Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc., or AVST (News - Alert), has acquired Active Voice from NEC Corporation of America and the integration of AVST's CallXpress Unified Communications platform with NEC's (News - Alert) IP telephony and UC solutions. AVST will continue to manufacture, support and enhance specific Active Voice product offerings for NEC, its channel partners and the independent Active Voice channel.
This relationship increases the global footprint of both companies for UC while the addition of the Active Voice division significantly increases AVST's customer base with a combined 140,000 systems sold worldwide, to date say the two firms. The integration expands AVST's position in the UC marketplace with a broader set of product offerings, access to additional distribution channels and expanded engineering resources for accelerated innovation. The partnership provides integration of NEC advanced solutions with AVST's CallXpress UC platform and expanded sales channel opportunities.
The new relationship further validates the commitment of both companies to deliver interoperable, scalable and customizable UC solutions for small, medium and enterprise-class customers. AVST brings three decades of experience and leadership in the UC marketplace and leverages its core strength of delivering solutions that transform individual, group and enterprise productivity while enabling organizations to maximize the return on their strategic telecom and IT infrastructure investments. NEC, which provides and integrates advanced communications solutions, continues to offer advanced UC tools for businesses and vertical organizations that meet business process improvement needs.
"We are honored and privileged to enter into this long term strategic technology relationship with NEC," said Hardy Myers (News - Alert), president and CEO of AVST. "Extending our relationship with one of the most prestigious global UC solution providers in the market, while maintaining our strong independent and interoperable product offerings, is a positive step for our customers and our channel. We are also very excited to integrate the Active Voice team and its products into AVST, thereby enabling us to extend our global reach and accelerate our position in the UC market."
"AVST has been a technology and distribution partner of NEC for many years," said Ram Menghani, general manager, product management for NEC Corporation of America. "The expanded technology relationship and the corresponding acquisition of Active Voice announced today, reflects our strong mutual commitment to our customers and expanding NEC's global position in the UC market. We believe that this relationship will help accelerate the customer adoption of our mutual product offerings."
Brendan B. Read is TMCnet's Senior Contributing Editor. To read more of Brendan's articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by Alice Straight