Optus befriends NEC for new UC offering

Optus has partnered with NEC to deliver unified communications (UC) solutions to small and medium businesses (SMBs) through a package combining fixed and mobile services.

The service, called Optus One Office is combined with the telco's 'yes' Business Totality PABX offering. It includes the supply and maintenance of NEC SP 8000, SP 8100 or SP 8100 SE range of telecommunications servers and NEC desktop handsets with Optus fixed and mobile services.

According to NEC AGM strategic business partners, Anthony Carilla, after 12 months of negotiations it was the company's pedigree and its UC capability which enabled it to seal the partnership with Optus.

“One of the reasons why our products were selected was because of their ability to integrate with Optus mobile devices into the One Office offering,” Carilla said.

“As the market becomes a lot more educated on the benefits of UC, they are starting to embrace its applications and also many of its productivity tools.”

To coincide with the announcement, Optus released survey figures which revealed more than one-third of Australia's SMBs believe managing costs will be their biggest issue in 2010.

“In terms of articulating a value proposition on UC, the manufacturers or vendors that develop these technologies are providing stronger value propositions which are more easily understood and which are more relevant to customer requirements,” Carilla said.

Analysts agree that the economic downturn has seen a rapid uptake of UC technologies, as companies attempt to achieve cost savings and cut down on work related travel.

Optus One Office is available to SMBs with ten or more employees who make intra-office calls in Australia via mobile or fixed line.