over existing wiring, turning them into IP phones.
LiteScape opens unified communications
LiteScape Technologies Inc. made available the OnCast
Communications Client, an open source desktop client that unifies
access to different business applications and data sources with
IP-based communications systems.
The OnCast Communications Client is a standalone desktop client
that supports a combination of different communications services
such as authentication, presence, remote call control, directory
and application integration, collaboration and conferencing, and
broadcasting and paging. Users can customise those services and
embed them into their own unified communications applications.