NATD in the news
Analytics
Avaya
Case study
Inventory
Mitel
Partnerships
People
Phones
Unified communications

NATD in the news

ADTRAN’s Ted Cole recognized as a Channel Chief by CRN magazine
ADTRAN, Inc. announced that Ted Cole, vice president of channel sales, has been named a 2011 Channel Chief by Everything Channel’s CRN magazine. Channel Chiefs are leaders in creating effective channel programs for solution providers. They consistently defend, promote and execute effective channel partner programs and strategies. In his role, Cole focuses on setting strategy and growing ADTRAN's sales to small and medium businesses and distributed enterprises through service providers, value-added resellers and various distributors. Under Cole’s leadership in 2010, ADTRAN launched several important enhancements to its channel strategy based on feedback from its partner base. These included a broadened distribution program for leading ADTRAN solutions, a deal-registration bonus for “all-ADTRAN” opportunities that include specified products and services and the Big Deal for Small Business, featuring a special 30-user version of ADTRAN’s award-winning NetVanta 7100.
Visit www.adtran.com and www.channelweb.com.
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Analytics

CallCopy releases desktop analytics solution to assist contact centers
CallCopy announced the availability of cc: Fusion, a ground-breaking new application integration platform. cc: Fusion’s unique desktop analytics capabilities automate the integration between CallCopy’s cc: Discover workforce optimization suite and third-party applications, enabling data to be shared and triggering actions based on user activity. Several business uses for cc: Fusion:
--PCI Compliance: detects events related to credit card transactions and triggers cc: Discover to pause call and screen recordings, ensuring that sensitive data, such as a PAN, is not stored on disk.
--Process Verification: For organizations that require a specific set of processes to be followed, cc: Fusion can automate the process of confirming that those steps were completed.
--Data sharing/enhancement: cc: Fusion makes it easy to extract text from third party applications and use that text to enhance interaction recordings. This capability can be used by healthcare providers to provide better care for their patients by extracting patient ID numbers from their patient management system, and then add them to call recordings for quick retrieval.
Visit www.callcopy.com/products/desktop-analytics.
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Avaya

Avaya extends enterprise collaboration to locations of all sizes
Avaya announced that employees in enterprise locations of all sizes can easily collaborate via voice, video and data with new Avaya Aura branch and midsize enterprise solutions. The Avaya Aura Branch portfolio expands with a new, flexible gateway for small to midsize branches that adapts current infrastructures (H.323, PRI, etc) to support a SIP core infrastructure on a single platform. Scalable to over 350 users per branch, the Avaya B5800 Branch Gateway offers a range of basic to advanced options. The Avaya Aura Solution for Midsize Enterprise brings Avaya Aura applications onto a single virtualized server for easy installation and management, reduced TCO and energy efficiency for companies with 250 to 1000 users. These highly flexible, easy to install, manage and administer solutions are also backed by Avaya's Software Investment Protection Policy, making it even more cost-effective for customers to upgrade to advanced communications and collaboration tools.
Visit www.avaya.com.
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Case study

UTDi saves San Francisco $1 million on maintenance contract
Unified TelData Inc. (UTDi) is proud to announce that it has played a pivotal role in enabling the City and County of San Francisco to cut $1 million on their annual voice network maintenance contract. With the City and County of San Francisco facing mandated cuts of 30 percent, government leaders turned to UTDi to develop a maintenance contract that would enable them to maintain current performance levels at lower costs. The resulting cuts helped the local government to keep operations more in line with reduced budgets during a challenging economic time. A valued Avaya Platinum Business Partner, UTDi can work with enterprises, non-profits and government agencies in a consultative capacity to introduce the latest technologies and extend its technical experience to streamline operations. As a result of its strategic partnerships with Avaya, UTDi has the ability to gain specific competencies aligned with guiding customers on their purchasing decisions, determine specific needs within an organization to select the right implementation methods, and drive product innovation through needs assessment and right product alignment.
Visit www.utdi.com.
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Inventory

