Siemens releases new UC platform

Siemens Communications has launched a new unified communications software platform, OpenScape Unified Communications Server. The platform is software based and fully integrates voice, data and video. It works on top of any telephony environment, traditional, IP or hybrid. Siemens claims it is the first truly integrated UC platform and has aggressively priced its full offering at just under $40,000 per 100 seats.

Siemens claims its UC platform will drive 15-20 percent savings over VoIP-only services and a further 5 percent savings by taking a managed-services approach. It also claims a $12,000-a-year per-worker saving from the productivity gains from using its UC application program. The gains come from a each worker improving five hour per week in business decision making by removing the inherent latency in traditional work-flow processes. Siemens also is claiming a possible 97 percent reduction in meetings through the use of its end-to-end video conferencing capability. This would generate savings of $37,000  a year.

The platform is Siemens' first major release since declaring itself a "software " company earlier this year--part of a transformation from a a traditional hardware-centric vendor. Siemens predicts all next-generation large-enterprise unified communications will be software based and that voice will be the foundation for the new multi-media business communications paradigm.

"Siemens believes that voice remains the most natural and effective form of human communications and has built OpenScape UC Server from the ground up as an open, SIP-based, software IT communications and UC application foundation with shared web-services components that leverage the company's OpenSOA architecture," the company said today in its announcement.

The server assumes a multi-vendor environment and is being pitched as  working on top of any client, IP, IT, or telephony infrastructure without proprietary technology stacks. It comes in medium and large enterprise packages or as a hosted service. The OpenScape UC Server enables presence, administration, session control and other shared services for the current and planned family of OpenScape UC suite of applications. New modular capabilities are enabled by activating the desired license keys on a user-by-user basis.

The server release comes as all the major vendors are aggressively seeking to gain enterprise acceptance for their variety of UC offerings. Siemens true integration and interoperability features will significantly challenge both Cisco and Microsoft's current offerings.

For more:
- Siemens Communications OpenScape UC Server release
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Related articles:
Cisco vs. Microsoft in unified comms Article [2]
Google releases UC for the masses Article [3]