UC Week in Review: ADTRAN Enters UC Field

The Unified Communications sector received a major boost this week as ADTRAN (News - Alert), a supplier of converged communication solutions, announced that the company is expanding its portfolio and joining the Unified Communications market, debuting a new line of NetVanta Unified Communications (News - Alert) products.

 

Under the umbrella of ADTRAN's NetVanta Unified Communications Solution Suite, the company unveiled four products, which offer flexibility and ease of use to businesses of all sizes, officials said. It can also be customized for individual users. The UC suite offers voicemail, unified messaging, fax server, as well as auto attendant services. And according to company officials, the new products offer users flexibility and the chance to operate with existing equipment. 

 

The NetVanta UC Solution Suite includes the following: the NetVanta UC Server, the NetVanta Business Communications System, the NetVanta Enterprise Communications (News - Alert) Server and the NetVanta Business Application Server.

 

The announcement marked a major milestone for the Huntsville, Ala.-based company. It is the company’s first entry into an already crowded UC market. And with ADTRAN’s entrance, competition in the UC sector will likely heat up.

 

Other news that made headlines this week on TMCnet is that the Web conferencing

software and services market is booming, despite the weak economy. Thanks to the growing demand by borderless organizations, the market is largely benefiting from businesses’ need to offer enhanced collaboration and reduce travel costs.

 

A new report by Frost & Sullivan, found that revenue in Asia-Pacific jumped 24.9 percent in 2008 and  is expected to grow 26.3 percent this year, totaling $123.1 million by yearend. What’s more, the growth of the sector, which includes hosted services/Software-as-a-Service and on-premise Web conferencing software, is expected to peak over the next two years, reaching growth rates of 27 percent in 2010 and 2011.

 

What’s more, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based provider of telepresence, video and HD voice communication solutions, released new capabilities for its telepresence solutions aimed at giving its customers greater flexibility in the use and management of immersive telepresence suites throughout their organization. 

 

Polycom’s telepresence tools can help organizations heightened competition and benefit the environment by reducing air and road travel, which produce harmful emissions. The move, some said, is well timed to offset arch-competitor Cisco’s (News - Alert) deal for Tandberg (News - Alert).

 

That’s it for this week. Be sure to check out the latest UC news on TMCnet.