NEC just announced its plans to launch a cloud telephony service specifically for Australian SMEs. According to a statement on NEC’s (News - Alert) website, “NEC Australia is a leading communications systems integrator delivering ICT, communications and network solutions to enterprises, government, small businesses and carriers.” Now small to medium sized businesses will benefit even more by the company, with access to a scalable cloud telephony solution. NEC’s cloud-delivered private branch exchange (PBX (News - Alert)) and unified communications (UC) platform can be scaled quickly from four extensions, including up to 200 plus extensions at single or multiple sites. This will allow businesses using NEC’s service to grow without incurring additional infrastructure and integration costs.
Senior manager of emerging technology at NEC Australia, Paul Woosnam listed additional benefits of the service, including “reduction in capital spending and technology risk, increased business agility, and the ability to consume services as required.” The service will be delivered over broadband, and will provide an alternative offering to the traditional on-premise solution. There will be no need for businesses to invest in on-site PBX and PSTN services, and thereby no need to spend more for the same benefits—this eliminates maintenance costs and the technical risks of maintaining the hardware.
NEC’s cloud solution is being offered as a bundled service on a single monthly bill, and will be backed 24/7 through the company’s Melbourne-based local network operations center. This new service comes as a result of heavy investing by NEC in a plan to develop a secure and resilient infrastructure that is hosted, managed and maintained all within Australia. The offering will bring enterprise-grade unified communications features to the small and medium sized businesses, all through the cloud communicator client. Such features include presence and instant messaging, softphone, click to call, fax to email, and supporting Outlook contact integration.
“The platform also extends the reach of the office PBX to home and mobile workers by leveraging the ubiquitous internet and availability of compatible softphone clients for devices such as laptops, smartphones and tablets,” said Woosnam, who added the platform “is a fully functional multi-tenant solution and provides a secure role-based web management interface.”
This will allow system administrators to perform company-wide changes, as well as enabling end-users to manage their call handling. This announcement comes just as the NEC Corporation announced its agreement to acquire the Australian ICT company CSG Limited’s Technology Solutions (News - Alert) business. Both announcements are consistent with NEC’s global growth strategy, as well as supporting NEC Australia’s vision of becoming a leading Australian ICT services company.
Edited by Juliana Kenny