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2010 EUROPEAN CONFERENCE
JUNE 16-18, 2010
Hotel Concorde Montparnasse – Paris, France

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NATD in the news
Avaya
Cisco
Conferences
Market
Mitel
SIP

NATD in the news

Merrill & Associates becomes a Nortel Authorized Partner
Merrill & Associates, a Platinum Avaya Partner and Solutions Provider, announced they have become an authorized Nortel Partner. "It is important for us to be able to serve the existing Nortel base of customers now that they are a part of the Avaya mix. We see this as an exciting addition to our portfolio and a critical part of our business strategy," said Andy Sherman, Director of Sales & Marketing. "As Avaya continues to define its product roadmap and vision, we want to be able to help both legacy Avaya and legacy Nortel clients with their technology needs." Merrill & Associates will be able to design, sell and implement the former Nortel product line including IP Telephony, Contact Center and the full suite of data products. In addition, Merrill will also be able to support legacy Nortel clients with their day-to-day needs including on-going maintenance and services.
Visit www.merrill.biz.



NACR Platinum Sponsor of Global Connect 2010
NACR (North American Communications Resource, Inc.) will be a major sponsor of Global Connect 2010, the first conference to bring together three of the communications industry's largest user communities in a single international event. The conference will be held April 18-22 at the Denver Convention Center in Denver, CO. A seven-time Avaya BusinessPartner of the Year, NACR is a leading provider of end-to-end communications solutions including VoIP, convergence, mobility, collaboration, unified messaging and contact centers. The company also offers complete consultative and technical support including network readiness, design, implementation and testing services, as well as remote diagnostics and resolution, maintenance, refurbishment and repairs. Global Connect 2010 will host more than 4,000 Avaya and Nortel customers, including members of the InAAU and INNUA user groups and members of INSIGHT 100 inc, a forum of users with SL-100/CS 2100 solutions.
Visit www.nacr.com or www.avayausersconference.org.



SoTel Systems SIP trunking service qualified for interoperability with Microsoft Office Communications Server
SoTel Systems announced its SoTel SIP trunking service was qualified for use with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2. SoTel SIP Services are now available nation-wide to all authorized Office Communications Server 2007 R2 resellers and their customers. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunking is the de facto interconnection standard for VoIP calling applications. Unlike in traditional telephony, where bundles of physical wires were once delivered from the traditional Local Exchange Carrier service provider to a business, a SIP trunk allows a company to replace these traditional fixed PSTN lines with PSTN connectivity via a SIP trunking service provider on the Internet. “Sotel provides our channel partners with a powerful communications solution,” said Moz Hussain, director of the Unified Communications Group at Microsoft Corp. “The combination of Sotel SIP Services with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 creates an innovative suite of communications services that can be quickly brought to market by our partners.”
Read the rest of this press release here http://finance.yahoo.com/news/SoTel-Systems-SIP-Trunking-bw-3378329076.html?x=0&.v=1 or visit www.sotelsystems.com.



ASCDI and NATD support God's Littlest Angels Orphanage in Haiti
The ASCDI and NATD Charities are supporting God's Littlest Angels orphanage located in the mountains above Pétion-Ville, close to the village of Fermathe. Established in the early nineties, GLA is actively helping the Haitian people rebuild their lives, and to rescue Haiti’s children. GLA was chosen as a focused target for ASCDI’s and NATD’s combined charity response to the earthquake. After the earthquake, GLA helped organize direct relief efforts for the people living near the orphanage, arranging for tents, tarps, blankets, towels, sheets, food and more to be flown in. The organization reports that it is still distributing donations and has so far sent five forty-foot containers to Haiti and chartered three airplanes of supplies. Children from other orphanages, which were destroyed, have been taken in. Some of GLA’s own staff’s family members were killed or injured in the quake as well. Today, with the help of charities such as the NATD and ASCDI, the GLA is in what it calls a “new normal,” finding the strength to run both an orphanage and school as before and being a source of emergency relief for nearby people and communities.
Visit http://www.natd.com/public/committees/charitycommittee.asp.

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Avaya

Smoothstone announces cloud-based disaster recovery solution for Avaya SIP trunking clients
Smoothstone announces Smoothstone DRS — the first Disaster Recovery solution built exclusively for Avaya Unified Communications environments. DRS is an enhancement to Smoothstone’s SIP trunking services, providing a sophisticated, high-availability platform designed to deliver an unprecedented level of survivability to Avaya solutions deployed at enterprise locations worldwide. It is an integrated suite of cloud-based call control and unified communications tools designed to allow an enterprise to define the policies and procedures by which voice traffic will be handled during any form of outage. Smoothstone DRS provides survivability, regardless of the interruption, from a temporary disruption of calls due to a local carrier, circuit or power outage, to a LAN or network failure, or a full-scale catastrophic event or natural disaster. Based on predetermined policies, calls to a company’s main inbound numbers can be routed to alternate office locations, directed by an automated attendant or queued for processing by available personnel. Calls to individual extensions or direct inward dial numbers can be forwarded to a user’s mobile phone or home phone, or sent to voice mail.
Visit www.smoothstone.com or www.avaya.com.
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Cisco

Cisco brings business collaboration to the iPad with Cisco WebEx Meeting Center
Further enhancing the online meeting experience for participants, Cisco announced Cisco WebEx Meeting Center for the Apple iPad. This free business application allows participants to join and engage in robust online meetings right from their iPad with a few simple taps on the screen. Using animation, visual effects, user movements and touch, the user experience is simple and intuitive. The in-meeting experience allows participants to view shared presentations, applications and desktops. It also allows users to view the meeting participant list, see who's talking, and chat privately or with all attendees using the chat window on the screen. Users can take advantage of Cisco WebEx VoIP audio directly from the iPad or request a call-back on a phone for easy audio conferencing with data sharing. The Cisco WebEx application is available via download from the App Store. Once downloaded, participants easily engage in meetings by tapping the meeting URL found in the email or calendar invitation. This application provides users another way to benefit from today's widespread global WiFi access.
Visit www.cisco.com.



