Upcoming Meeting Notice

SPRING RECEPTION - LONDON, ENGLAND
THURSDAY, 19 MAY 2011
at 24 LONDON

The ASCDI and the NATD are coming together in London to give delegates an opportunity to explore common goals and opportunities in the IT and TELECOM marketplace.  Over 100+ Delegates from around the globe will be participating at this event.

(Click here for more information.)

NATD in the news
Avaya
Cloud
Conferences
Contact center
Fax over IP
FCC
Mitel
Unified communications
VoIP

NATD in the news

ASCDI/NATD Japan Relief Fund
The Association of Service and Computers Dealers Charity Foundation and the North American Association of Telecommunications Dealers Charity Foundation are raising money to help in relief efforts in Japan.  The ASCDI and NATD have members throughout the world, including Japan.  We are in communication with our Japanese Members and with their help, will choose appropriate recipient(s) for the funds.

The ASCDI and NATD are calling upon our members, the members of the ASCDI and NATD Trading Networks (ATN & NTTN) and all technology resellers worldwide to join us in this effort.

We need to give a special “thanks” to KULJIT PARMAR from Knowledge Computers who has graciously agreed to match the first $5,000.00 in donations dollar for dollar.

We are accepting donations in any amount.  Just CLICK ON THE LINK TO SEND US YOUR DONATION: CLICK HERE TO DONATE TODAY TO THE ASCDI/NATD JAPAN RELIEF FUND

Our thoughts and prayers go out to our friends in Japan.

Thank you,

Joe Marion
ASCDI President
NATD Executive Director ^Back To Top

Avaya

Avaya wins Frost & Sullivan award
Frost & Sullivan honored recipients of its 2011 Excellence in Best Practices Awards at a banquet in Marco Island, FL. Avaya won the 2011 Global Enterprise Premises-Based FMC Solutions Market Share Leadership Award. Frost & Sullivan’s Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices.
Visit www.avaya.com and www.frost.com/ccs.
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Cloud

Cisco completes acquisition of newScale
Cisco announced it has completed its acquisition of privately-held newScale Inc., a leading provider of software that delivers a service catalog and self-service portal for IT organizations to select and quickly deploy cloud services within their businesses. Based in San Mateo, Calif., newScale allows commercial and enterprise customers to initiate the provisioning of their own systems and infrastructure on an as-needed basis. Cisco’s cloud strategy is to harness the network as a platform for building and using clouds and cloud services. newScale complements and expands existing Cisco and partner software offerings in IT and cloud management and automation. Cisco remains committed to supporting flexibility and choice in management through a broad ecosystem of technology partners, and newScale delivers an additional option the company can provide to its customers.
Visit www.cisco.com.
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Conferences

Carousel Industries to lead training tracks at 2011 IAUG Conference
Carousel Industries announced that it will lead five separate presentations during this year's International Avaya Users Group (IAUG) conference, which occurs May 22nd - May 26th in Las Vegas. Each of the sessions will be led by Carousel senior technology experts.  They will focus on how end-users can leverage Avaya best-in class technology to increase collaboration and maximize productivity within the enterprise.  The following sessions will be offered:  Maximizing the Value of Your Avaya Business Advocate Contact Center Software; Data Center Efficiencies; Visual Communications for the Enterprise; Unleash the Power of Avaya Flare; and Features and Benefits of Unified Communications Solutions.
Visit www.carouselindustries.com.
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Contact center

ASC Software selected for Google’s contact centers
ASC has announced that the company was chosen to supply its award-winning VoIP recording solution, EVOip, for Google’s contact centers in the United States, Japan, China, India and Australia. ASC has already implemented EVOip in Google’s central test lab in India in December 2010 and integrated the solution with the existing telecommunications infrastructure. ASC was selected after Google’s global decision to replace its Window’s infrastructure with Linux for security and reliability reasons. ASC offers Linux-based EVOip software and has been promoting it as a fail-safe solution for VoIP recording for many years. EVOip captures telephone calls from the network and enables storage, playback and archiving of the entire interaction. It meets strict security standards from the payment card industry (PCI DSS), handles encrypted calls and offers central control for organizations with multiple branches. Google also chose ASC because of its superb record of local support from its regional offices – worldwide. ASC subsidiaries in Japan, Singapore and the United States as well as certified partners guarantee both technical support for Google’s projects and best-in-class service for its customers.
Visit www.asctelecom.com.
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Fax over IP

