Source: www.voip-news.com

IBM is enhancing the features of Lotus Sametime with bandwidth management software from Avistar Communications. Sametime is IBM’s answer to unified communications and collaboration in the office and on the road.

According to eWeek:

UCC rolls applications such as instant messaging, VOIP, video conferencing, Web conferencing, telephony, e-mail and even business applications into one. IBM last March vowed to invest $1 billion into UCC over the next three years; today’s deal with Avistar is clearly part of that plan, though financial terms were not disclosed.

Avistar makes C3 video conferencing technology, which lets users initiate video communications across and outside the enterprise with one click. C3 also features bandwidth management, which includes software tools and algorithms that control and manage bandwidth used by UCC and distributed applications.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Solarion: IBM helps to build state-of-the-art data center for Telecom Egypt that includes the world’s most sophisticated energy-efficient "green" technologies.

Source: www.voip-news.com

Virtual Hosting Blog ranks the top 50 open source VoIP applications . . . Check it out here.

The VoIP Weblog tells us about Qik: a program that lets you upload and stream realtime video from certain phones . . . how cool. And it recently captured a marriage proposal. Find out more here.

The OTHER VoIP News tells us about ShoreTel and IBM collaborating on a unified communications solution. Read about it here.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

IBM joined NEC to integrate IBM Lotus Sametime collaboration platform with NEC’s UNIVERGE IP communications servers.UNIVERGE gateway module for IBM Lotus Sametime will provide online presence and click-to-call services to Lotus clients within Lotus Sametime IM chat, web conference, or IBM Lotus Notes e-mail inbox via NEC’s UNIVERGE communications servers.

Next Month NEC Australia will deliver its first beta release of the UNIVERGE gateway module for Lotus Sametime to an IBM Australia customer, with general availability to the U.S. Europe, Japan, and Australia planed for early April 2008.

Press Release From NEC;

Tokyo, January 21, 2008: NEC® Corporation announced today that it is working with IBM® Corporation to deliver advanced unified communication and collaboration capabilities to businesses around the world. NEC, a global market leader in enterprise communications, will integrate its UNIVERGE® IP communication servers with the IBM Lotus® Sametime® 8.0 collaboration platform, the industry’s number one instant messaging software for enterprise customers.

With NEC’s UNIVERGE gateway module for IBM Lotus Sametime, companies using NEC’s UNIVERGE communication servers will be able to view online presence information, and leverage click-to-call services from within a Lotus Sametime instant messaging chat, Web conference or IBM Lotus Notes® email inbox.

This new integration uses the open Eclipse-based Lotus Sametime platform and the Lotus Sametime Telephony Conferencing Service Provider Interface (TCSPI) to support the convergence of voice and data. Businesses can gain click-to-call access by implementing NEC’s newly developed TCSPI interface plug-in software in the UNIVERGE gateway module for Lotus software. Implementation of NEC’s plug-in is made simple by the extensible framework of Lotus Sametime and its efficient operation through a centralized server.

In February 2008, NEC Australia plans to deliver its first beta release of the UNIVERGE gateway module for IBM Lotus Sametime to an IBM Australia customer.

Incorporating communications and collaboration capabilities into business work processes for professionals can improve the speed and efficiency of customer services, resulting in faster outcomes and better customer satisfaction. With IBM’s Lotus Sametime 8.0 unified communications and collaboration platform and NEC’s UNIVERGE IP communication server, users will be able to find specialists quickly based on location and topic, and collaborate immediately through instant messaging or a VoIP phone conversation. This integration with Lotus Sametime software will benefit healthcare facilities, the hospitality industry and educational organization that have a need to communicate rapidly and immediately to resolve issues, collaborate or find the right specialist at the right time.

"The goal of IBM’s UC2™ strategy is to drive business agility and innovation by simplifying and unifying communications and collaboration in the context of where and how people work every day. With today’s announcement, NEC customers will have the choice to integrate their communications into Lotus Sametime, to help streamline business processes,” said Bruce Morse, Vice President, Lotus Software Group, IBM Corporation.

