September 26, 2011
Mitel Extends UC Freedom to Apple iPhone and iPad
Mitel's UC Advanced Mobile for iOS Makes the Bring-Your-Own-Device Trend Easier on IT
OTTAWA, Ontario, Sept. 26, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mitel (Nasdaq:MITL), a leading provider of unified communications software solutions, today announced that Mitel Unified Communicator® (UC) Advanced software is now available on the iOS mobile operating system for Apple® iPhones® and iPads®, the leading choice among Small- to Medium-Enterprises (SMEs)1. This offering further extends the reach of Mitel's unified communications platform on mobile devices, allowing IT managers to accommodate the BYOD phenomenon in which workers bring their personal mobile device into the workplace.
The BYOD movement is one of the many additional challenges that make it difficult for IT departments to cope with security and control issues in the enterprise. Mitel is now making it possible to handle this trend with greater ease through unified communications for iOS and other mobile platforms. This offering continues to build on Mitel's Freedom architecture, which eliminates the closed, single-vendor unified communications architecture that has historically defined the industry. Mitel's Freedom architecture delivers a best-in-class approach to communications infrastructure. IT now can deliver Mitel unified communications applications via mobile clients across iOS-based as well as RIM- and Android-based mobile devices, representing the vast majority of mobile devices in business environments.
"Mitel Unified Communicator Advanced for iPhone and iPad, in combination with the Freedom architecture, allowed our employees and our IT department to utilize our existing infrastructure and devices of choice without having to purchase new equipment," said Matthew J. Estes, director of Strategic Initiatives, TaxResources, Inc. "The product's flexibility and functionality were key factors in our decision to go with Mitel for our customized unified communications solution at TaxResources."
"We recognize that delivering unified communications software to the iOS platform for Apple products is essential to our customers," said Ron Wellard, executive vice president and general manager, Mitel Communications Solutions. "The BYOD phenomenon is one companies can't ignore. By supplying a single software stream that works on the most popular mobile platforms and offering exceptional adaptability to existing infrastructure within an organization, Mitel aims to change the game in unified communications software."
Mitel UC Advanced provides desktop and mobile users a single interface to access all of their Mitel communications capabilities, including voice, video, instant messaging, conferencing and presence.
Mitel UC Advanced Mobile for iOS includes the following capabilities:
- Search the corporate directory and click-to-dial from corporate contact list to place calls through the corporate network.
- View missed, dialed, and received calls.
- Access visual voicemail from your office extension and manage messages by preference rather than sequence.
- Automatically update presence status and call routing preferences based on your location, or time of day.
UC Advanced Mobile for iOS is available to UC Advanced users in Apple's App Store:
The Meeting Room Just Got Bigger!
We are excited to announce people on Skype worldwide will now be accessible from the LifeSize Passport directory, letting them connect to each other with just one click. This partnership is another exciting example of our commitment to Unified Communications partnerships that make video collaboration truly universal.
LifeSize Passport continues to lead the industry in price performance. And now your customers can connect over high quality, reliable video from any LifeSize Passport to any Skype-enabled PC and connect over audio to mobile devices. Small meeting rooms, individual offices, and teleworkers and small to medium-sized businesses --- all can communicate easily and cost-effectively wherever they need to stay connected.
May 4, 2011
Mitel Announces Unified Communicator Advanced for BlackBerry PlayBook
Mitel UC Advanced on the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Showcased at BlackBerry's 'Mobile Office of the Future' During BlackBerry World 2011
ORLANDO, Fla., May 4, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BlackBerry World 2011 — Mitel (Nasdaq:MITL), a leading provider of unified communications (UC) software solutions, today announced it has extended its suite of unified communications capabilities to the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet and will be demonstrating the capabilities at BlackBerry's 'Mobile Office of the Future' at BlackBerry World 2011. Mitel is also planning continued integration with BlackBerry® Mobile Voice System 5 (BlackBerry MVS 5). Mitel will showcase its UC features for BlackBerry® smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook at BlackBerry World 2011 in booth #301. For more information visit www.mitel.com/bbworld
Building on the Mitel Freedom architecture, Mitel has extended the Mitel Unified Communicator® (UC) Advanced mobile portal to the BlackBerry PlayBook, enabling a consistent, rich, end-user communication and collaboration experience. In addition to providing remote access to corporate communications capabilities such as managing presence, viewing corporate contacts, call history, and voice mail details, the application allows mobile workers to initiate phone calls directly on the BlackBerry PlayBook without interrupting their work flow. Using the employee's BlackBerry smartphone, the application uses Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry MVS 5 to generate the call, leveraging the Wi-Fi® or cellular network.
