Verizon Business is partnering with Microsoft to enable customers using Microsoft's Office Communications Server 2007 R2 UC platform to take advantage of Verizon's IP Trunking technology. Verizon and Cisco also are partnering on an immersive video collaboration service.
Verizon Business is building up its unified communications offerings through
partnerships with Microsoft and Cisco Systems.
At the VoiceCon show in Orlando,
Fla., March 22, Verizon officials announced
that the company's IP trunking technology has been certified to interoperate
with Microsoft's Office Communications Server 2007 R2 unified communications
platform.
With the new partnership, users of Microsoft's UC platform for
such tasks as voice calling, conferencing and instant messaging can bring those
functions together with Verizon's VOIP (voice over IP) capabilities. Verizon's
IP Trunking offering will help improve management and drive down costs, the
company said.
Trunking IP customers can take advantage of Office
Communications Server 2007 R2-including real-time UC applications-across
Verizon's IP networks, Tom Dalrymple, director of product management for
Verizon's Global Voice Solutions unit, said in an interview. In addition,
Microsoft can now support the offering.
Dalrymple said Aspect Software, which offers UC and
collaboration services and software, has been using this combination of Verizon
and Microsoft technology, and the company has saved $350,000 in telephony
circuit costs.
"It's very, very effective, and it's a big deal," he
said.
Verizon is readying a full line of hosted, dedicated and
management offerings based on Microsoft's UC platform and its own
infrastructure and management products.
In addition, Verizon is teaming with Cisco to expand its UC
business through a service that combines Verizon's Private IP network
infrastructure and Cisco's
TelePresence immersive video collaboration offerings.
The Verizon Immersive Video Conferencing Service for Cisco
TelePresence, which will be available in April, is a managed service that will
run on two Verizon Business Exchanges and make use of Verizon's Private IP
network infrastructure and Cisco's TelePresence technology.
With the two Business Exchanges, if one is interrupted, the
video connection will automatically switch over to the other one, with service
being re-established at the click of a button.
Telepresence environments are designed to give meeting
participants the feeling that everyone at the meeting is in the same room, even
though they may be half a world away. The telepresence rooms are created to
look the same, and the large screens and similar furnishings give the
impression of a face-to-face meeting.
Businesses are turning to immersive conferencing and video
collaboration solutions as a way to reduce travel costs while improving
productivity, Roberta Mackintosh, director of product management for Verizon's
Global UC&C unit, said in an interview.
"The ROI is so clear," Mackintosh said.
With the combination of Verizon's and Cisco's offerings,
customers can preconnect and preconfigure video circuits for their TelePresence
meetings and make reservations online or over the phone. In addition, Verizon
is offering two Business Video Network Operation Centers for concierge services
to set up and manage meetings.
Verizon will be demonstrating the technology at VoiceCon, which
runs through March 25.
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