500

Zultys announced its new MXmobile™ Unified Communications (UC) client for BlackBerry devices at the ITEXPO West 2009 show in Los Angeles, last week.

“Demand for UC mobility is on the rise, especially as mobile devices become more ubiquitous and companies across the spectrum grapple with the strict demands placed on them in the current business climate. The Zultys MXmobile client, initially available for BlackBerry devices, is a cost effective way for companies to go mobile, especially for SMB firms,” said Steve Morrison, VP product management and marketing for Zultys. “We take our motto ‘Collaboration in Action’ seriously, and we continue to innovate and add new features to our solution set. This product introduction makes users’ mobile device an equal benefactor of the increased productivity and reduced cost provided by Unified Communications.”

This new client delivers a complete UC experience to mobile workers ensuring they stay fully connected to all other employees, including office, home and other mobile workers. It also provides critical productivity-enhancing benefits like:

• Presence (to see the current state of employees, be they on a call, at lunch on in a meeting)
• Displayed voice mail
• Internal extension dialing
• Corporate directory access
• Call alerts
• Access to call handling rules

MXmobile can also intelligently route calls, providing Least Cost Routing for mobile handsets, which can significantly cuts costs. For example, the customary implementation of this new feature will mean that the office PBX initiates the mobile call not the mobile handset, therefore saving in outgoing mobile phone charges.

This ‘anytime, anywhere connectivity’ philosophy will make it faster and easier for a mobile worker to stay in contact with colleagues and customers, boosting productivity, cutting costs and increasing competitiveness.

MXmobile for Blackberry devices will be available in the fourth quarter of 2009. MXmobile for iPhone devices is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2010.

The full article, Zultys Announces MXmobile™ Unified Communications Client for Mobile Phones (.pdf) is available for download.

If you have any questions or would like to find out more about MXmobile, then call us on 0845 0000 500, or alternatively fill in our Contact Form.

‘Find Me, Follow Me’. How did you manage without it…?

Most modern VoIP telephone systems offer a plethora of advanced features which in turn have direct business benefits. Over the coming weeks we will peel back the layers on such advanced features and demonstrate how useful they can be.

What is ‘Find Me, Follow Me’…?
‘Find Me, Follow Me’ is more than a sophisticated call forwarding function, it is an intelligent service that ensures you are in contact when you need to be, no matter where you are, no matter what phones you have access to. Our 500 Premises product from Zultys implements sophisticated ‘Find Me, Follow Me’ rules via the personal unified communications client, ‘MXIE’. Each phone system user can use MXIE – at company site or remotely – to manage communications in a quick and simple manner. Rising above similar products, MXIE is extremely intuitive and is independent of computer operating system.

Flexibility…
The ‘Find Me, Follow Me’ functionality provides additional flexibility to an existing set of very advanced call handling rules already available within MXIE. It allows you to receive calls at up to sixteen different contact points – no other phone system is capable of doing this – through a set of a pre-defined numbers including internal, external numbers such as home and mobile numbers. The rules allow these numbers to be rung simultaneously or sequentially; if the latter then the order in which they are rung can also be determined, as can how long they ring for.

Our intelligent systems call the appropriate contact numbers to find you when an incoming call is received. Callers may be optionally advised that the system is trying to find you – or may be totally unaware that over the course of, say, five rings, several different phones have been called. Calls may be connected immediately upon answer or alternatively you may explicitly accept or reject the offered call if you wish, again, unbeknown to your caller.

An example: it takes just a minute to set up a rule to try your desk phone for three rings, then your mobile, then try a colleague or hunt group, then to your switchboard operator or voicemail. Alternatively, you way wish your home office phone to ring at the same time as your work office phone or you may wish your mobile phone to ring as soon as you are away from your desk for more than five minutes but only during working hours and when you’re not on holiday. The rules are simple or as granular as you wish.

Power…
‘Find Me, Follow Me’ rules also allow you to direct calls based on a time schedule or presence status. For example, any incoming call during a lunch break – determined by time or by a status – could be directed to a mobile number or a hunt group. The ‘Find Me, Follow Me’ functionality is extremely flexible, it can be set up by event – for example on ‘no answer’ or ‘any incoming call’ – or by certain conditions such as ‘time of the day’ or ‘holidays’ or ‘call from…’ a particular client or a combination of all of these.

Another example to illustrate: if a user is in a business meeting off site, they may have set up their call handling rules so that their calls will be directed to their colleagues in the marketing team. However, the user knows that they are due an important call from the Director / CEO and so has specifically set up the rule (or amended an existing rule) so that this call will be routed through to their mobile number. This type of functionality is also often used to recognise overdue accounts. The benefits of such functionality are clear.