"Mitel's Freedom architecture makes it simple and seamless to deliver our business communications solutions to mobile users, regardless of location," said Stephen Beamish, vice-president of corporate marketing and strategic partnerships at Mitel. "Our membership in the BlackBerry Alliance Program has allowed us to extend that further to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to provide unified communications applications to enhance the end user experience. We look forward to demonstrating the value Mitel brings to the BlackBerry PlayBook for the first time publically at the BlackBerry and Mitel booths."
Mitel is extending the Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry MVS solution integration to include the recently released BlackBerry MVS 5.1. Today Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry MVS delivers advanced Mitel business communications applications directly to BlackBerry smartphones and enables voice-over-Wi-Fi calls. The combined solution enables IT managers to consolidate and simplify data center management by combining Mitel's voice virtualization and BlackBerry applications into a single virtual environment, bridging the gap between fixed and wireless telephony applications.
Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry MVS offers unrestricted handoff between users' devices, moving calls seamlessly to and from their desk phone, BlackBerry smartphone, home phone, or soft phone. With the integration of BlackBerry MVS 5.1 users can benefit from the automatic handoff between Wi-Fi and cellular networks to help further reduce roaming and wireless charges. The solution also enables BlackBerry smartphone users to take full advantage of Mitel business communications features without the need of a desk phone.
Toshiba Expands Strata Meeting Meet-Me Conferencing and Web Collaboration for Enterprise and SMB Users
September 26, 2011
Mitel Extends UC Freedom to Apple iPhone and iPad
Mitel's UC Advanced Mobile for iOS Makes the Bring-Your-Own-Device Trend Easier on IT
OTTAWA, Ontario, Sept. 26, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mitel (Nasdaq:MITL), a leading provider of unified communications software solutions, today announced that Mitel Unified Communicator® (UC) Advanced software is now available on the iOS mobile operating system for Apple® iPhones® and iPads®, the leading choice among Small- to Medium-Enterprises (SMEs)1. This offering further extends the reach of Mitel's unified communications platform on mobile devices, allowing IT managers to accommodate the BYOD phenomenon in which workers bring their personal mobile device into the workplace.
The BYOD movement is one of the many additional challenges that make it difficult for IT departments to cope with security and control issues in the enterprise. Mitel is now making it possible to handle this trend with greater ease through unified communications for iOS and other mobile platforms. This offering continues to build on Mitel's Freedom architecture, which eliminates the closed, single-vendor unified communications architecture that has historically defined the industry. Mitel's Freedom architecture delivers a best-in-class approach to communications infrastructure. IT now can deliver Mitel unified communications applications via mobile clients across iOS-based as well as RIM- and Android-based mobile devices, representing the vast majority of mobile devices in business environments.
"Mitel Unified Communicator Advanced for iPhone and iPad, in combination with the Freedom architecture, allowed our employees and our IT department to utilize our existing infrastructure and devices of choice without having to purchase new equipment," said Matthew J. Estes, director of Strategic Initiatives, TaxResources, Inc. "The product's flexibility and functionality were key factors in our decision to go with Mitel for our customized unified communications solution at TaxResources."
"We recognize that delivering unified communications software to the iOS platform for Apple products is essential to our customers," said Ron Wellard, executive vice president and general manager, Mitel Communications Solutions. "The BYOD phenomenon is one companies can't ignore. By supplying a single software stream that works on the most popular mobile platforms and offering exceptional adaptability to existing infrastructure within an organization, Mitel aims to change the game in unified communications software."
