Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Press Release by NEC Unified Solutions. (NEC Unified Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Corporation of America, offers a complete portfolio of solutions for wireless, unified communications, voice, data and management services, and an open migration path to protect investments. NEC Unified Solutions, Inc. serves customers across the globe in vertical markets such as hospitality, education, government and health care.)
NEC Enhances its UC Portfolio with New Products and Support for Microsoft’s Unified Communications Software
Tokyo, — Oct. 16, 2007 — NEC Corporation^® (NEC) today announced several products and services that will enable customers to easily integrate unified communications into their business to enhance productivity, increase customer satisfaction and drive revenue. NEC will offer a USB handset, collaboration middleware, and Media Gateway, all of which will be optimized for use with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007.

In addition, NEC will tightly integrate the latest voice, data and video technologies from NEC with Microsoft’s unified communications and collaboration software including Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Office Live Meeting, Office Communications Server 2007, Office Communicator 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007, and other Microsoft technologies. Taking advantage of the mobile features of this offering, NEC will utilize fixed and mobile devices to enable real-time, collaborative work within NEC’s UNIVERGE^® portfolio.

NEC is committed to delivering to its customers’ best-of-breed UC solutions that work with a company’s existing solutions for presence, mobility, collaboration, unified messaging, conferencing and contact centers. Supporting Microsoft’s interoperable and open-standards based unified communications products is a key ingredient in offering customers a versatile UC solution. These new products and services will be offered by NEC in the United States, Europe, and Asia Pacific regions and will provide customers with one source for complete integration of Microsoft and NEC environments. NEC is committed to enhancing its UC product lineup and capabilities to support and deliver the most advanced telephony features for enterprise UC users.

“As business communications and VoIP move to software, a new world of opportunity emerges for NEC and our customers. NEC continues to provide global innovation by offering a migration path for customers to easily integrate VoIP technology into their existing communications,” said Mr. Kazuo Tsuzuki, Associate Senior Vice President, NEC Corporation. “NEC is uniquely positioned to offer customers new services and products built on Microsoft’s unified communications platform to best meet customers’ business needs and seamlessly integrate into their current technology environments.”

”According to market studies, NEC is the leading provider of telephony lines worldwide, and as communications shifts to software, their efforts in partnership with Microsoft will be important to help their customers maximize existing investments while moving to a software-based communications infrastructure,” said Kim Akers, General Manager of Unified Communications, Microsoft.

New UC devices:

• Basic Media Gateway: NEC’s MGW for Microsoft Office Communicator provides the PSTN/ISDN inter-connection functions to Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007. It also works as a gateway by providing the VoIP connectivity to an existing PBX and KTS for the Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007.
• UNIVERGE OW5000: NEC’s collaboration middleware UNIVERGE OW5000 enables customers connected to NEC’s PBX and Microsoft’s Office Communications Server 2007 to use remote call control (“click-to-dial”) functionality from Microsoft Office applications such as Outlook and Excel. By extending familiar Office application interfaces to call control, UNIVERGE OW5000 leverages the value of integration for telephony and UC.
• USB Handset: The USB handset is a USB device that can be plugged directly into a USB port, enabling the high-quality wideband voice input and output capabilities of a standard desktop phone for Microsoft Office Communicator 2007.

NEC and Microsoft have built a partnership for device development, solution deployment, and UNIVERGE telephony server integration with Office Communication Server 2007. Building on a relationship of more than thirty years, NEC and Microsoft are working together to help customers harness the power of UC by delivering real business value through converged communications.

NEC Unified Solutions.