Adtech Global Solutions (AGS), Sphere Communications, Inc., and Polycom, Inc. announced an agreement to provide an IP PBX solution for small and medium businesses.

 

The Sphere Business Communications System — as the solution has been named — is based on Release 5 of the Sphericall IP PBX, featuring integration with Polycom (News - Alert)’s SoundPoint line of IP desktop and SoundStation IP conference endpoints. The system delivers business users high quality audio from a range of desktop, premium speaker, and conference room phones, along with desktop video, text messaging, unified communications, presence, on-demand conferencing, recording, and more.

Sphere and Polycom recently received the stringent Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) PBX1 certification required for deployments in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). In fact, Sphere is one of only two PBX vendors to have achieved PBX1 certification. The JITC certification tests for security, reliability, performance and interoperability.

 

Though the PBX1 certification was only recently achieved, Sphere, along with Polycom, have been deployed by the DoD for several years, including a potentially expanding presence at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — the facility was required to wait for Sphere to become PBX1 certified before approving any additional deployments.

 

One of the advantages of working with Sphere, according to Arthur Doutt, Project Manager for Network Support Service for Walter Reed Army Medical Center, is that Sphere is dedicated to constantly improving the product. “Sphere has bent over backwards for Walter Reed and we’re very appreciative of that.,” he said.

 

In fact, Doutt also noted that the system is so easy to maintain and use that they find themselves in situations where people have moved their telephones to e new location without informing the network administrator. “The service is so easy that individual customers become overconfident and think it will work no matter where they place the phone.”

 

The Business Communications System is based on this combined solution and Sphere has partnered with AGS for its delivery for commercial businesses. AGS is leveraging its expertise in packaging the products and will provide professional services and support. It will also provide a set of pre-configuration and staging services designed to significantly reduce installation of new phone systems. The end result is a single point of access for a complete professional-grade business communications system.

“We are thrilled to be able to announce this alliance between our three companies,” Tim Shadburn, CEO of Adtech Global Solutions, said. “This opportunity gives AGS the chance to showcase what we do best: offer state-of- the-art server solutions along with our outstanding Professional Services and Support packages which compliment the hardware we deliver. We are proud to be associated with two industry-leading, high-caliber technology providers like Sphere and Polycom, and we look forward to delivering this comprehensive, powerful bundled package to SMB businesses.”

At the heart of the system is the Sphere Business Communications Server, a pre-installed server providing completely integrated IP PBX functionality — the same system that is JITC-certified. The system is able to grow one line at a time from the smallest of configurations scaling up to meet the needs of even the largest businesses — the Memphic City School District has some 20,000 users in more than 200 locations (Sphere says the system is scalable to 30,000 ports). The new Business Communications System consists of several modular components, allowing businesses to adapt the system to their own communications’ needs.

 

“Every business should demand a system to have passed the same high level of testing as required by the DoD," said Graeme Robinson, President, Sphere Communications Inc. “The Sphere Business Communications System delivers just that with the highest quality IP telephones available in the marketplace.”

 

Polycom provides three business class desktop SoundPoint IP phones, which offer rich feature support through a combination of intuitive hard and soft keys with large graphical displays, and the industry leading SoundPoint IP 4000 SIP conference phone. Sphere provides several modular plug-and-play gateways that provide support for analog telephones, digital or analog PSTN connectivity, as well as a 60-person conference bridge appliance.

“The Sphere Business Communications System has hundreds of advanced features that businesses expect but often find missing in other IP PBX solutions," added Todd Landry, Senior Vice President, Sphere Communications Inc. "The system includes a rich set of web services allowing the communications capabilities of the IP PBX to be integrated into other business applications."

"We are excited about our relationship with Sphere and this latest offering for the small and medium-size enterprise market," said Sunil Bhalla, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Voice Communications, Polycom, Inc. "The combination of our products has created a solution that meets stringent government standards, and we are now bringing this to the commercial business world."

The Business Communications System will be available in April with a new set of partner programs for resellers that want to focus on a secure, reliable, and easy to deliver communications system for their clients.