Upcoming Meeting Notice


SAVE THE DATE:

OCTOBER 2, 2008
Regional Midwest Meeting
The Loon Cafe - Minneapolis, Minnesota

OCTOBER 23, 2008
Northeast Regional Meeting
Carmine's Restaurant - New York City, NY

JANUARY 21 - 24, 2009
Annual USA Conference in San Diego, California
Registration now available.

(Click here for more information.)

NATD in the news
ACUTA
Avaya
Hosted
IP PBX
Mitel
MACs

NATD in the news

CFB acquisition of SoTel complete
Capital For Business, Inc. (“CFB”) announced that it recently completed the acquisition of Maryland Heights, Missouri based SoTel Systems, LLC (“SoTel”).  SoTel specializes in the wholesale distribution of new and refurbished telephone, data services and VoIP communications equipment. The company stocks numerous types of products including telephones, headsets, video conferencing equipment, digital transfer equipment, switches and VOIP equipment from major telecommunication equipment manufacturers such as Aastra, Adtran, Avaya, Cisco, Siemens, Tadiran, Toshiba and Nortel.  Established in 2006 through the merger of Tele Systems Inventory Management, Inc. and South Supply, LLC, SoTel has more than 600 clients that include end users, telephone repair and service providers, and equipment resellers.  The company has warehouse and production facilities in both St. Louis and Lancaster, South Carolina. The acquisition included the company’s management.
Visit www.capitalforbusiness.com.



Aastra announces the launch of AastraLink RP
Aastra Telecom announced the launch of AastraLink RP, a Microsoft Response Point phone system designed specifically for small businesses that have up to 50 employees. The AastraLink RP phone system is comprised of the RP 500 Base Unit which hosts the Response Point system software, the RP 540 Gateway with 4 analog telephone ports, and a choice of three Aastra Response Point IP phone models. Setting up features such as auto-discovery and auto-configuration or changing the system can be done by an average PC user in minutes with no special phone training or additional license fees. In addition to supporting both IP and traditional analog calling, other innovative system features include: a voice-enabled user interface, advanced call routing, built-in voice mail, automated receptionist and contact integration with Microsoft Office Outlook.
Visit www.aastra.com.
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ACUTA

ACUTA recognizes innovative technology projects
Wayne State University in Detroit, Lee College in Baytown, Texas, and Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island, have each been recognized for their information communications technology projects with an Institutional Excellence award from ACUTA, the Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education. The award for Institutional Excellence in Communications Technology is ACUTA’s premier recognition of the work being done on college and university campuses. Wayne State University was recognized for its WSU Broadcast Messaging Service. The service is used for emergency alerts, messages targeted to specific student groups, class cancellations and other notices that can be sent from administration and faculty to students. Lee College was recognized for its Chambers County Community Network, or CCCnet. The network addresses the lifelong learning needs of local citizens, and the project included the installation of 10 minicomputer labs in underserved areas, connected by broadband wireless technology for high-speed Internet service. Bryant University was recognized for its Collaborative Public Safety Network, the result of a unique partnership between the campus and first-responder agencies in three states. In 2007, their interoperable network was extended to public safety agencies, and the result is a virtual public safety network connecting dispatch centers and enabling shorter response times to the Bryant campus and to the community at large.
Visit www.acuta.org.
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Avaya

Westcon and Avaya help resellers target mid-market opportunities
Westcon Group, Inc. announced that resellers who take advantage of its onboarding and training financing capabilities -- in combination with recent changes to Avaya's BusinessPartner authorization policies -- stand a lot to gain in the small and midsize IP telephony space. Westcon Group has developed powerful onboarding capabilities -- accessible via its ConvergencePoint program -- that help resellers efficiently navigate the product certification process. A new online tool, which includes step-by-step video-based training modules, makes the training process easier and more accessible to resellers. This tool, when used in combination with Westcon's classroom style training events, can reduce overall time to revenue. Some of the key solutions in Westcon's mid-market IP telephony portfolio include the Avaya S8500 and S8300 Media Servers, which allow for a distributed enterprise over an IP infrastructure -- ideal for mid-size businesses. By combining IP telephony products with solutions in Westcon's Open Source portfolio, including VoIP Gateways from Audiocodes and Digium/Asterisk-based call center solutions from Aheeva, resellers can realize significant additional margin opportunities.
Visit www.westcongroup.com or www.avaya.com.