Mitel UC Advanced provides desktop and mobile users a single interface to access all of their Mitel communications capabilities, including voice, video, instant messaging, conferencing and presence.
Mitel UC Advanced Mobile for iOS includes the following capabilities:
- Search the corporate directory and click-to-dial from corporate contact list to place calls through the corporate network.
- View missed, dialed, and received calls.
- Access visual voicemail from your office extension and manage messages by preference rather than sequence.
- Automatically update presence status and call routing preferences based on your location, or time of day.
UC Advanced Mobile for iOS is available to UC Advanced users in Apple's App Store:
IRVINE, Calif., April 5, 2011—Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., Telecommunication Systems Division (Toshiba — www.telecom.toshiba.com) today announced that Strata® Meeting, its meet-me audio conferencing and Web collaboration solution, is now available in a 1U rack-mount server platform to meet varied application size requirements. Compatible with Toshiba’s Strata CIX™ family of IP business communication systems, Strata Meeting is available from eight to 24 ports, allowing up to 24 simultaneous audio and Web conference participants. Strata Meeting is available nationwide through Toshiba’s network of Authorized Dealers.
“Toshiba’s Strata Meeting solution gives users of Toshiba VoIP systems the ability to create Web meetings on the fly with audio conferencing, audio conference recording, desktop sharing, and much more,” said Mark Carpenter, director of product management for Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., Telecommunication Systems Division. “Strata Meeting provides customers a winning combination for big company functionality on a small company budget,” Carpenter added.
“Using Toshiba’s Strata Meeting, SMB users and branch locations of larger enterprises may conference and collaborate with customers, vendors, and remote employees without incurring the costs normally associated with conferencing services while also saving travel costs and reducing environmental impact,” said David Fridley, product development manager of Unified Communications for Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., Telecommunication Systems Division.
Strata Meeting features and capabilities include:
- Reservation-less and Scheduled Meet-me Conferencing—allows for quick start-up of conferences and easy scheduling;
- Web User Interface for Moderators—enables moderators to schedule conferences;
- Conference View—shows moderators the participants that are in their conference and enables the management of individual participants. Participants can be muted, disconnected, or transferred to another conference for a side-bar conversation;
- Telephone Portal for Moderator and Participants—enables moderators and participants to exercise in-conference controls via DTMF;
- Outlook Calendar Integration—allows meetings to be scheduled easily and invitations distributed to all participants;
- Web-based Reporting—enables managers to have a view of the impact of audio conferences and Web collaboration sessions in their businesses;
- Moderator and Participants Codes—adds security and control to who can manage and participate in conferences;
- Exit and Entry Tone—lets participants know when people are entering and leaving conferences in order to avoid surprises;
- Audio Recording Capabilities—enables audio conferences to be recorded for later playback or archived for record retention;
- Flexible Configuration from 8 to 24 ports—provides cost-effective small conferencing system for the SMB with room to grow and expand;
- Web-based Desktop Sharing—enables moderators to share documents, presentations and conversations in the meeting;
- Web User Interface for Participants—enables participants to join a Web conference from any computer and does not require a dedicated application to be installed; and
- Chat—enables participants to exchange text messages to the group or individually while in a conference.
Compatibility
Strata Meeting is compatible with the entire Strata CIX family of IP business telephone systems, including the Strata CIX40, CIX100, CIX200, CIX670 and CIX1200 systems (Version 5.0 software or higher). It is compatible with many popular Web browsers. Strata Meeting provides eight ports of audio conferencing and can be upgraded in increments of eight ports to handle a maximum of 24 simultaneous conferences. It connects to the Strata CIX IP business telephone system via SIP-based IP channels.
