Unified Communications

Covergence (News - Alert), a provider of solutions that integrate, manage and control real-time applications, has announced its Covergence Session Manager (CSM) V3.3 will support Microsoft (News - Alert) Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS).

CSM is designed to enable the delivery of real-time applications including VoIP, video and presence for OCS users while also providing organizations with the complete control and visibility they require.

Although the potential cost savings and productivity enhancements offered by real-time collaborative services are visible, the benefits have remained elusive. This is due in large part to the fact that unlike other IP-based applications that run seamlessly over the corporate Wide Area Network (WAN) – such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM and Supply Chain Management – real-time applications are disjointed “islands of communications.”

In most organizations, real-time traffic is routed off the IP network to a service provider network at every physical or logical boundary. This off-WAN routing is costly and prevents enterprises from integrating real-time applications into business applications.

CSM breaks down these “islands” with its new, dynamic, application-level routing capability. The solution optimizes the routing of real-time sessions to ensure that they stay on the WAN as they cross physical or logical boundaries.

The solution also optimizes real-time sessions to ensure predictable quality, performance and reliability. These are critical features as a small delay or loss of a few packets can make a real-time session unusable.

"One of the challenges of deploying Microsoft’s OCS or any real-time application is assisting the customer to design a network that ensures real-time communications stay on the enterprise network whenever possible,” said Mark Cortner, senior analyst, Burton Group, in a Monday statement.

“Solutions such as the Covergence Session Manager enable the integration of real-time sessions onto the WAN and optimize routes based on application-level criteria such as cost, quality, congestion and business rules, so that these new services can be integrated into critical business processes.”

Early support for OCS was demonstrated by Covergence in June 2007 through its partnership with European service provider, Interoute. This company uses the CSM to enable Interoute One, a clearinghouse services that enables enterprises to federate their Microsoft Office Communications Servers and Microsoft Live Communications Servers with other organizations. Interoute One makes IM, presence and VoIP with customers and suppliers simple and easy to use.

“The addition of Convergence (News - Alert) to the Interoute communications platform has enabled us to open up subscriber-based services and extend the simplicity of Interoute One to exciting, new unified communications platforms like Microsoft OCS,” said Matthew Finnie, CTO, Interoute, in Monday’s statement.

“This extension of services simplifies sign-up for existing Microsoft OCS customers. With Covergence Session Manager we can deliver these new, revenue-generating services with business-class security, reliability and quality.”

“The Covergence Session Manager’s state-of-the-art measurement and monitoring capability allows us to route voice and video traffic based the current quality and congestion conditions,” said Bob O’Neil, president and CEO, Covergence, in Monday’s statement.

“This ensures the consistent delivery of high quality voice and video that exceeds Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and provides the best possible user experience.”

In order to remain competitive, service providers must be able to deliver high-quality solutions. Covergence Session Manager enables the delivers of new, revenue-generating services that also provide business-class security, reliability and quality – all a must if a service provider is to survive.

With the new support of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Covergence is helping to drive the demand for its solutions. In addition, the company has focused on making it easy for current Microsoft OCS customers to sign-up, ensuring revenue growth. Such growth is expected to better position the company in the industry and strengthen its market share moving forward.

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Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.

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