Amcom Software and NACR announce strategic alliance
Amcom Software and North American Communications Resource, Inc. (NACR) announced that they have established a strategic alliance under which NACR will distribute Amcom's mission critical communications software products. The two companies, both Avaya partners, will collaborate to ensure their customers receive the best solutions for their specific needs and requirements. With thousands of enterprise-level installations currently in place, Amcom's proven technology platform and expert services support some of the most vital communication systems and processes in the world. As the largest Avaya BusinessPartner and a six-time Avaya BusinessPartner of the Year, NACR offers leading-end solutions to its customers to help them grow their businesses and derive greater value from their communications.
Visit www.amcomsoftware.com or www.nacr.com.
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Hosted

Zilker Ventures, LLC announces launch of PBXCompare.com
Virtual PBX allows business owners to set up an office phone system without the use of hardware and phone lines and to conveniently route calls to mobile phones or home offices. Following the success of FaxCompare.com, its review site for online fax services, Zilker Ventures, LLC has created PBXCompare.com, a comparison and review site for virtual PBX options, to help businesses save time and money on researching different service plans on the market. PBXCompare.com reviews over a dozen providers - such as eVoice, Phone People and OneBox - and gives consumers detailed analysis and highlights 'need to know' information to help people choose a provider. The website lists a feature breakdown that describes all of the necessary features, such as call waiting, and extra advantages, like text and email message call alerts, of PBX services. In addition, PBXCompare.com offers a 'Market Standard' with which consumers can evaluate a provider. 'Market Standard' price for a virtual PBX service, according to the website, is $29.99 per month for 1000 minutes at an overage charge of 5 cents per additional minute.
Visit www.PBXCompare.com.



JaJah dives deeper into enterprise VoIP
VoIP carrier JaJah has added a managed IP telephony solution, including hosted IP PBX, to its SMB solutions suite. JaJah jumped into the enterprise game as well as opened up its network earlier this year at the same time as it scored a stunning market victory when Yahoo! decided to outsource the Internet telephone functions of its instant messenger to JaJah. JaJah said that its new IP PBX offering will support all phones, including landline, mobile, softphones and even analog and prepaid phones. In addition, there are plug-ins for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile-enable smartphones. Also, as part of its business thrust, JaJah is offering a suite of productivity tools that give users the ability to embed telephony within office automation tools, including support for Google Enterprise Apps and Microsoft Office. Features also include centralized address book, database and directory lookup services. In addition, unified communication and "Voice 2.0" support for such functions as visual voicemail, universal messaging, SMS, conference calls, scheduled calls, call logging and address-book synchronization are being offered.
Visit www.jajah.com.
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IP PBX

BroadSoft and Fonality team up
Fonality, the leading provider of open-source phone systems, and BroadSoft Inc., the leading provider of VoIP application software, have announced that the two companies have certified their products to work together, enabling service providers to market and deploy Fonality to their small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers with confidence. BroadSoft, which provides VoIP applications and SIP trunking to seven of the top 10 and 13 of the 25 largest carriers worldwide, has completed certification of Fonality trixbox Pro and PBXtra with BroadWorks, BroadSoft's industry-leading VoIP application platform for fixed-line and wireless service providers. BroadSoft has also joined the Fonality Authorized Certified Ecosystem (FACE).
Visit www.broadsoft.com or www.fonality.com.
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Mitel

Octasic provides echo cancellation for Mitel's Inter-Tel 5000 and Axxess product lines
Octasic Inc. announced that it has been chosen by Mitel to provide echo cancellation for the Mitel 5000 Network Communications Solution and Axxess Converged Communications System. Octasic's expertise brings unparalleled voice quality through an efficient and feature-rich design. Mitel will use Octasic's media processing technology to provide voice quality enhancement features to the Axxess converged communications platform. The Axxess product line utilizes open architecture interfaces and standard protocols to transparently combine IP, wireless, digital and analog into a single platform to unify communications into one interoperable enterprise. Octasic's media gateway solutions increase system density and reduce system cost.
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Moves, adds and changes

Sangoma agrees to acquire Paraxip Technologies
Sangoma Technologies Corporation announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire all of the shares of Paraxip Technologies Inc. for $4.8 million, payable as to $1.9 million in cash and 2.3 million Sangoma common shares. Paraxip is a leading developer of IP connectivity software that empowers the deployment of IP Telephony applications. Founded in 2003, Paraxip’s customers include IBM, Genesys (a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent), First Data Corporation and the State of California. The integration of Paraxip’s SIP based NetBorder suite into Sangoma’s product line provides Sangoma with a growth path that includes the Unified Communications market, IP contact centers, commercial interactive voice response solutions and other SIP-based telephony markets. The combined products and channels of the two companies considerably extend Sangoma’s current addressable market range by providing support for all software-based telephony applications.
Visit www.sangoma.com or www.paraxip.com.
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