April 5, 2011
Mitel Ranked the Number Two Software Provider in the 2011 Branham300
OTTAWA, April 5, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mitel (Nasdaq:MITL), a leading provider of unified communications (UC) software solutions, today announced it has been ranked the number two software provider for Canadian ICT Companies in the 2011 Edition of the Branham300, a listing of Canada's ICT industry leaders, as ranked by revenues.
Mitel's transition from a hardware company to a software solutions provider was solidified when the company unveiled the Mitel Freedom architecture in 2010. The Mitel Freedom architecture is a single, cloud-ready software stream that delivers an array of communications options for businesses looking to integrate a voice solution into best-in-class networks and applications. For more information on the Mitel Freedom architecture visit: http://www.mitel.com/freedom.
"The goal of the Branham300 is to showcase the top ICT companies in the country," said Wayne Gudbranson, president and CEO of Branham Group. "Year after year, Mitel demonstrates why they are a global leader amongst Canadian-based technology companies. We look forward each year to what innovations they bring to the market."
The Branham300 is currently operating in its 18th year. The Branham300 highlights the top ICT companies in Canada ranked by revenue. The top 300 publicly-traded and privately-held Canadian companies are included in multiple categories, including the top 250 Canadian ICT companies and several sub lists such as Top Software Providers.
"We are extremely pleased to have been recognized by the Branham300. This past year Mitel delivered on a number of initiatives which have helped strengthen the company," said Rich McBee, Mitel's chief executive officer. "In the first half of the year, the company launched an initial public offering on NASDAQ and then finished the year with the introduction of the Mitel Freedom architecture — strongly positioning ourselves as a communications software provider. This provides us with an excellent foundation to grow the business moving forward."
Mitel Extends Leadership in the Hospitality Market With Hosted Unified Communications Initiative
DCI to Offer Hosted Communications Service Based on Mitel Software Technology
OTTAWA, March 3, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mitel (Nasdaq:MITL), a leading provider of unified
communications (UC) software solutions, and Design Communications Inc (DCI), a premier provider of telecommunications systems and services, today announced that Mitel's cloud-based technology is being used to support a new hosted UC offering from DCI for the hospitality market. As a top
Mitel authorizedPARTNER for the hospitality market in the US, DCI is offering the hosted service for hotel properties based on Mitel's
Multi-Instance Communications Director (MICD), which is designed to improve the delivery and cost structure of current on-premise
communications solutions such as PBXs. This hosted service, which integrates a number of applications together, is one of the first of its kind in the hospitality industry.
"By adopting a hosted solution, hoteliers are able to benefit from efficient management of their systems and have the ability to reduce capital expenditures and operating costs," said David Nick Di Lucia, senior vice president at DCI. "This is a true value-add for our hospitality customers and a key differentiator for Mitel, as other UC vendors do not offer hosted solutions for this market."
Building on Mitel's Freedom architecture and investments in their cloud strategy, Mitel is offering a compelling hosted communications alternative to traditional on-premise based solutions for hotel properties including telephony and communications services for guest rooms, hotel operations, and convention/meeting facilities. Based on MICD, the hosted UC service includes functionality and features addressing the unique communications requirements for the hospitality market. Key benefits of hosted UC services can include improved efficiency of communications service delivery, reduced capital costs, improved TCO and high reliability.
"Hoteliers are looking for communications technologies that not only enhance their operations, but also streamline their infrastructure and reduce expense. As a result, we see tremendous opportunity around the adoption of cloud-based UC services in this sector," said Stephen Beamish, vice-president of marketing and business development at Mitel. "A trend in hospitality is to control IT complexity and DCI's hosted UC offering is a perfect example of how Mitel's technology can help hospitality companies improve their competitiveness while giving their customers an elevated communications experience."
The hosted service is expected to be available to the market from DCI in May 2011.
