Upcoming Meeting Notice:

2011 USA FALL RECEPTION
September 14, 2011
Boston, MA

2011 EUROPEAN FALL CONFERENCE
October 26 - 28, 2011
Hamburg, Germany

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Aastra
Avaya
Book review
Cisco
Market
NEC
Partners
Telemanagement
Video collaboration

Aastra

Novus distributes Aastra IP phones for Microsoft Lync to US resellers
Novus has expanded its impressive portfolio of Microsoft Lync solutions and now offers the Aastra 6721ip and 6725ip phones to resellers throughout the United States. The Aastra 6721ip and 6725ip phones deliver exceptional quality and value while leveraging Microsoft Lync, making them powerful unified communications (UC) devices. These phones can operate independently from a PC so they can be easily and widely deployed. The Aastra 6725ip offers the additional benefits of "Better Together" via PC connection through USB cable for a tight integration with Microsoft Lync Server 2010: click-to-dial is enriched with presence status ensuring a more efficient call management for business users and team collaboration. The Aastra 6721ip and 6725ip phones were designed to provide a superior user experience and facilitate the adoption of unified communications, including: an intuitive interface clearly displayed on a full color 3.5″ LCD screen; easy access to the most essential calling features through navigation keys; and wideband audio which enhances the clarity of all calls, a particular benefit for companies doing business internationally.
Visit www.novusllc.com and www.aastra.com.
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Avaya

Avaya named contact center infrastructure leader
Avaya announced that the company was positioned as a Leader in the recently published 2011 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure, Worldwide. In the annual report, Avaya was cited as a contact center infrastructure leader based on two key criteria: 'ability to execute' and 'completeness of vision.' Gartner defines contact center infrastructure as "the products (equipment, software and services) needed to operate call centers for basic telephony support and contact centers for multichannel support. This type of infrastructure is used by customer and employee service and support centers, inbound and outbound telemarketing services, help-desk services, government-operated support centers and other types of structured communication operations." Avaya offers a range of contact center solutions including Avaya Aura Contact Center, which enables businesses to deliver high-quality agent-assisted experiences across multimedia channels, and Avaya Aura Call Center Elite, the company's powerful voice-based customer routing solution. Both integrate with Avaya Aura, which provides SIP-based communication services that enable unified communications and contact center solutions to be deployed to connected endpoints, regardless of the infrastructure the endpoints reside on.
Visit www.avaya.com and www.gartner.com.


Cassidian Communications VESTA CS solution now rated "Avaya Compliant"
Emergency communications provider Cassidian Communications, an EADS North America company, announced that its VESTA CS 2.2 service pack (SP) 5 call processing solution has completed extensive testing and is now rated compliant with Avaya Communication Server 1000 and Avaya Aura Contact Center solutions.  The VESTA CS solution is a server-based, full-featured IP PBX specifically designed for emergency call centers. It combines the Cassidian Communications proven computer telephony integration (CTI) solution, VESTA, with the Avaya Communication Server 1000. The VESTA CS solution also features sophisticated call routing; automatic call distribution (ACD) with options including queue-based, skills-based and Network ACD; and enhanced administrative control capabilities. Cassidian is a member of the Avaya DevConnect program—an initiative to develop, market and sell innovative third-party products that interoperate with Avaya technology and extend the value of a company’s investment in its network.
Visit www.cassidian.com and www.avaya.com/devconnect.
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Book review

IPv6 for Enterprise Networks
Reviewed by Jeff Owen, Independent IT Consultant

IPv4 has officially run out of assignable address space, so if you aren’t currently engaged in some level of implementing IPv6 odds are that you will be soon.This book is a guide for introducing and implementing IPv6 into the enterprise network.

Although this book assumes the reader is familiar with IPv6 and networking it is a useful guide and ongoing reference for anyone implementing, or planning to implement, IPv6 in their organization. As such it can help in your evaluation of, planning for, implementation and ongoing management/maintenance of an IPv6 network. It includes Website link information (e.g. ICANN and IANA URLs, IETF RCFs, other Cisco and Microsoft documentation) where appropriate in the text either as reference or additional reading.

Jeff Owen is an independent consultant with 30+ years experience in telecommunications/networking and IT. He can be reached at [email protected].

Authors: Shannon McFarland, Muninder Sambi, Nikhil Sharma, and Sanjay Hooda
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Cisco Press (April 2011)
ISBN – 10: 1-58714-227-9
ISBN – 13: 978-1-58714-227-7
List Price: $65.00; Amazon: $51.23
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Cisco

Cisco announces additional detail on comprehensive action plan
Cisco announced additional details of its comprehensive action plan to simplify the organization, refine operations and reduce annual operating expenses. As part of the company’s $1 billion annual operating expense reduction, Cisco will reduce its global workforce across all functions by approximately 6,500 employees, which includes approximately 2,100 employees who elected to participate in a voluntary early retirement program. This also includes a reduction totaling approximately 15 percent of vice president level and above employees. This represents a reduction of approximately 9 percent of Cisco’s regular full-time workforce. All affected employees will receive severance pay and outplacement assistance. Impacted employees in the United States, Canada and select countries will be notified during the first week of August. The remainder of the global workforce reductions are expected to occur at a later date in compliance with local laws and regulations. Cisco also announced an agreement for sale of its set-top box manufacturing facility in Juarez, Mexico, to Foxconn Technology Group. The approximately 5,000 people employed at the facility will become employees of Foxconn in the first quarter of fiscal 2012 and no job losses are expected as a result of the sale.
Visit www.cisco.com.
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Market