Business VoIP provider Vocalocity to support Cisco 500 Series
IP phones
Vocalocity announced that it now supports the Cisco 500 IP phone series. This expanded selection of Cisco models complements Vocalocity’s current offerings and provides increased options for its customers. Vocalocity announces this expansion after an extensive test of the Cisco 500 series on the Vocalocity platform. Due to the overwhelming enthusiasm surrounding the Cisco 504G, Vocalocity added two additional models in the 500 series this month. These phones are just right for anyone looking to transition to a small business VoIP or hosted PBX system as well as for current clients interested in upgrading their phone models. All phones in the series include features such as speakerphone, call transfer (blind and attended) and three-way calling. Founded in 2003, Vocalocity provides VoIP communication services to small businesses with fewer than 20 employees.
Visit www.vocalocity.com or www.cisco.com.
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Conferences

VoiceCon is Enterprise Connect: Communications Transforming Business
For the 20 years it's been in existence, the leading event in enterprise communications has identified itself solidly with the medium of Voice - first with the designation "PBX," a technology exclusive to voice; and then with the name "VoiceCon." And yet through most of this time, VoiceCon and its predecessor events have addressed technologies related to data and video communications, in synchronous and asynchronous, real-time and non-real-time form.  Now the time has come for the name of the event to reflect the multi-faceted, multi-media communications world in which we all live. Enterprise communications includes voice, video and data media, and none of these is more important than any of the others - each has its different role to play in a future where communications will increasingly be integrated into all facets and systems of business. As a result, as of March 2010, VoiceCon's name will be changed to Enterprise Connect, with the tagline "Communications Transforming Business."
Read the rest of this press release here: http://www.voicecon.com/is-enterpriseconnect/.
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Market

VoIP penetration strongest in the government sector,
says In-Stat
New research from In-Stat reveals that the government vertical is among the strongest industry verticals for VoIP adoption. Based on In-Stat’s survey, 48% of respondents in government institutions report that VoIP is deployed in at least one location. The research reveals interesting distinctions among key vertical segments. "Overall, integration is more critical than cost savings," says Norm Bogen, In-Stat research vice president. "However, cost is most critical in the education segment, while scalable features and capabilities are most important in the government segment." The recent research by In-Stat found:

• Cisco is the IP PBX market leader in all segments, but particularly in education.

• The healthcare vertical is the strongest adopter of IP handsets.

• Hosted IP Centrex has appeal with government and healthcare segments, cited significantly more in these segments compared to the professional services or educational segments.

Visit www.instat.com. Back To Top

Mitel

ALM Holding Company achieves true disaster recovery with virtualized Mitel solution
Mitel announced that ALM Holding Company, a privately-held road construction and resources company with more than 2,000 employees and offices in five states, has deployed Mitel Virtual Solutions to enhance reliability and provide for a cost-effective disaster recovery plan. After ALM transitioned its datacenter to VMware vSphere 4 virtualization platform the one item that was left on the table was a unified business continuity plan. ALM deployed Virtual Mitel Communications Director (Virtual MCD) which leverages VMware vSphere 4 to enable the consolidation of Mitel's voice applications alongside ALM's non-voice business applications in its datacenter. Five Star Telecom, Inc., a Mitel Platinum Plus business partner, worked with Mitel and ALM to design and implement the virtualized voice solution. Since virtualizing its datacenter ALM has consolidated 70 servers to five and has reduced its cabinet space from six to less than a half of one, which freed up 50 percent of their server room for storage and other uses.
Visit www.mitel.com.
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SIP

Skype for SIP now interoperable with AudioCodes Mediant 1000 Multi-Service Business Gateways
Skype and AudioCodes announced that the AudioCodes Mediant 1000 Multi-Service Business Gateway has been certified as interoperable with Skype for SIP. Interoperability with Skype for SIP means that small businesses can take advantage of the cost savings provided by Skype’s low-cost global calling rates when their employees call landlines and mobile phones around the world. A company can also receive inbound voice calls from any of the more than 521 million registered Skype users around the world via a global click-to-call button on its Web site. By certifying the AudioCodes Multi-Service Business Gateways with Skype for SIP, customers can benefit from interoperability with hundreds of TDM PBXs, Key Systems and IP-PBXs that have not been able to connect to Skype so far. In addition, if a company buys and associates an online Skype number with their AudioCodes Mediant 1000 Multi-Service Business Gateway solution, it can then receive inbound calls via Skype from business contacts and customers calling from landline and mobile phones.
Visit www.audiocodes.com.
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