Siemens Enterprise Updates UC Communications and Collaboration Suite

Siemens Enterprise (News - Alert) Communications announced new updates to its all-in-one unified communications and collaboration suite.

In a release Chris Hummel, CMO and president, North America, Siemens Enterprise Communications (News - Alert) said, “Increased mobility and flexibility in consumer devices and the ‘bring your own device’ phenomenon have caused businesses to rethink their communications infrastructures - moving from siloed voice-only solutions to full-scale UC deployments that provide flexibility for true mobility and an enhanced user experience.”

“Siemens Enterprise Communications has designed the newest version of OpenScape Office to answer these demands and anticipate future business needs as SMBs continually push for increased productivity and ease-of-use while reducing business costs,” Hummel added.

According to company sources these new features will improve mobility, increase business efficiency and reduce costs for small to medium-sized businesses.

Also these upgrades to OpenScape Office and the HiPath 3000 voice platform include OpenScape Web Collaboration which is a new UC client for tablets besides also a UC plug-in for Microsoft (News - Alert) Outlook 2010. SMBs will be able to serve customers more optimally and reduce communications costs, said officials.

A global research undertaken by Kaiser Associates deciphered that several SMB IT decision makers view improving communication capabilities as a strategic priority besides giving importance to integration of voice and communication systems, mobility and collaboration.

Cloud, video and social media are also major requisites and a third of SMBs revealed that they developed a concrete communication strategy with very few companies currently using a UC solution.

OpenScape Office has been designed to specially serve the communication needs of SMBs. It offers mobility which supports increased use of smart phones and tablets. OpenScape Office features a new UC client for enhanced mobility besides offering robust communications capabilities on the desktop which can be accessed on the go too.

Siemens Enterprise Communications will be providing OpenScape Web Collaboration capabilities to the SMB via OpenScape Office MX and LX. A virtual office without borders via desktop and document sharing is created which also enables video conferencing. OpenScape Web Collaboration can also be used from mobile phones and tablets, added officials.

The other features are voice and UC networking between OpenScape Office and the newest version of HiPath 3000 which allows existing HiPath 3000 customers a simplify transition from voice to UC enabling flexible deployments. The virtualization feature of OpenScape Office LX and HX lends support to server software virtualization with VMware.

Also the all-software design of OpenScape Office helps businesses to virtualize their UC solution letting them operate with fewer physical servers and hence making the solution green.

In related company news, Siemens Enterprise Communications acquired German company FastViewer GmbH & Co KG in December 2010 to enable it to expand its OpenScape Unified Communications (News - Alert) and Collaboration with multimedia conferencing and collaboration solutions.