Nortel Networks has unveiled new communications solutions for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and support for enterprise branch offices, providing greater choices for implementing converged networks and furthering its commitment to this market segment.
By simplifying network infrastructures, Nortel Networks will position SMEs to benefit from a consistent, reliable and secure user experience, minimise total cost of network ownership, and eliminate many communications barriers that exist among customers, partners, suppliers and employees.
These new solutions draw from Nortel Networks leadership in IP (Internet Protocol) telephony and data networking, bringing feature-rich functionality to meet the capacity requirements at a price point for smaller companies.
Nortel Networks` SME portfolio now includes software release 3.5 for Nortel Networks Business Communications Manager, a converged voice and data platform for enterprises; a new Nortel Networks Norstar IP telephony gateway; enhancements to Nortel Networks CallPilot unified messaging platform; Nortel Networks Contivity Secure IP Services Gateway, a new security product.
Combined, these solutions enable SMEs to use existing telephony equipment to migrate to IP telephony as needs change, while deploying the most comprehensive and cost-effective convergence solutions available.
"This comprehensive suite of customised, market-leading products is designed to enable SMEs to leverage their existing telephony investments to migrate to an all-IP network while sidestepping time-consuming and costly integration issues," says Tony Wilson, enterprise director, Nortel Networks South Africa. "As part of our `One network. A world of choice.` enterprise technology vision, this portfolio also demonstrates that we are fully committed to delivering a breadth of convergence choices to all of our enterprise customers."
Nortel Networks Business Communications Manager Release 3.5 integrates rich voice features with quality of service (QoS), secure network access, unified messaging and call routing, interactive voice response (IVR), and product enhancements that support:
* Applications - Business Communications Manager 3.5 will build on the award-winning Business Communications Manager 3.0 by enhancing existing capabilities and delivering new technologies designed to increase employee efficiency, maximise the viability of existing resources and reduce operating costs. Release 3.5 will offer increased application performance by doubling channel capacity for additional voice mail, call centre or IVR access.
* Enhanced networking - This will extend enterprise communications by supporting seamless Nortel Networks Succession* call server networking capabilities, designed to decrease networking costs and eliminate barriers associated with sharing voice mail and other features.
* Security - Among the many security enhancements will be support for Secure Socket Layer, Secure Shell, multilevel password policies, and enhanced denial of service upgrades.
* Management - Business Communications Manager 3.5 will enable users to manage one or more Business Communications Managers locally or remotely by browser. Release 3.5 will also offer simplified installation, enhanced maintenance, additional alarms, events and reports.
* Investment protection - Previous versions of Business Communications Manager can be easily and cost-effectively upgraded to Release 3.5.
The Norstar Integrated Communications portfolio continues to lead the market in functionality, reliability, scalability and features for SMEs and branch offices. Norstar Voice over IP Gateway will allow existing Norstar telephone systems to be IP-enabled. Offering support for up to four H.323 IP trunks, the browser-based Norstar Voice over IP Gateway will offer QoS and integrate extension dialling capabilities. Norstar Voice over IP Gateway will be compatible with all previous models and software releases.
CallPilot 100/150 2.0 unified messaging combines voice and e-mail into a single `point-and-click` interface on user desktops. Enhancements to CallPilot will include increased application performance with centralised voice mail and auto attendant capabilities; introduction of unified messaging on CallPilot 100; centralised unified messaging; and increased scalability to support up to 300 subscriber mailboxes.
Nortel Networks Contivity 1740 Secure IP Services Gateways will offer small- and medium-sized businesses both routing and stringent security capabilities to securely network remote sites and branch offices. The gateways will provide IP routing, virtual private networking (VPN), integrated firewalls, and QoS and bandwidth management capabilities - essential for supporting business-critical applications like IP telephony and streaming media. Contivity 1740 Secure IP Services Gateway will extend Contivity`s mid-range secure IP services portfolio, and will handle up to 500 VPN tunnels. With up to four expansion slots, Contivity 1740 will be able to accommodate a mix of wide area network (WAN) interfaces, local area network (LAN) interfaces, and encryption acceleration cards, making it an attractive alternative to businesses looking for a flexible and cost-effective secure networking solution to connect remote sites.
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Nortel Networks is an industry leader and innovator focused on transforming how the world communicates and exchanges information. The company is supplying its service provider and enterprise customers with communications technology and infrastructure to enable value-added IP data, voice and multimedia services spanning wireless networks, wireline networks, enterprise networks and optical networks. As a global company, Nortel Networks does business in more than 150 countries. More information about Nortel Networks can be found on the Web at www.nortelnetworks.com.
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