Bezeq (News - Alert), Israel’s largest telecommunications group, has long been a friend of BroadSoft’s but recently the company announced that it will be leveraging the friendship in a whole new way.
Since 2005, Bezeq has relied upon BroadWorks for a hosted PBX (News - Alert) service that has grown to support tens of thousands of enterprises. Recently, Bezeq tapped BroadSoft’s BroadWorks voice application platform to power Bezeq’s newly launched hosted Unified Communications (News - Alert) (UC) service for Israeli businesses of all sizes.
This new partnership will allow Bezeq to deliver an enterprise offering that extends beyond standard PBX capabilities, to include a range of hosted communications services such as unified messaging, enhanced voicemail, voicemail to email and meet-me conferencing.
“The versatility of BroadWorks is well suited to the diverse communications needs of our customers,” said Yuval Keinan, chief technology officer of Bezeq. “The ability of the BroadWorks platform to provide a full range of hosted services enables Bezeq to cultivate the subscriber relationship by offering a new suite of innovative services that improves our value proposition and helps us to differentiate our offerings from competitors.”
Bezeq currently tailors to four distinct business segments that range from Small Office Home Office (SOHO) environments, with just a handful of users to large, multi-location organizations supporting hundreds of employees. Bezeq enlisted the help of BroadSoft (News - Alert) because the company offers a single platform from which it could provide each business segment with a customized offering that includes hosted communications services most applicable to their specific needs.
The hosted UC service will enable global service providers to deliver a hosted offering that can include: scalability and reliability; proven deployments and an open platform.
“We've enjoyed a tremendous working relationship with Bezeq,” said Leslie Ferry, vice president of Marketing at BroadSoft. “The fact that it was one of the first service providers to leverage BroadWorks is a testament to its long-term commitment to innovation in meeting the communications needs of its customers. With its powerful capabilities and ease of use, BroadWorks continues to enable service providers like Bezeq to meet the cost, feature and functionality needs of business customers of all sizes.”
In other industry news, recently SatelCall – a small carrier that delivers VoIP and TDM solutions to mostly call shops and Internet cafes – sat down with TMCnet to discuss why it decided to select Sonetel’s PBX service.
According to company officials, SatelCall reached a crossroads when it determined that its current hardware-based PBX solution was not cutting it anymore. Accordingly, its quest for an easier, more user friendly PBX system led it to Sonetel, a company that offers a solution that “goes far beyond a mere PBX,” Guillermo Aguilar, owner of SatelCall, told TMCnet.
“The ease of configuration of the Sonetel system is much more attractive to the small business, since it is an IP PBX system for unlimited users that can communicate wherever your associates and business contacts are,” he said. “For a small fee, you can also get, from Sonetel, local numbers in many countries around the world and/or regions within Spain. You can have a worldwide service operating, without the need to purchase expensive hardware locally.”
Sonetel is a Swedish-based company that globally offers a free, scalable PBX service. Touted as “the easiest, cheapest and fastest way” to get a telephony solution for your company, Sonetel is in the midst of commemorating its one-year anniversary, having unveiled the first version of its phone system in late 2010. More than a year later, Sonetel has established itself as the only company worldwide offering a free, scalable PBX service, according to company officials.
Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO East 2012, taking place Jan. 31-Feb. 3 2012, in Miami, FL. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO registration click here.
Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.
Carrie Schmelkin is a Web Editor for TMCnet. Previously, she worked as Assistant Editor at the New Canaan Advertiser, a 102-year-old weekly newspaper, covering news and enhancing the publication's social media initiatives. Carrie holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and a bachelor's degree in English from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Jennifer Russell