Siemens brings unified comms to mobiles

Siemens claims the first end-to-end mobile unified comms platform

Siemens has unveiled a unified communications platform designed to seamlessly integrate mobile handsets with enterprise communications infrastructures, positioning itself as a one-stop supplier that can provide an end-to-end solution for customers.

OpenScape Mobility is a suite of products that brings together enterprise telephony, wireless and fixed-mobile convergence to create a single mobile unified communications platform, the company said.

The suite enables workers to have a single phone number whether at their desk or out of the office, with seamless handover between a cellular network and Wi-Fi, allowing organisations to save on costs by routing mobile calls through their own network when an employee is on-site. It also supports a broad range of business handsets.

Siemens said it can also make some parts of the suite, such as device management, available as a managed service for customers that do not want the whole package installed behind the firewall.

Tim Thaxter, solution marketing manager for unified communications at Siemens, explained that increased worker mobility is leading to fragmented communications with multiple ways of contacting people and multiple inboxes for workers to deal with.

"Mobile costs are skyrocketing, because if I try to reach you the call is probably from my mobile and the cost of these failed calls all adds up," he said.

With unified communications, workers can see their colleagues' presence status across a number of platforms.

"I can see if you are available and I can call you, or I can see that you're in a meeting and should call you later when you are available again," Thaxter said.

OpenScape also enables workers to set up a conference call with colleagues and invite third parties to join the call, and supports instant messaging.

Graham Gilbert, solutions marketing manager for mobility at Siemens, said that businesses are likely to cut back on their fixed-line phones in future. Some organisations are already equipping workers with only a mobile handset, he claimed.

Fully unified communications has been promised many times in the past, but Gilbert claimed that Siemens has now achieved this goal.

"We believe we've got there now. We can offer customers a single device they can use at home, or in the office, over GSM, 3G or Wi-Fi, and it delivers the same information in each case," he said.

At the heart of OpenScape Mobility is Siemens' OpenScape UC Server that sits in the datacentre alongside a HiPath Wireless Controller to manage a firm's Wi-Fi access points.

While this is intended to work with Siemens' own 802.11n access points, it will also support existing infrastructure.

"If a customer has a wireless LAN in place that matches the criteria we require, there's no reason it shouldn't work," said Gilbert.

The key thing, he added, is that Siemens can support seamless handover. "We can do this from Wi-Fi to GSM and back again without user intervention, while the user is on a call, and they won't notice," he said.

Another important feature for firms is device management, especially the ability to remotely lock a missing handset, which Siemens said it can offer as a managed service to customers.

"We believe software-as-a-service via a portal is the best approach," said Gilbert. This will see a Siemens branded service delivered for a small fee of about £5 per user per month, he added.

On the handset side, Siemens said it provides SIP clients for a broad range of mobile platforms, including Windows Mobile, Symbian, BlackBerry and even Apple's iPhone. There is also a web client for a Windows PC or laptop.

Siemens has a major rival in the shape of Microsoft's Office Communications Server (OCS), which also offers unified communications capabilities.

Thaxter said that OpenScape can complement OCS, but that Siemens is much stronger in voice and carrier grade resiliency, and that Microsoft is focused on Windows Mobile handsets so does not have a cross-platform solution.

Siemens claimed that it is uniquely placed to help customers implement a unified communications infrastructure, and can also help with Wi-Fi site surveys and installation.

The company also said it can offer the entire OpenScape Mobility as a managed service on a per-user per-month basis.