Seeking to unify its unified communications segment, West Corporation has rebranded its Smoothstone (News - Alert) division. West acquired Smoothstone in June of 2011 and has decided to rename the subsidiary West IP Communications (WIPC).

The IP communications subsidiary will serve as part of West’s unified communications business segment. It will specialize in facilitating cloud-based delivery of voice services, network services, contact centers and collaboration.

According to Todd Strubbe, president of West’s Unified Communications (News - Alert) business segment, the rebranding is intended to create a consistent voice for the company throughout the marketplace.“Our vision for unified communications always begins with our clients, so we want to ensure they understand the full breadth of the West product portfolio upon which they can build their businesses,” Strubbe stated in a press release.

Recently, Gartner (News - Alert) placed West in the “challengers” quadrant of its 2011 “Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service, North America.”

In addition, West’s partners also feel that the company is destined to be a player in this space for quite some time. Jim Suss, co-founder and president of West IP Communications partner LAM Technology, stated, “It’s easy to do business with West IP Communications, and we foresee a bright future, built on its sales strategy emphasizing expertise and solutions selling. We appreciate the emphasis on customer service and innovation that West delivers, and how that translates into sales for our organization.”

Last year, upon the acquisition of Smoothstone by West, TMCnet spoke to James Whitemore, executive vice president at Smoothstone, about the transaction. “It is a natural fit for their existing business. Over the last several years, West has been building out their portfolio of services including a recent acquisition of the company SKT, which provides professional services around deployment of IP based PBX’s (News - Alert). Smoothstone is a natural fit, as there is very little overlap in both company’s products and portfolios,” Whitemore said.