Upcoming Meeting Notice


SAVE THE DATE:

NORTHEAST USA REGIONAL RECEPTION
SEPTEMBER 15, 2009
Tia's Restaurant - Boston, MA


MIDWEST REGIONAL RECEPTION
OCTOBER 14, 2009
Hotel Lumiere - St. Louis, MO

(Click here for more information.)

NATD in the news
Alcatel-Lucent
Avaya
Cable
Fax for VoIP
IP phones
Security
Unified communications
Wireless

NATD in the news

Veramark unveils innovative business intelligence solution for telecom expense management
Veramark Technologies, Inc. announced the release of VeraSMART Performance Advisor, a business intelligence solution for analyzing telecom expenses and generating actionable information that can help reduce costs and improve productivity. VeraSMART Performance Advisor facilitates TEM cost-saving initiatives by providing multiple ways to analyze expense data collected and managed by VeraSMART Communications Management Suite — Veramark’s TEM-enabling technology. VeraSMART Performance Advisor quickly summarizes the vast amount of data collected by VeraSMART using easy-to-comprehend analytic dashboards, charts, and graphs.  VeraSMART provides a holistic view of all telecom and IT expenses – including costs associated with managing assets, work orders, wireline and wireless usage, and service provider invoices – and provides businesses with the TEM-enabling technology they need to control those costs more effectively. The solution allows businesses to analyze expenses by organization (department, cost center, location, etc.), vendor, service type, and inventory type.
Visit www.veramark.com.
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Alcatel-Lucent

Genesys launches UC Connect product initiative
Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company, has added significant new capabilities to IBM’s flagship unified communications and collaboration offering by integrating the Genesys contact center portfolio with IBM Sametime through the newly launched Genesys UC Connect product initiative. The UC Connect initiative is spearheaded by Genesys’ and its key partners’ product development organizations to productize direct integrations between the Genesys Customer Interaction Management (CIM) software platform and major UC platforms. IBM was selected to be among the first to market for the leading unified communications capabilities of IBM Sametime and the ease of integration provided by its flexible server APIs and the client side Eclipse plug-in framework. With UC Connect, knowledge workers in the enterprise can effectively field and assist on customer service interactions using the familiar Sametime interface for required capabilities such as screen pop/interaction preview, call control and case status tracking through updates to call context/attached data.
Visit www.genesyslab.com.
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Avaya

Westcon Group introduces the first global “Avaya Solutions Handbook”
Westcon Group, Inc. announced that it has begun shipping the first global “Avaya Solutions Handbook." The handbook, which is available as a comprehensive 268-page desk reference guide and as an ebook, is designed to help Westcon’s Avaya-oriented customers build and grow their businesses. It is the only one of its kind and was produced with the full cooperation of Avaya. The Avaya Solutions Handbook, which is being distributed internationally to customers participating in Westcon’s ConvergencePoint program, contains detailed product and positioning information on Avaya’s product lines as well as a host of complementary solutions. It also contains an extensive assessment of the voice/convergence market, conducted by research firm Current Analysis. It contains specific sections for partners to learn more about Avaya’s DevConnect program as well as its unified communications, contact center solutions and small and medium enterprise communications solutions. The handbook also contains a detailed overview of Westcon’s ConvergencePoint solutions program. A sample excerpt can be viewed at www.tinyurl.com/avayabook; Westcon customers can obtain a complete copy by registering with the Avaya-focused ConvergencePoint program at www.convergencepoint.westcon.com.



Carousel Industries chooses CyberTech as compliance recording partner
Carousel Industries and CyberTech North America announced an agreement to partner in a range of compliance and quality communications solutions for the Avaya platform. Carousel is the number-one Avaya business partner in software and systems design for converged communication networks to the enterprise.
Carousel selected CyberTech to complement an unsurpassed solution suite for quality and compliance recording to the nation's largest industries, including financial services, contact centers and public safety. In line with a 97-percent rating for customer satisfaction, Carousel chose CyberTech following an intense partner-review process not typically undertaken in its sector.  As Avaya’s premiere solutions provider, Carousel designs, implements and maintains powerful converged communication networks. It has achieved elite partner status with the world's top technology companies including Extreme Networks, Juniper Networks and APC, in addition to Avaya. CyberTech offers award-winning voice and data recording software that returns value and dramatically reduces time to profitability through an open architecture, full scalability and unsurpassed ease of use. CyberTech is deployed globally to the world's largest contact centers, financial services companies and public safety organizations.
Visit www.carouselindustries.com or www.cybertechint.com.

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Cable

BICSI appoints Director of Standards
BICSI, the professional association supporting the information transport systems (ITS) industry with information, education and knowledge assessment, announces the appointment of Jeff Silveira as the new Director of Standards.  As BICSI’s Director of Standards, Silveira intends to foster and promote the BICSI Standards program mission to develop standards of high value and import to the information transport system industry and its related fields; provide members with exceptional service and information; as well as adopt and embrace new opportunities and technology to better BICSI’s ability to serve its members and industries. Silveira joins BICSI from Semiconductor Equipment & Materials International (SEMI) in Northern California, a global industry association serving the manufacturing supply chains for the microelectronic, display and photovoltaic industries. With more than 11 years of experience within standards, Silveira brings expertise in all facets of standards development and organization, including experience with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) development and accreditation processes. He has been a presenter on a variety of standards topics and has written standards articles for various publications. Silveira holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Santa Clara University and is active in the Standards Engineering Society (SES).
Visit www.bicsi.org.
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Fax for VoIP