“It is exciting for customers to be able to integrate Lotus Sametime, the industry’s leading instant messaging and "on premise" Web conferencing solution, with the superior reliability of NEC’s UNIVERGE IP communications servers,” said Kazuo Tsuzuki, Associate Senior Vice President, Enterprise Solutions, NEC Corporation. "Whether it is advancing a business decision via rich collaboration in a web conference or using Lotus Sametime click-to-call features, these complementary offerings from IBM and NEC will deliver the best solution to our mutual customers."

By working closely with IBM to leverage the benefits of IBM Lotus Sametime, software, NEC can expand its UNIVERGE portfolio. With these innovative new initiatives, NEC proposes enterprises to leverage the open eco-system and extensibility that allows enterprise agents to best manage and provide better service with their voice and data network environment while reducing overall costs.

Starting with this new UNIVERGE gateway module for IBM Lotus Sametime, NEC will continue to leverage future IBM unified communications solutions that will benefit their customers worldwide.

NEC’s UNIVERGE gateway for IBM Lotus Sametime will be exhibited at Booth #825, IBM Lotusphere® 2008, January 20 – 24, 2008, Orlando, Florida, USA.

NEC’s UNIVERGE gateway module for IBM Lotus Sametime will be available in the US, Europe, Japan, and Australia in early April, 2008.

Media Inquiries

For more information on Lotus Sametime please visit: www.ibm.com/lotus/sametime

Source: voipcentral.org

When two bigwigs club up for a common cause, it makes something different. In the current VoIP market where the demand for unified communication is sky-high, the recent agreement between Nortel and IBM assumes greater significance for the small and mid-sized business enterprises.

According to Computer World, Nortel and IBM has joined hands to deliver a simple and cost-effective solution for business that makes the shift to IP telephony and unified communication as easy as a software upgrade.

As part of the collaboration, the Nortel-IBM System i Unified Communications solution, would integrate IBM Software and Hardware with Nortel IP Telephony and Multimodal capabilities and make them work onto one robust, highly scalable platform.

The new solution will also be complemented by a portfolio of SIP clients and allow for connectivity to Nortel’s purpose built data portfolio for SMB’s.

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Source: voipcentral.org

Is Avaya winding up its hardware sales to spearhead in VoIP software business? We raise this question noticing Avayas new initiatives in the software line in recent months.

According to this source, the US-based telecom giant is now trying to create its recognition as software firm, rather than a hardware seller.

Allan Mendelson, senior marketing manger at Avayas unified communication has made a statement that the company has decided to shut down the hardware business and operate as software-oriented company.

It is not surprising to see Avayas software ambition after reaching a vital agreement with Google and making its VoIP software compatible with IBMs Lotus application suite and Microsoft Exchange. At the same time, we should not also overlook its recent upgradation to Communication Manager 4.0.

Source: voipcentral.org

IBM and 3Com have reached an agreement to deploy their VoIP solutions that would integrate telephony along with core business applications on a single server.

As per the agreement, the IBM System i IP Telephony solution, which is based on the software companys all-in-one business computing platform, would be integrated with 3Coms VCX systems. In this way, VoIP would become user-friendly for the business enterprises enabling them to deploy VoIP solution on one powerful platform.

At present, California-based Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) has decided to use IBM System i IP Telephony to combine voice and data capabilities on one integrated platform.

IBM Systems general manager Mark Shearer opines:

System i IP telephony can support less than 100 to thousands of phone users and our analysis shows that it can deliver a return on investment in months, not years.

Edgar Masri, CEO at 3Com Corporation said:

IBM and System i customers are recognizing that VCX is differentiated by how it is architected to create a reliable and scalable platform to match the System Is capabilities.

Read

Source: voipcentral.org

Verso Technologies announced that they are going to team up with IBM to offer its MetroNet VoIP Overlay service on IBM’s eServer BladeCenter platform.

This joint venture will offer a Linux based VoIP services running on the IBM eServer BladeCenter. Both companies will do marketing for it and will be positioned globally.

They will target providers in Tier-2 through Tier-4 markets, which require installment of an open standard, softswitch platform.

It is designed for quickly and easily installment of voice over broadband services to business.

The service can be deployed over any broadband medium including cable, xDSL, wireless, fiber and satellite.

Via: TechNews World