Covergence Integrates Multi-vendor PBX Environments into Microsoft Office Communicator Client without Requiring Rip and Replace of Existing Telephony Infrastructure

2008-08-25 16:26:01 -

www.covergence.com - Covergence: Heather Sill, 781-789-8907 hsill@covergence.com or Media Relations: Tim Morin, 617-758-4158 covergence@famapr.com Covergence(R), Inc., the leading provider of solutions that enable organizations to deploy, control, manage and utilize voice in the same manner they do today with their existing enterprise applications, today unveiled Covergence Call Control (CCC) which extends enterprise PBX investments by incorporating them into Unified Communications (UC) platforms such as Microsoft's Office Communications Server (OCS).

Many forward-looking organizations have begun adopting UC platforms, but their initiatives to improve communications, increase collaboration and improve productivity have been postponed due to the fact that most PBX vendors don't support third-party integration. CCC enables that integration and brings UC functionality to OCS. With CCC, users manage their telephone communications directly from their MS Office Communicator (MOC) and can initiate calls from any location using the phone of their choice - PBX, cellular or home. The service also adds PBX line presence so users can see the availability status of their internal and external contacts and use the click-to-call function to speak with them directly. Click-to-call dialing simplifies telephony and eliminates the use of paper or online telephone directories.

"We provided this capability for our service provider customers using Broadsoft and now we are bringing it to our enterprise customers," said Covergence President and CEO Jim Moran. "Large enterprises have hundreds or even thousands of PBXs and this new solution allows organizations to interconnect all their PBXs with their MOC clients without costly upgrades."

A lack of interoperability between communications platforms is a critical factor preventing UC from reaching critical mass within enterprises. CCC breaks down some of these barriers by translating telephony information between uaCSTA and PBX-supported protocols such as JTAPI (Java Telephony API) and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and by effectively acting as a gateway between the OCS server and the enterprise PBX. This allows companies to easily integrate their PBX into their UC deployment strategies and provides them with a variety of new features including PBX line presence and call control.

"While companies are taking measured steps towards achieving their UC goals, they are also looking for cost-effective solutions that leverage their existing infrastructure as much as possible during migration," said IDC Senior Research Analyst Nora Freedman. "Solutions like Covergence's latest offering helps to address this need by integrating legacy systems with proprietary communications standards associated with the latest UC platforms."

CCC marks the second installment of Covergence's latest interoperability subscription services. Earlier this month, the company announced the availability of the Covergence Collaboration Gateway. The Covergence Collaboration Gateway delivers controlled, secure connectivity between disparate UC platforms including Microsoft (OCS) and IBM Lotus Sametime, allowing users from different organizations - even different companies - to work together as if they were served by the same UC platform, enjoying shared presence information, instant messaging and other features.

Covergence Call Control is available immediately. To learn more, visit www.covergence.com.

About Covergence

Covergence is the leading provider of next-generation Session Border Controllers and Session Management solutions to the Global 1000. Covergence enables large enterprises to transition to Voice over IP and Unified Communications by ensuring that all real-time communications comply with the organization's security, regulatory and business requirements. The award-winning Covergence Session Management Suite(C) is the most comprehensive solution available for integrating, controlling, managing and protecting SIP-based applications and services. www.covergence.com

Covergence and Covergence Session Manager are registered trademarks of Covergence. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Company's Latest Subscription Service Provides PBX Line Presence
and Click-to-Call Functionality to Microsoft Office Communicator
Client