February 7, 2011
Mitel Announces Datacenter Accreditation for Cloud-Based Unified Communications Services
Mitel Freedom Architecture Now Optimized for Multiple Infrastructure-as-a-Service Providers to Enable World-Class User Experience for Managed Service Providers
PHOENIX, Feb. 7, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mitel (Nasdaq:MITL), a leading provider of unified communications (UC) software solutions, today announced a Virtualized Datacenter Accreditation program for datacenters, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers. This comprehensive program provides a verification process to certify the infrastructure qualities and attributes required to support Mitel voice and UC applications. To date, Mitel has certified three IaaS providers including Artisan Infrastructure, Host.net, and Hosting.com, who intend to support or offer hosted voice and UC solutions to the market in the coming months based on Mitel cloud-ready software. The accreditation program is designed to ensure that any Managed Service Provider (MSP) or Mitel authorizedPARTNERS are able to leverage cloud-based infrastructure to provide world-class managed UC solutions.
"Managed Service Providers in North America are interested in augmenting their service portfolio with unified communications services," said Bob Anderson, Mitel's vice-president, U.S. channel marketing. "However, in today's competitive environment, you can't rush to market with a user experience that might be less than optimal. Quite literally, a great user experience is the powerful competitive differentiator in the market today. With today's announcement, we're providing a program designed to ensure our solutions are optimized with the provider's cloud-based infrastructure."
Mitel's Virtualized Datacenter Accreditation provides significant benefits for players in the cloud-based service ecosystem. It enables IaaS providers to offer differentiated services and the opportunity to add Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) to their existing offerings, representing a new revenue opportunity. In addition, this program identifies and brands these IaaS providers for the many MSPs looking for partners on which they can rely on for a quality hosted UC service offering with a solid user experience. These MSPs can extend their service portfolio to better meet the needs of their Small- and Medium-sized Business (SMBs) customers.
To receive the Virtualized Datacenter Accreditation, qualified IaaS and PaaS providers must achieve a number of technical certifications from both Mitel and VMware in addition to demonstrating technical competencies that support business continuity, high availability, disaster recovery, and redundancy — all key considerations for outsourcing enterprise grade physical and virtual facilities.
"Our MSP customers have long wanted to offer hosted UC services, as they are keenly aware of the demand for these services among their SMB customer base," said Brian Hierholzer, president and CEO of Artisan Infrastructure, based in Austin, Texas. "By working with Mitel and its accreditation program, Artisan Infrastructure is providing a voice optimized network infrastructure to better serve our joint MSP customers and enable them to compete and succeed."
The solution is based on the Mitel Freedom architecture, a single, cloud-ready software stream, running in a virtual environment on the VMware vSphere™ 4 platform. This includes complete support for VMware HA (High Availability), vMotion, DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler), and SRM (Site Recovery Manager). The combined solution is designed to provide the highest levels of availability, scalability and flexibility critical for voice to be deployed in a cloud-based service environment.
SMBs are particularly interested in hosted UC, as these increasingly sophisticated customers require enterprise-class communications to support growth, but do not always have the internal resources to purchase or configure their own UC solution in-house. With Mitel's UC solution delivered as a hosted service, it can help customers eliminate much of the technical complexity and up front capital investment barriers to acquiring benefits of UC.
The Virtualized Datacenter Accreditation is currently available in the US.
Toshiba Expands Line of IP Phones, Bringing More Choices to Strata CIX IP System Users
IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 8, 2011—Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., Telecommunication Systems Division (Toshiba — www.telecom.toshiba.com), today announced the addition of three new models to its popular line of Toshiba IP 5000-series business telephones, bringing more choices to users of Toshiba Strata® CIX™ IP business communication systems. The new IP 5000-series telephone models are now available nationwide from Authorized Toshiba Dealers.
"We at Toshiba have listened to our customers and our valuable Authorized Toshiba Dealers in designing the new Toshiba IP 5000-series telephones. We have redesigned the new IP 5000-series telephones to be even more cost effective while retaining the same feature-rich capabilities," said Eric Abing, product manager, Toshiba America Information Systems, Telecommunication Systems Division.
The new IP 5000-series telephone models have a similar look and feel to other Toshiba IP 5000-series telephones and are capable of performing all the same IP station features and functions. These new models are available at an affordable price for SMB and enterprise customers.