Business mobile VoIP usage to approach 83 million lines/seats in 2015, says In-Stat
Mobile VoIP is an extension of VoIP that allows for IP-based calls to be made from a mobile handset. Voice traffic travels over the available broadband connection, whether that connection is 3G, EDGE, Wi-Fi, or GPRS.  Like fixed VoIP, mobile VoIP is being adopted in both the consumer and business segments, but has only recently begun to be implemented in the business environment. Yet growth rates are strong and by the end of the forecast period in 2015, users will have grown to nearly 83 million lines/seats, according to In-Stat. Some of the research findings include:

• Business mobile VoIP users will increase tenfold over the next five years.

• IP PBX users will account for the majority of business mobile VoIP usage.

• Mobile operators are increasingly embracing mobile VoIP as they realize that demand for these offerings is not subsiding.

• Hotspots open the potential for using VoIP over Wi-Fi as more of a mobile service rather than a residential or business service.

Recent In-Stat research, The Business of Mobile VoIP: IP Voice Communications in the Enterprise, explores the emerging market for business mobile VoIP offerings.
Visit www.in-stat.com.
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NEC

NEC communication-as-a-service available for your cloud
NEC Corporation announced the immediate availability of UNIVERGE Sphericall as a VMware software-based virtual appliance, enabling organizations to directly implement communication-as-a service delivery models as part of their private or hybrid clouds. Virtualized voice and data infrastructure provide a cost effective, flexible and agile method of delivering new applications and services rapidly to market. With virtual appliances based on VMware vSphere, customers also realize the additional benefits of pooling infrastructure resources, elasticity to meet capacity on demand, and more effective disaster recovery for business continuity. UNIVERGE Sphericall is now adapted to a VMware software-based virtual appliance making it an ideal choice for a wide range of communication services. Cloud Service providers can now deliver high-availability, scalable communication-as-a-service solutions in the cloud, and Unified Communications functions such as VoIP, conferencing, IM and Presence can now be deployed alongside other virtualized business applications in your NEC and VMware software-based private or hybrid cloud.
Visit www.nec.com.
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Partners

Alteva relaunches Channel Partner Program
Alteva announced enhancements to its Channel Partner Program. The new program is designed to help master agents, agents and referral partners expand their offerings, boost revenues and increase market share with a cloud-based UC solution, consisting of Alteva’s hosted VoIP integrated with Microsoft Communication Services including Exchange, Office Communications Server (OCS) and SharePoint. Channel partners can take advantage of the many benefits that come with the program, including Alteva’s recently launched UC Sales Certification training program, informational and educational webinars, networking events, training guides, marketing materials and more. “Alteva believes that a high tide raises all ships. It’s not just about improving our company, but the hosted VoIP and UC industries in general. By working closely with the channel and providing the tools they need to be successful, we can further extol the benefits of hosted UC,” said Louis Hayner, chief sales officer, Alteva. “By offering Alteva’s Channel Partner program, including our UC Sales Certification training, we enhance the value of our partners by helping them learn how to position services, expand offerings, boost revenues and increase market share.”
Visit www.altevatel.com.
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Telemanagement

Metropolis launches OfficeWatch ULTRA, hosted telemanagement for business
Metropolis Technologies, Inc. announced the launch of OfficeWatch ULTRA, available as a cloud-based, fully managed system or as a self-hosted, centralized system.  Both are web hosted and offer global multi-location functionality and real-time data management. With cloud-based OfficeWatch ULTRA, businesses are able to operate their telemanagement requirements in the cloud, with Metropolis serving as the primary point of reference.  With self-hosted OfficeWatch ULTRA, companies can manage their own system, essentially creating and controlling their own cloud. OfficeWatch ULTRA offers small to medium enterprise, education, energy, financial, government, healthcare, legal, manufacturing, retail and technology companies a more powerful and much simpler way to conduct business. This hosted telemanagement solution helps to increase revenue, reduce costs, improve network performance, enhance employee productivity, eliminate phone abuse and reduce or eliminate the need for certain equipment and additional office space.
Visit www.metropolis.com.
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Video collaboration

Polycom RealPresence Ready and new cloud offerings
Polycom, Inc. introduced Polycom RealPresence Ready, its new comprehensive open video collaboration solution optimized for SMBs that delivers the highest quality video collaboration at the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO). Polycom RealPresence Ready delivers business-grade performance in terms of quality, reliability, security and scalability at an affordable price and with the ease-of-use that growing businesses need. Demonstrating Polycom’s commitment to assuring interoperability with open standards-based solutions, it is fully backward and forward compatible with any communications system customers have today or may purchase in the future. Polycom is also introducing with its partners new cloud-based offerings powered by the Polycom UC Intelligent Core software platform to deliver affordable and secure video solutions on demand.  Tailored for the tighter budgets and leaner staffs of emerging companies, these cost-effective solutions are integral to Polycom’s strategy to offer SMBs a fast on-ramp to the benefits of video collaboration and a flexible expansion path in line with their business growth.
Visit www.polycom.com.
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