Mitel Integrates Vidyo Video Conferencing Solutions Into UC Suite

Mitel Communications is bringing video capabilities to its unified communications offerings by integrating Vidyo’s software-based video and telepresence solutions across its entire line of collaboration products.

Mitel also is making Vidyo’s solutions part of its cloud-based communications offering, MiCloud.

The integration of Vidyo’s technology, announced June 25, fills a critical gap in Mitel’s unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) offerings, according to Ron Wellard, executive vice president and general manager of Mitel.

“Video is a game changer for business communications, delivering an intuitive real-time experience that boosts productivity and builds closer team cohesion,” Wellard said in a statement. “Getting video to actually work within the organization and especially across other media, on the other hand, has been a challenge. Our integrated Vidyo solution, closely tying video into our MiCollab and MiVoice platforms, will cut costs, reduce complexity and make video easily and pervasively available to enhance collaboration.”

The reseller and distribution agreement with Vidyo is the latest in a string of announcements from Mitel in recent weeks. In May, Mitel, which offers both cloud- and premises-based UC&C solutions, announced a deal with Sprint’s Emerging Solutions and Global Wholesale division to make it easier for resellers to sell cloud-based services to smaller businesses.

Earlier this month, the company adopted a new product naming strategy designed to be more straightforward and easier for customers and partners to use and identify. Along with MiCloud, Mitel’s three core areas are now known as MiCollab (for UC&C offerings that include products once called UCA, MCA and NuPoint), MiVoice (for voice platforms and phones, including MCD, 5000 CP, Mitel 5300 IP phones and 8500 digital phones), and MiContactCenter, for the company’s contact center solutions.

Around the same time, Mitel announced MiVoice for Lync, a plug-in to Microsoft’s Lync client, and the integration of MiCollab with Google’s cloud platform and Google Apps.

Mitel also bulked up its contact center capabilities when it announced June 17 that it bought prairieFrye, a contact center software vendor.

The deal with Vidyo is the latest move by Mitel officials to expand the company’s capabilities. Video increasingly is becoming a key part of unified communications, making it easier and more productive to collaborate not only with other colleagues in the same company, but also outside the company walls with partners, suppliers and customers, according to Mitel officials.

Combining Mitel’s and Vidyo’s software-based solutions also brings business-class video conferencing to a wide range of devices, from smartphones and tablets to notebooks, desktop PCs and room-based systems, and does so across all networks, both of which are key to any bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs, they said.

“After shipping two generations of scalable and cost effective systems that can scale personal telepresence from legacy room system to mobile and desktop, we are focused on making our best-in-class conferencing infrastructure even more accessible to end users,” Vidyo co-founder and CEO Ofer Shapiro said in a statement. “We are excited by the collaboration with Mitel that will put our immersive conferencing infrastructure a click away from any Mitel UC users.”