New product set and platform set to shake up SMB and Enterprise UC markets

Steve Woff, UC Business Manager, NEC Australia, claims:  “NEC is serious about unified communications.  We have a roadmap and approach that we believe give unrivalled breadth and scope to any business looking at UC.  At the same time, no other vendor has the same level of integration with competitive or complementary products.  Together, these put us in a very strong market position.”

Dedicated SMB offering

For the SMB market, NEC has unveiled its SV8100 communications server, the SV8000 desktop suite and a new range of scalable and customisable desktop IP phones.  Together these provide businesses, with up to 150 users, a complete unified communications solution which delivers enterprise class QoS to the small business market, whilst remaining simple and cost effective to set-up and manage.  In addition, NEC’s offering integrates with Microsoft Outlook and leading CRM applications to provide embedded UC functionality that is easy and familiar to use.

Steve Woff said: “The small and medium-sized business market has been aggressively targeted by many communications vendors, but typically the products lack the level of call quality companies should expect.  In addition, they often require outside expertise to set-up and manage, adding cost and complexity.  At NEC we’ve developed our SMB range to address these points and provide a simple, high-quality and flexible unified communications environment which is easy and cost effective to manage.”

Unique enterprise approach

In the enterprise market, NEC announced the Australian launch of its UNIVERGE360 platform - a complete set of servers, desktop applications, middleware and services designed to take UC beyond simple communications integration to provide embedded roles-based functionality to increase employee productivity.

This approach is unique to NEC.  By placing people at the centre of business communications and identifying the employee’s role, NEC can help organisations build a unified infrastructure, which is enabled by unified communications, integrated with business processes, and supported by partnerships and services. 

Steve Woff explains: “True unified communications is about much more than converging the phone, email and instant messaging; it’s about bringing people, processes and communications together.  NEC’s approach starts with the individuals and looks at how to empower them to best achieve their goals, surrounding them with the communications tools and processes they need to fulfill their role.”

Customer success

Recoveries Corporation Group is the largest privately-owned insurance and debt recovery company in Australia and has implemented a UC system from NEC to allow staff to work more flexibly and provide the scalability needed to allow growth.

Mario Anders, Group Manager IT Development, Recoveries Corporation Group said:  “Our high-volume call centre operations average 4,000 calls a day and underpin our business so 100 percent availability is crucial. As such, we required an advanced unified communications system that is highly reliable, cost effective and can support our growing business and changing communications requirements.  The NEC platform has proved itself more than up to the job.”

Darryl Nelson, research director, Frost and Sullivan said: “One of the main issues that has continued to hamper enterprise deployment of unified communications is the lack of skills capable of addressing the integration of the previously standalone communications and data networks and applications. With NEC’s new strategic focus on UC through UNIVERGE, together with a strong heritage in both sides of the telephony-data equation and a services offering with multi-vendor skills, NEC is now well placed to help its customers make this important transition to a converged ICT infrastructure. ”

For media enquiries, pictures & interviews please contact:

Will Clarke
NEC Australia Pty Ltd
Tel: 03 92714172
Mob: 0400 676 244
Email: will.clarke@nec.com.au

Alec Stanwell
n2n Communications
02 9213 2305
astanwell@n2n.com.au

Visit http://www.nec.com.au/mediaroom/default.htm for more information

About NEC Corporation

NEC Corporation (TSE: 6701) is one of the world's leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of a diversified global base of customers. NEC delivers tailored solutions in the key fields of computer, networking and electron devices, by integrating its technical strengths in IT and Networks, and by providing advanced semiconductor solutions through NEC Electronics Corporation. The NEC Group employs more than 150,000 people worldwide. For additional information, please visit the NEC website at: http://www.nec.com