Siemens Enterprise Communications made their first significant product announcement since their acquisition by the Gores Group, and it provides some major upgrades to their mobile UC product lineup. Siemens' product enhancements slipped under the radar while their business prospects were in question, but they are now coming out swinging.
Siemens Enterprise Communications made their first significant product announcement since their acquisition by the Gores Group, and it provides some major upgrades to their mobile UC product lineup. Siemens' product enhancements slipped under the radar while their business prospects were in question, but they are now coming out swinging.Siemens can boast the broadest product reach of any supplier in the mobile UC arena, and that includes much larger suppliers like Cisco and Avaya. Only Siemens has a product line that encompasses IP PBX (HiPath), wireless LAN (HiPath Wireless/Chantry Networks), unified communications (OpenScape), Mobile UC (OpenScape UC Mobile Client), fixed mobile convergence (HiPath MobileConnect) and voice over WLAN (OptiPoint) segments. Through the Gores association, they can add the Enterasys line or wired infrastructure and security products to that list as well.
Siemens supports a line of mobility options that will allow users to have single number availability, single voicemail, and operate over wireless LANs, cellular services, or both. Today's announcement covered enhancements in a number of those product lines.
* HiPath Wireless (V5R3): This is a software upgrade for Siemens' centrally-controlled WLAN switching system. The architecture of the HiPath Wireless solution supports both distributed traffic forwarding to minimize delay and centralized forwarding for high security. The new controller software provides rate shaping with the ability to allocate WLAN capacity on a per station basis. Used in conjunction with the 802.11e/Wi-Fi Multimedia quality of service, this feature can help ensure sufficient capacity for high quality voice regardless of other network traffic. The upgrade also allows for rapid (i.e. * HiPath MobileConnect (V2): MobileConnect is Siemens' dual mode Wi-Fi/cellular FMC solution. This latest release provides enhanced roaming and security for remote users. They now support VPN access so users can place secure voice calls through home Wi-Fi networks and public hot spots. Traveling users can now roam to other company locations with MobileConnect systems installed and be able to make and receive calls through them. For international travelers, this will provide the ability to route their in-country calls through the local PBX, a major savings over international cellular roaming.
* The New OpenScape UC Application Mobile Client: From a user perspective, the most interesting part of the announcement is a enhanced mobile UC client. Siemens has one of the few mobile UC solutions that can provide presence status to the mobile device. The new mobile client operates on RIM, Symbian and Windows mobile devices, and works with their OpenScape UC Application Enterprise Edition Server. Their voice portal allows mobile users to activate features and change preferences via voice commands.
While Siemens does have the widest range of mobility elements, they are still wrestling the pieces into a consistent product line with standard features and interfaces across all platforms. For example, the OpenScape UC Application Mobile Client supports presence but the MobileConnect client does not. Further, the Mobile UC solution has a RIM (i.e. Blackberry) client, but the MobileConnect does not. This problem is not unique to Siemens however, as virtually every mobile UC vendor is in the same predicament, and none can offer a dual-mode solution that supports a RIM client.
According to Luc Roy, Vice President of Enterprise Mobility for Siemens, their advantage is the ability to offer the customer the full menu of options all under one product umbrella. As mobility is still relatively new to most organizations, this approach provides the customer the opportunity to test different solutions in different groups and determine what's the most effective strategy for each. With their support for the new higher capacity 802.11n radio link, they also have the potential to opt for an all-wireless solution if they so choose. They are also offering a range of pricing packages for the various solutions as well as a-la-carte pricing.
Mobility has become one of the key drivers for unified communications. Whether or not the all-wireless vision is realized, Siemens is now setting the pace for enterprise mobility.
* The New OpenScape UC Application Mobile Client: From a user perspective, the most interesting part of the announcement is a enhanced mobile UC client. Siemens has one of the few mobile UC solutions that can provide presence status to the mobile device. The new mobile client operates on RIM, Symbian and Windows mobile devices, and works with their OpenScape UC Application Enterprise Edition Server. Their voice portal allows mobile users to activate features and change preferences via voice commands.
While Siemens does have the widest range of mobility elements, they are still wrestling the pieces into a consistent product line with standard features and interfaces across all platforms. For example, the OpenScape UC Application Mobile Client supports presence but the MobileConnect client does not. Further, the Mobile UC solution has a RIM (i.e. Blackberry) client, but the MobileConnect does not. This problem is not unique to Siemens however, as virtually every mobile UC vendor is in the same predicament, and none can offer a dual-mode solution that supports a RIM client.
According to Luc Roy, Vice President of Enterprise Mobility for Siemens, their advantage is the ability to offer the customer the full menu of options all under one product umbrella. As mobility is still relatively new to most organizations, this approach provides the customer the opportunity to test different solutions in different groups and determine what's the most effective strategy for each. With their support for the new higher capacity 802.11n radio link, they also have the potential to opt for an all-wireless solution if they so choose. They are also offering a range of pricing packages for the various solutions as well as a-la-carte pricing.
Mobility has become one of the key drivers for unified communications. Whether or not the all-wireless vision is realized, Siemens is now setting the pace for enterprise mobility.
