Siemens Extends Deployment Options

Siemens Enterprise Communications Group has released version 4 of its OpenScape Voice, which features OpenScape Branch and OpenScape Concierge, two capabilities designed to provide new flexible deployment options.

OpenScape Branch is designed to help deliver scalable, affordable communications for customers with multiple branch offices. It allows customers to streamline business communications by extending seamless voice services across all company offices with an SIP Proxy for survivability and a Session Border Controller (SBC) for local SIP trunking connections. It provides for management integration on a common portal for faster and easier installation and integration, and Siemens says it can help reduce audio conferencing costs, call charges and power consumption.

OpenScape Concierge is a unified communications (UC) Attendant Console application. OpenScape Concierge extends the benefits of UC beyond desktop users to also support telephone attendants, such as switchboard operators, with real-time UC-based presence status information for contacts across both OpenScape Voice and HiPath 4000 IP systems. It also supports call queue and corporate directory integration, allowing telephone attendants to more easily direct incoming calls to anyone in the organization.

OpenScape Voice V4, built on a native IP-based software platform, is designed to be a cost-effective option for replacing legacy voice systems. Built on Siemen’s unified OpenSOA applications framework, it is a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based enterprise voice application. SIP allows multimedia communications to behave similarly to telephone calls, and also allows users to have access to data based on the context of a specific task and employ real-time communications when they provide value to business processes. Voice V4 is a key element of the OpenScape UC Server, which incorporates enterprise-grade voice services with carrier-grade scalability, IP least-cost routing, video conferencing, mobility, unified messaging and role-based UC applications.