Research indicates that the African continent is embracing sophisticated telephony technology and is catching up its European and American counterparts in the move towards an acceleration in communications expertise. The Siemens Enterprise Communications Group recently announced that analyst firm Synergy Research Group has ranked the company as the leader in the enterprise telephony market in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) for the first quarter of 2009.
Research conducted by the Synergy Research Group (a market research company forecasting services to the telecom, mobile and networking industries) indicates that Siemens Enterprise Communications leads the IP PBX market share with 26% in EMEA. An IP PBX is a private branch exchange (telephone switching system within an enterprise) that switches calls between VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol or IP) users on local lines, while allowing all users to share a certain number of external phone lines.
Says Raymond Padayachee, chief executive officer of Siemens Enterprise Communications: “The rapid adoption of leading-edge enterprise telephony products in both EMEA and Latin America provides a significant opportunity for the company to continue to expand its corporate footprint and to provide strong service and support for customers across the globe.”
“Our research shows that Siemens' consistent performance in the EMEA market has positioned it ahead of many competitors based on the company's commitment to open standards, such as SIP (session initiation protocol) and SOA (services-oriented architecture), and future extensibility for unified communications technologies,” says Ken Landoline, vice-president of research for Synergy Research Group.
IP PBX is a critical element of enterprise telephony, combining LAN (local area network) telephony, or pure IP, and converged telephony, or TDM/IP. One of the main advantages of an IP PBX is the fact that it employs converged data and voice networks. This means that Internet access, as well as VOIP communications and traditional telephone communications, are all possible using a single line to each user. This provides flexibility as an enterprise grows, and can also reduce long-term operation and maintenance costs.
Says Padayachee, “Our company has embraced an open communications strategy which offers a standards and software-based approach to enterprise communications designed to provide greater flexibility, reduced risk and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) affording most businesses the opportunity to easily migrate to IP-based communications at their own pace and within virtually any existing communications environment.”
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