Briefs: VoiceCon in the news
This week at VoiceCon we saw everything from managed VoIP services to IP phones made to make mobile workers right at home, wherever they are.
Verizon Business added internet protocol (IP) capabilities to its Verizon Web Centre service, a move the company claims will open up communications with customers using both traditional and IP telephony. According to Verizon Business, the company's two hosted solutions, Verizon Web Centre and Verizon Voice over IP, now share the same network infrastructure and customer premises equipment, so Verizon Business can activate a wide range of IP telephony services, including IP Web Centre, Hosted IP Centrex, IP Integrated Access, IP Flexible T-1 and IP Trunking, at a given company location. IP Web Centre targets mid-sized businesses that want to expand the functionality of their existing contact centres or those that want to build new contact centres based on state-of-the-art customer communications technology. Since IP Web Centre is a hosted solution that simply requires a phone and a broadband connection, large companies can also use the service for agents to make and receive calls almost anywhere in the US -- reducing the need to expand hard-wired contact centre facilities.
NEC managed services
Managed services are a popular theme these days. NEC's Managed IP Telephony Services provide users with an alternative solution for converged communications without dedicating all the manpower. The company's trained team of professionals delivers, monitors and manages both the IP infrastructure and supporting data network. In addition, if a company prefers not to give up total control, its IT staff can share management responsibilities with your IT staff. NEC's Managed IP Telephony Services include on-site NEC UNIVERGE media servers (controllers), gateways, IP voice terminals, application servers, and converged application software. On the services side, they include professional services for network readiness assessment, system design, and implementation. For support, they include 24/7 year-round remote monitoring of a company's IP telephony infrastructure and data network for availability, performance and quality of service; and 24/7/ year-round on-site maintenance, parts replacement, and software subscription. Also included are turnkey configuration and performance management of the IP telephony system, and monitoring and optional management of the supporting network infrastructure. Service-level agreements ensure availability, quality and response time.
Avaya walks in teleworkers shoes
Avaya's VPNremote for 4600 Series is a software VPN (virtual private network) client built directly into the Avaya IP Telephone. This means that the Avaya IP telephone can be plugged in and used seamlessly with any broadband internet connection. End users have the same IP telephone features that they would experience if they were using the phone in the office. With Release 2.0 of VPNremote for 4600 Series, head-end VPN gateway support is extended to Cisco and Juniper environments. With Release 2.0, VPNremote for 4600 Series adds support for Cisco and Juniper VPN head-end gateways. The Cisco PIX 500 and VPN 3000 Series and Juniper SSG, ISG and NetScreen families can be extended to include voice traffic and IP telephone.