“I’m sorry, I can’t take your call right now”…
‘Find Me, Follow Me’ is not just good news for you, it’s good news for your clients too as they are much more likely to be able to find you and so much less likely to end up leaving a voicemail or worse, simply hanging up or calling elsewhere.

Below is a screen shot of MXIE showing how easy it is to set up a sophisticated ‘Find Me, Follow Me’ call handling rule.

You truly will wonder how you coped without it – and so will your profit margins.

If you have any questions or would like to find out more about 500 Premises, then call us on 0845 0000 500, or alternatively fill in our Contact Form.

An express delivery of a presentation plaque in this morning’s post from Zultys head office in Silicon Valley granted 500 Limited Zultys Premier Reseller status!

Steve Rothenberg, CEO of Zultys Inc. acknowledged the commitment 500 has made in expanding the presence of Zultys solutions in the market and for bringing the benefits of Open Standards SIP-based Unified Communications to businesses.  He went on to say:

“On behalf of Zultys, please accept this token of recognition to 500 Limited for having earned Premier Reseller status.  Not only have you shown commitment in working to expand your business base, but you have proven your expertise in Zultys Unified Communications solutions and IP PBX and SIP phone products, and have demonstrated your ability to implement effective Zultys solutions for your customers.”

500 is committed to providing ‘best of breed’ premises-based IP PBX systems.  We believe that Zultys is currently the best open standards SIP PBX solutions provider available, having a proven track record and a committment to on-going product development such as ‘find me, follow me’, integrated web conferencing and later this year telepresence (video conferencing), ensuring the ongoing benefits of VoIP - and all at price point typically 25%-45% less than other offerings.

If you have any queries or questions then please call us on 0845 0000 500.

500 Limited was mentioned along site SA Law, a Hertfordshire law firm, in the March ‘09 newsletter

“Hertfordshire law firm SA Law has deployed a Zultys MX250 IP PBX unified comms/VoiP system.  The system includes support for telephony, voicemail, fax viewing, call recording, instant messaging, Microsoft Exchange, plus Outlook contacts and email.  The system implementation, including swapping out a legacy PBX and upgrading a BT ISDN service, was carried out over a weekend, so as to minimise disruption within the firm.  The project was handled for SA Law by two companies new to the Insider.  They were 500 Ltd (0845 0000 500) and Zultys’ UK distributor Siracom.”

If you would like any further information then please contact us on 0845 0000 500.

The NGN Leadership Award, from Next Generation Network magazine, has been established to recognize outstanding achievement in the IP Communications community, including outstanding products, services and technologies relating to IMS and NGN environments.  Zultys received this award for their recently delivered SIP next generation networking, mobility, and collaboration solutions.

“Zultys has been recognized for their exceptional work in advancing IMS and NGN services and technologies, and we honor Zultys with an NGN Leadership Award. With the significant growth in next generation network technologies, receiving this award distinguishes them as a leader in the
industry,” stated Rich Tehrani, president of TMC.

“Zultys is delighted to be the recipient of this prestigious award” said Steve Rothenberg, “We embraced open SIP standards at the inception of the company, which has allowed us to create innovative, energy efficient
SIP IP PBX solutions that pack a lot of features and functionality into a single server. This allows us to provide a lot of performance, with fewer servers, making our solution the most ‘green’ small and medium business Unified Communication and networking solution available”

Case studies are useful and necessary but sometimes it is refreshing when a client refers to you directly.

The Law Society Gazette recently published a piece on ‘Why aren’t your computers talking with your phone system?’.

Peter Goodman, a partner at SA Law in Hertfordshire, met with Rupert White, from The Law Society Gazette, to discuss how they were using computer-telephony integration, including VoIP, within the company.

“SA Law brought in a local IT/telephony company called 500 to tear out the ageing (and cranky, he told me) phones and exchange and wire everything up together.”

“The savings that could be made sound dramatic, and the capabilities that have become available to the firm since tying these areas together make a lot of sense. The phones are a lot cheaper, they can start recording calls easily, all voice work can be tied into case management, and their teleconferencing sounds vastly improved.”

Peter commented on the article written by Rupert, highlighting the flexibility of VoIP and Unified Communications.  “We’re well pleased.” he quotes.  He concludes, saying companies should consider a “supplier whose products are compatible with the open standards”.

The full article is available at ‘Why aren’t your computers talking with your phone system?’, Thursday 09 April 2009 by Rupert White.

MX250 IP PBX Recognized for Outstanding Innovation

Zultys, the premier developer and manufacturer of pure SIP-based Unified Communication solutions for businesses and enterprises, today announced that the company has been recognized with the 2008 Product of the Year Award from Unified Communications magazine (Technology Marketing Corporation–TMC®) for innovations to its family of advanced IP PBX products (such as the MX250 and MX30) and Unified Communications solutions.