Research shows that accurate inventory of telecom assets generates savings
AOTMP released the latest report in its Enterprise Performance Series entitled “Asset Inventory and Services Inventory Management.” The report provides the most current industry benchmarks for developing and maintaining a fixed and wireless telecom asset and services inventory. As the study identifies, there are significant financial and operational benefits that result from keeping this valuable information current. Research shows that 14% to 19% of service inventories have not been validated for accuracy, which greatly minimizes their value. Enterprises maintaining a valid inventory generate nearly 400% more in audit and optimization savings as compared to those without an inventory. AOTMP’s report provides perspective and benchmarks for developing and maintaining an accurate inventory, helping organizations to answer key business questions.
Visit www.aotmp.com.
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Mitel

Mitel gives IT the freedom to break out of closed unified communications architectures
Mitel announced the general availability of the next version of the company's Unified Communicator (UC) Advanced software. New features in UC Advanced 4.0 include desktop video conferencing that makes face-to-face video as easy as a phone call. UC Advanced has experienced rapid adoption with more than 100 percent year-over-year growth in license sales for its PC client, web and mobile portals, and UC Advanced Mobile for the period of Q3 FY'10 to Q3 FY'11.  In addition, Mitel continues to build on its Freedom open architecture by introducing server federation within an organization. This frees IT departments currently trapped in a closed, single-vendor UC architecture, providing an opportunity to take a best-in-class approach to their communications infrastructure.
Visit http://bit.ly/mitelucadvanced and http://bit.ly/mitelfreedom.

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Partnerships

Nokia Siemens Networks enters into agreement with Skorpios Technologies
Skorpios Technologies announced it has entered into a strategic development agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks, expanding the business relationship between both companies. Together the companies will deliver the most advanced, affordable and efficient optical networking solutions to communications customers. Skorpios Technologies has developed an advanced Composite Semiconductor on Insulator Technology with significant advantages over traditional technology approaches, including lower cost, reduced size and decreased power dissipation. Skorpios' breakthrough approach will enable the next generation of optical networking.
Visit www.skorpiosinc.com and www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com.

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People

Polycom appoints world-class IT leader Ari Bose as CIO
Polycom, Inc. announced the appointment of world-class information technology (IT) leader Ari Bose as senior vice president and chief information officer (CIO) with global responsibility for Polycom’s IT organization and strategic transformation. As part of his global IT responsibility, Bose will also oversee Polycom’s internal global visual communications network, which is powered by the Polycom UC Intelligent Core infrastructure platform and supports nearly 100,000 video calls per month. His team will serve as a resource for customers on best practice UC network adoption and to Polycom’s product development team, providing input for future breakthrough innovations. Bose joins Polycom from UTStarcom, a global leader in IP-based networking and telecommunications solutions, where he served as senior vice president, CIO, and business transformation officer. Prior to UTStarcom, Bose was vice president and CIO at 3Com, where he transformed IT into a business-partner-oriented organization across 3Com's business and geographic footprint.
Visit www.polycom.com.
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Phones

snom phone achieves Microsoft Office Communications Server qualification
snom technology AG announced that its executive business phone, the snom 821, has been tested and approved by Microsoft Corp. for interoperability with Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2, and is being further tested for use with Microsoft Lync 2010. This recognition represents the second snom desktop phone to be qualified through the Compatible Devices Program. The snom 821 is the most popular model of the snom 8xx series of desktop phones, and is the first snom phone qualified with an extended feature support for Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 including an interoperable presence, contact list, corporate directory search capabilities and device lock capabilities. Capable of supporting up to twelve accounts, the snom821 is the only phone in the market that can concurrently operate in a mixed environment of Microsoft OCS R2 and SIP on a single phone, offering maximum flexibility to the end customer.
Visit www.snom.com.
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Unified communications

CompTIA introduces new Unified Communications Community
With unified communications products and solutions expected to grow in both deployment footprint and dollar volume of sales, CompTIA, the non-profit trade association for the information technology (IT) industry, is taking steps to help technology companies take advantage of new market opportunities. CompTIA announced the formation of a Unified Communications Community, a member-driven group tasked with promoting the adoption and growth of unified communications. Potential initiatives for the CompTIA Unified Communications Community include:
--Development of descriptive business models and technology clarification.
--Creation of channel and partnership enablement education.
--Designing sales process and best practice education, as well as prescriptive models to aid in business transformation.
--Developing research to highlight the best potential business opportunities and demystify the technology.
Visit www.comptia.org.
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