snom technology AG (News - Alert) was founded in Berlin in 1996, and was one of the first companies to offer VoIP phones. Innovation at the company has continued, and several of the new phones offered by snom are qualified to work with Microsoft (News - Alert) Lync. They have undergone rigorous review and testing before being given the recognition.

“That’s a big deal,” Michael Storella, snom COO, told TMCnet’s Rachel Ramsey during a recent interview at ITEXPO (News - Alert). “We worked long and hard to get that qualification with Microsoft.”

He highlighted such phones as three in the company’s 700 series – the 710, 720 and 760 – as well as the 300, 370 and the 821. These are based on the SIP protocol. They are VoIP devices and work with Microsoft Lync and on SIP servers or on other products that use SIP.

“It’s a pretty versatile new phone that we’ve announced,” Storella said.

In September 2011, the snom 300 and snom 821 became the first SIP phones to achieve “Qualified for Microsoft Lync” status. The six phones that are qualified for Lync represent the “largest and most extensive family of standards-based business phones qualified for Microsoft Lync enterprise environments,” the company reported in a statement.

Also, snom also recently announced it will support enhanced Lync features for its snom Unified Communications (News - Alert) (UC) phones, which are expected to be released commercially in coming months. They will offer deeper integration and support for Lync collaboration and calling features, including Click to Call.

In addition, they will have a Lync Conference User Interface, which will let users have an easy way to join and take part in Lync web conferences, using the snom UC edition phones. Some of the snom UC edition phones also have advanced features, such as adding multiple participants to an existing call, Boss/Admin, Call Park, Music on Hold, search capabilities for global and Lync contacts and call transfer capabilities to mobile pho.