FaxBack enables Microsoft Fax for VoIP
FaxBack has developed a new VoIP fax plug-in that enables users of Windows operating systems the ability to send and receive faxes using Microsoft Fax when connected to a VoIP phone system. This capability was previously unachievable without expensive or complex hardware configurations.  FaxBack’s VoIP Plug-in for Microsoft Fax provides a no cost, Microsoft based VoIP fax solution that adds further value to a company’s VoIP investments. VoIP systems include: Microsoft Response Point, local VoIP media gateways and VoIP Service Providers supporting SIP T.38. Routing inbound faxes to specific users with DID routing is straightforward with the Free Edition of the VoIP Plug-in for Microsoft Fax. By simply adding routing rules on your local VoIP media gateway, users will be able to automatically route inbound faxes directly to the intended recipient’s desktop. Users can also install the VoIP Plug-in for Microsoft Fax on their Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) to provide a VoIP fax server that is always available to receive faxes to further enhance their Microsoft Fax solution. With the SBS version of the VoIP Fax Plug-in for Microsoft Fax, the Plug-in is installed on the SBS server instead of individual workstations. The free plug-in is available at www.faxback.com/msfax/release.
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IP phones

Aastra IP phones certified and selected for release worldwide
Aastra announced that CosmoCom has selected its award winning SIP based IP telephones for use as CosmoPhones with its recently announced Version 6 of CosmoCall Universe. The CosmoPhone is CosmoCom’s first hardware product, complementing all CosmoCall Universe user types, including traditional Agents and the new ReadyReps and Business Users introduced in Version 6.  “Aastra has one of the most complete portfolios of SIP desktop phones. We are very pleased to have been selected by CosmoCom so our award-winning SIP telephones can be combined with their contact centre applications to create a compelling solution for customers,” said John Drolet, Vice President of Indirect Channels and Carrier Sales for Aastra. Available for implementation is Aastra’s complete lineup of 67xi telephones including the 6731i, 6755i, 6757i and 6757iCT.  All models offer full duplex speakerphone, call appearance lines with LEDs, shared call and bridged line appearances, Busy Lamp Field support, local 3-way conferencing and extensive storage capacity for directory, callers and redial lists. 
Visit www.aastratelecom.com. ^Back To Top

Security

Confidence is high for security of college and university networks
Security issues continue to concern the people who run higher education computer and communications networks, but despite their need to remain constantly on guard, they believe their networks are secure and that they are safer now than in the past. These are some of the key findings in the latest member survey by ACUTA, the Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education, which surveyed members attending its recent Annual Conference in Atlanta. The survey asked members to identify the threats that most concern them and what they are doing in response, as well as to grade their own networks’ security. Survey respondents, representing scores of college and universities in the U.S. and Canada, gave their networks a strong aggregate ranking of 3.7 on a scale of 1 (poor security) to 5 (best security).
 
Eighty-four percent of respondents said they believe their campus networks are more secure now than five years ago, with six percent feeling less secure, and the remainder seeing no change. Some have learned their security lessons the hard way. Significant security breaches were reported by 47 percent of respondents, and of those who were hit, 71 percent said the damage was at least limited to only minor exposure of confidential information, along with some inevitable public embarrassment. The area of their networks that the largest percentage of respondents consider most vulnerable is the usage of mobile devices. Thirty-five percent of respondents see these devices as a weak link in their security chain. Other top vulnerabilities are internal controls (named by 30 percent of respondents), student downloads (29 percent), student hackers (23 percent) and Internet access (20 percent).

In other survey findings, 72 percent of respondents said their schools do have individuals or teams who are dedicated to security, but only 18 percent of schools use enhanced login, in which a user must type letters from a graphic or identify an icon to gain access. Also, the number of schools that have delayed any technology projects out of concern over security is fairly low, at 24 percent.
Visit www.acuta.org.
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Unified communications

Iwatsu Voice Networks delivers unified communications to the iPhone
Iwatsu Voice Networks announced Mobile UC software for the Apple iPhone that delivers full UC to the Apple's iPhone.  Developed by Iwatsu's partner, Esnatech, the new UC App uses Apple's award winning user interface to access and integrate with corporate communication networks.  Apple iPhone users can use the popular device to directly integrate with Iwatsu Voice Networks' Enterprise Suite UC features. Available as a beta release and free of charge from the iTunes App Store, the Mobile UC application allows users to manage personal presence status, view co-worker presence status, securely instant message and even initiate corporate phone calls directly form the iPhone. 
Visit www.iwatsu.com. ^Back To Top

Wireless

“Managing your cellular spend” - a free webcast
By now you and your organization are feeling the effects of mobility and cellular use.  Wireless spend by most corporate organizations is either the fastest growing telecom expense line item or the largest percentage of telecom spend, even exceeding wireline (corporate voice and data networks combined).  These statements are staggering, considering that wireless did not exist a short five years ago.  Some other raw statistics: wireless voice and data services now represent 25 percent of U.S. enterprises' total telecom spend (Yankee Group); wireless spend was one-third of the corporate bill for telecommunication services in 2006, says a new market research report from Insight Research Wireless Spend; U.S. corporate spending on wireless voice and mobile data services will exceed business spending on all wireline voice and data services by 2010 (Instat). Join Steve Leaden for an interactive Webinar entitled “Optimize Your Cellular Spend: Proven Strategies to Save Your Enterprise Money,” Thursday, June 25 from 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM EDT.  Registration and attendance are FREE – you can register at www.TheVoiceReport.com/OptimizeCellular.
Visit www.telecomuctraining.com.
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