MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2008 Frost & Sullivan Growth Strategy Leadership Award in the European enterprise communications market is presented to Aastra Technologies Ltd. The company is one of the largest participants in the European business telephony market. Its aggressive strategy of organic and acquisitive growth has positioned it among the top three European vendors and as a leader globally in enterprise communications. While many of its competitors are currently struggling, Aastra has had a decade of consecutive profitable quarters. It has successfully moved up the infrastructure value chain in the enterprise communications business.

"The company's history of acquisitions reveal a consistent growth strategy and total focus on enterprise communications," notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Dorota Oviedo. "Importantly, all new acquisitions have been complementary, in terms of technological expertise, product portfolio, distribution networks and geographic presence."

Starting with the acquisition of Nortel's analogue telephone business, the company has grown to enter the PBX market with the acquisitions of Ascom's PBX division (2003), EADS Telecom (2005) and DeTeWe KG (2005). Ericsson, its latest and largest in scale acquisition, further complements Aastra's product portfolio, with solutions for large enterprise and mobility.

"The move extends the company's reach in internet protocol Communication Servers, Unified Communication applications and integrated mobility with the concept of 'one phone'," explains Oviedo. "It corresponds with Aastra's vision that anticipates future potential growth in integrating unified communications with business applications."

The acquisition of the Ericsson Enterprise Communications Business also broadens Aastra's geographic reach, with new channels into emerging markets. Aastra's customer base has widened substantially both in Europe and globally, especially in markets such as Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand), and North and South America.

Currently, Aastra Technologies offers a strong portfolio that includes the Opencom series and Ascotel series for the SMB market. The company also offers NeXspan series and the MX-ONE platform for the MLE market. The vendor is particularly strong in the sub-50 and -250 to 1000 segments. In 2007, Aastra introduced session initiation protocol (SIP)-based 5i series deskphones in the North American region.

"Aastra aims to reinforce its position in the large enterprise segment and has launched an ambitious new product called Aastra 5000 -- an open standards-based, IP telephony software product that targets large enterprises with multi-site networks," adds Oviedo. "Aastra 5000 will also enable the migration of the large NeXspan installed base A5000 together with Ericsson MX-ONE platform, extending Aastra's customer base into large enterprises across Europe and globally."

Aastra is also a recent entrant in the open source telephony market in Europe, and is one of the first traditional telephony vendors to enter this space with its Aastra Online offering. The goal of Aastra Online is to explore the concept of providing communication solutions managed remotely, as well as to sell and install the communications services via Internet.

"This new e-commerce type approach represents a completely new venue in the space," remarks Oviedo. "Open source telephony is forecasted to grow very strongly in the coming years and it creates a source of potential revenue for Aastra, especially in the SMB sector, traditionally underserved by the telephony vendors."

The Frost & Sullivan Award for Growth Strategy Leadership is given each year to the company that has demonstrated an exceptional growth strategy within their industry.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognise companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About Aastra Technologies
Aastra Technologies Limited (TSX: AAH), is a leading company at the forefront of the enterprise communication market. Headquartered in Concord, Ontario, Canada, Aastra develops and delivers innovative communications products and applications for businesses. Aastra's operations are truly global with more than 50 million installed lines around the world and a direct and indirect presence in more than 100 countries. Aastra is entirely dedicated to enterprise communications and offers one of the most complete portfolios of unified communications solutions individually tailored to satisfy its customers' requirements. These range from feature-rich call managers for small and medium businesses and highly scalable ones for large enterprises, integrated mobility, call centers solutions to a wide selection of terminals. With a strong focus on open standards, Aastra enables enterprises to communicate and collaborate more efficiently. For additional information on Aastra, visit our website at http://www.aastra.com/

Aastra Press Agency: Rainier PR, Geraldine Grewal, Tel: 0207 494 6570, Email: aastrapr@rainier.co.uk

About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients to accelerate their growth. The company's TEAM Research, Growth Consulting and Growth Team Membership(TM) empower clients to create a growth-focused culture that generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 30 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost & Sullivan's Growth Partnerships, visit http://www.frost.com.

Media Contact: Ciara Connolly, Senior Events & Promotions Executive,
Best Practices
Frost & Sullivan, P: 44 (0) 207 915 7868,
E: ciara.connolly@frost.com

Frost & Sullivan

CONTACT: Ciara Connolly, Senior Events & Promotions Executive, BestPractices, of Frost & Sullivan, 44 (0) 207 915 7868, ciara.connolly@frost.com

Web site: http://www.frost.com/http://www.aastra.com/

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