i3 Forum releases guidelines for Fax over IP interconnection
The i3 Forum, a collaborative communications forum including 39 telecommunication providers representing a combined retail base in excess of 1.5 billion customers in over 100 countries, announced the release of Technical Specification for Fax over IP Service, Release 1.0. This document provides a complete set of best practices and technical guidelines to ensure the most reliable implementation of Fax over IP (FoIP). The document will help carriers interconnect over IP any fax connection originating and terminating out of their network. It lists the basic prerequisites for all FoIP connections and the possible scenarios for G3 as well as for SuperG3/V.34. Based on the results of two surveys carried out among i3 Forum carriers and the documents prepared by SIP Forum FoIP Task Group, an appropriate interface configuration is suggested together with the relevant test suite. Testing is intended to be performed when the new interconnection link in IP technology is configured, before opening to commercial traffic.
Visit www.i3forum.org.
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FCC

TIA supports FCC’s concrete steps toward creation of Connect America Fund
The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) supporting its efforts to restructure the Universal Service Fund (USF) and Intercarrier Compensation (ICC) programs to support broadband deployment.  “TIA agrees with the Commission that the USF and ICC programs are ‘broken.’ As such, TIA supports the adoption of the proposed new universal service core principle that ‘universal service support should be directed where possible to networks that provide advanced services, as well as voice services,’” said TIA Vice President for Government Affairs Danielle Coffey. “This new principle is consistent with the public interest, the Commission’s goals, and Congress’s clear intent as expressed in the statute.” In its comments, TIA supported the Commission’s proposed creation of a broadband-focused Connect America Fund (CAF) to ultimately replace the existing USF high-cost fund and the implicit subsidies that continue to plague the ICC regime. TIA also urged the Commission to implement CAF in a technology-agnostic, competitively neutral manner. To maximize efficient broadband deployment, the Commission must ensure that any coverage or service requirements (including voice service requirements) are technology-neutral, flexible, and able to be customized to address unique circumstances.
Visit www.tiaonline.org.
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Mitel

WatchGuard teams with Mitel
WatchGuard Technologies announced that it will provide next-generation firewall appliances for businesses using Mitel unified communications (UC) solutions.  By doing so, businesses gain superior VoIP protection for their award-winning Mitel UC solutions, as well as their corporate networks, applications and data. All WatchGuard XTM security appliances provide unparalleled VoIP protection, which is critical in securing business UC environments. Specifically by having SIP and H.323 proxy protection, WatchGuard XTM appliances protect against a multitude of VoIP threats, including denial of service attacks, spam over Internet telephony (SPIT), voice service theft, registration hijacking, eavesdropping, directory harvesting, voice phishing (vishing) and more.
Visit www.mitel.com and www.watchguard.com.
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Unified communications

Sipera Systems and Future Com partner to secure enterprise Unified Communications
Sipera Systems and Future Com announced a partnership to better secure enterprise UC.  Future Com has joined Sipera’s Reseller Program as a Gold Tier Reseller, and is working with a major aviation industry customer, updating its security infrastructure to include UC, using best practice recommendations from Sipera and Future Com. Sipera’s UC-Sec appliances proactively address security risks associated with UC applications such as VoIP, instant messaging, IP video and collaboration tools, enabling government agencies and enterprise customers to adopt UC applications and apply comprehensive security.  Sipera’s groundbreaking “Borderless UC” architecture enables all communications to be encrypted and compliant on any UC device, at any internal and external location.
Visit www.sipera.com and www.myfuturecom.com.
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VoIP

snom teams with Telchemy to provide an integrated VoIP performance
snom technology AG and Telchemy Inc. announced that, after a battery of tests, snom’s full portfolio of IP phones and endpoints has been approved as interoperable with Telchemy’s award-winning DVQattest and SQmediator performance management products.  The combination of Telchemy’s DVQattest and SQmediator applications and snom’s IP desktop phones provides network managers, enterprises and end users with a full suite of pre-deployment and in-call performance management tools for business VoIP networks, allowing for faster and more efficient deployments and troubleshooting.
Visit www.snom.com and www.telchemy.com.
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