Vertical Releases New Wave of Unified Communications

By Paula Bernier
Executive Editor, TMC

Vertical Communications (News - Alert) today came out with what the company says is a significant new release of its unified communications solution. Endpoints, total cost of ownership improvements, and usability and feature set enhancements are the three key focus areas of the Wave IP release 5.0, says Bobby Mohanty, the company’s senior vice president and general manager of products.

On the endpoint front, Vertical Communications has introduced a handful of new gigabit Ethernet IP phones, all of which support DSS expansion modules. The 9800 series includes 10-, 16-, and 24-button phones. One of the two 24-button devices, the Edge 9824, features an LCD DSS console. Wave IP 5.0 also supports expanded functionality for third-party Polycom (News - Alert) VVX Business Media Phones, which can be integrated with Wave IP.

Wave IP release 5.0 also features a long list of TCO improvements. A significant update to the core platform, including its databases and OS, allows the system to more easily keep up to date with security and other features. In addition, Vertical Communications has introduced a new cloud service that works with its UC appliance and allows for continuous software updates. That, Mohanty explains, eliminates a lot of administrative hours that would otherwise have been spent understanding what updates were needed where, and on the installation itself. An integrated tool in the cloud allows administrators to set schedules, and then the system takes care of that work.

With the introduction of the cloud service, the company also has incorporated plug-and-play functionality to add new phones, and pre-certified carrier profiles for faster SIP trunk set up, both of which also lower administrative costs.

Vertical Communications also has increased the scalability of the platform to support VoIP deployments. For example, with this release the company has more than doubled the call recording capacity on the Wave IP solution, so users don’t require as much hardware. The new system can do full automated call logging of up to 125 simultaneous calls, and no extra hardware is required for customers to take advantage of that improvement.

A few of the usability and feature set improvements with this release focus on session handoff, call recording, and the expansion of survey and reminder capabilities to be introduced in inbound interactions.

The company’s ViewPoint UC client has been enhanced with a new look and feel, and it allows for better mobile integration to enable seamless endpoint handoff.

Meanwhile, the company has introduced a pause feature to its call recording.

“It’s something that makes the product more friendly from a HIPPA and PCI (News - Alert) perspective,” notes Mohanty.