“It’s very gratifying to be recognized by Unified Communications magazine with the 2008 Product of the Year Award for the difference we’re making in the global Unified Communication Marketplace,” said Steve Rothenberg, CEO of Zultys. “We’ve seen a warm reception by the market to the innovations we’ve made to our all-in-one IP PBX products, and the new features and capabilities we’ve been introducing that make it easier than ever to deploy and maintain organization-wide UC services that really impact a company’s bottom line. We’re continuing the momentum with our upcoming Release 5.0 with features such as “Find Me, Follow Me,” and MXconnect™ -the ability to make any phone, anywhere, your personal business phone, and much more.”

“Zultys has proven they are committed to quality and excellence while addressing real needs in the marketplace. Unified Communications is pleased to grant a 2008 Product of the Year Award to their MX250 IP PBX and the innovations in their Release 4.0 series of enhancements,” said Rich Tehrani, TMC President and Editor-in-Chief of Unified Communications magazine. “We’re pleased to honor their hard work and accomplishments, and look forward to more innovative solutions from Zultys in the future.”

A full list of Product of the Year winners will be published in the March/April, 2009 issue of Unified Communications magazine, www.uc-mag.com.

Zultys Licenses the Avistar C3 Media Engine™ – Powering Video for Zultys’ MXIE Unified Communications Desktop

San Mateo, Calif., March 11, 2009 — Avistar Communications Corp. (Nasdaq: AVSR), a leader in unified visual communications solutions, announced today that Zultys, Inc., a leading provider of all-in-one unified communication solutions, will integrate Avistar’s C3 Media Engine and make it available to its customers around the world. Through this agreement, Zultys customers will have the ability to add best-in-class desktop videoconferencing to their unified communications systems. Zultys plans to launch the integrated solution in the fall of 2009.

Simon Moss, CEO of Avistar, said, “After a thorough and competitive review, Zultys selected Avistar. Zultys is recognized for its innovative, open standards IP communications and telephony products. Avistar C3™ will help Zultys open new revenue streams and provide important new videoconferencing features that will strengthen its positioning in its markets worldwide.”

“Videoconferencing provides the ROI our customers are looking for as part of their unified communications solutions, especially in a down economy, where travel is well scrutinized,” said Steve Morrison, Vice President, Product Marketing, Zultys. “Avistar C3 augments our line of VoIP and web conferencing products, empowering our customers to collaborate and take aggressive action to remain competitive.”

Avistar C3 Media Engine
Based on the award-winning Avistar C3 Desktop™ solution, the Avistar C3 Media Engine provides a business class desktop videoconferencing experience to technology partners who require a visual communications experience within their applications. Business-class videoconferencing is recognized as a valuable communications tool that provides corporations serious cost savings, improved productivity and ROI. According to a recent Wainhouse Research study, one third of those polled see the use of videoconferencing accelerating given today’s economy, as it reduces the need and cost for travel plus improves collaboration and decision-making. At a fraction of the cost of typical videoconferencing solutions, Avistar C3 makes videoconferencing easy and approachable for both advanced and novice business users.

About Zultys
Zultys, Inc. is showing what’s possible for Open Standards IP communications and telephony. Its Open Standards IP technology is the building block for its award-winning IP PBX systems. Zultys develops products that enable companies and organizations in more than 110 countries and 19 languages to deploy integrated communications systems. For more information visit: www.zultys.com.

About Avistar Communications Corporation
Avistar (Nasdaq: AVSR) is a unified visual communications solutions, providing proven business-class technology. Avistar’s desktop videoconferencing installations include more than 100,000 committed desktop seats worldwide, bringing together business users anytime and anyplace. Companies such as IBM Corp., Sony Corp., LifeSize Communications, Inc. and Polycom Inc. use Avistar technology to power their unified communications solutions. Avistar works with leading-edge technology partners and resellers including CityIS, Beyondis, Datamart and Fontel in more than 40 countries.

An Insurance Age lead story this week was ‘Brokers warned of telecoms firms mis-selling call-recording devices’.

Insurance brokers are being urged not to fall victim to telecoms firms pitching call-recording equipment on the grounds of regulatory compliance.

Sean Ryan, a director of 500, was asked to comment.  He claimed they were exploiting the vague wording of the regulations, saying: “The FSA had to take a broad-brush approach to ensure it covers businesses that may offer cross-over services.

“However, it is not surprising to hear that some telecommunications companies may be mis-selling call-recording products and services following the FSA’s policy statement. Ignorance of the applicability of the policy may be used as an opportunity for pushing call-recording technology to companies that do not require it.”

Here at 500 you can be assured not only of our knowledge and expertise but also of our integrity and honesty.

The full article can be read at:
insuranceage.com - ‘Brokers warned of telecoms firms mis-selling call-recording devices’.