The three new models are:
IP5522-SD—Includes a four-line (144x48 pixels) LCD display without backlight, 10/100Mbps Ethernet, 10 flexible buttons, and full duplex speakerphone.
IP5622-SD—Includes a four-line (144x48 pixels) LCD display with backlight, 10/100Mbps Ethernet, 10 flexible buttons, and full duplex speakerphone.
IP5631-SDL—Includes a nine-line (150x168 pixels) LCD display with backlight, 10/100Mbps Ethernet, 20 flexible buttons, and full duplex speakerphone.
With these new models, Toshiba customers now have eight different IP 5000-series telephones from which to choose. Models range from four- to nine-line telephones, with 10 to 20 flexible buttons, and most have backlit LCD screens. Models are available with either Gigabit Ethernet or 10/100Mbps Ethernet connection. All models come standard with a PC interface, headset interface, and Ethernet cable.
System Compatibility
Compatible with the entire family of Toshiba Strata CIX IP business telephone systems, Toshiba IP 5000-series telephones are also compatible with the Toshiba IP User Mobility feature and can function as supported IP stations for the Toshiba Video Communication Solution (VCS®).
Mitel Takes Its Virtualized UC to the Cloud
The Mitel Freedom Architecture adds a range of new features and capabilities to the company’s existing offerings, including improved mobility and an all-in-one capacity intended to simplify telecommunications for small to mid-size businesses.
Already firmly established as a purveyor of VoIP systems and services, Kanata, Ontario-based Mitel this week announced what it says will be a new way of delivering services.
The Mitel Freedom Architecture adds a range of new features and capabilities to the company’s existing offerings, including improved mobility and an all-in-one capacity intended to simplify telecommunications for small to mid-size businesses.
The release represents another step in an "evolutionary processes" toward a software-oriented, standards-based provisioning of unified communications, said Stephen Beamish, vice president of marketing and business development at Mitel.
As a cloud-based system, the new architecture allows businesses to move away from home-grown solutions that require big up-front investments and support from IT staff.
"This is a purely hosted UC-as-a-Service product, a subscription-based model at $35 a month per user, which basically gives you a rich suite of UC components with no other equipment on your premises," Beamish said. "It's ready to go right out of the box. You plug your phone in and you’re off and running."
Mitel
Mitel Applications Suite
The Mitel® Applications Suite (MAS) provides a rich set of advanced software applications, including Mitel NuPoint Unified Messaging™ (UM), Mitel Speech Auto-Attendant, Mitel Unified Communicator (UC) Mobile, Mitel Audio & Web Conferencing (AWC), Mitel Customer Service Manager, Mitel Business Dashboard, and Teleworker Solution via an integration with the Mitel Border Gateway (MBG). This select combination of applications works together seamlessly, on a single server, to improve your ability to manage information flow amongst customers, partners, and supp
liers to create a competitive advantage.
MAS integrates seamlessly with the Mitel 3300 IP Communications Platform (ICP), the Mitel 5000 Communication Platform (CP), and the Mitel Axxess® platform. Ongoing administration of the applications is completed via a user-friendly, web-based interface. Adding a user to one or several applications is easily accomplished using MAS.
Simplified management and single-server advantages translate into time and cost reduction associated with initial deployment and ongoing management overhead. All of which translate into more time focused on your business.
Toshiba
Stay Connected — Wherever Your Business Takes You
The Toshiba Strata® CIX™ IP communication system helps you communicate where and when you need to, keeping your customers connected and employee productivity at its peak. This versatile system supports many types of mobility endpoints and devices, including SoftIPT® soft phone for notebook computers and PDAs, wireless IP telephones, and cordless telephones.
Off-site Mobility – Stay Mobile and Connected
Toshiba gives you the power to stay connected using SoftIPT® soft phone clients that run on your laptop, tablet PC, or PDA via your LAN or WLAN. You can roam anywhere WLAN and the Internet take you, maintaining most of the features available on Toshiba’s IP telephones and digital telephones
