Category Archives: Foundations

Jan 29 2010

IBM Presents NEC Partner Solution for Lotus Foundations

10 Ways you can make Communications in your Small Business into Smart Business was the mantra for this story.  While the focus on how easy it is to install and manage was the starting point, and great for dealers that want to focus on making money with their time not on configuring servers, the real question for the end customer is how does it change what I can do.

The slides says it all – if how easily and effectively your employees collaborate in your business has an effect on decision making, communicating with customers, staying on top of opportunities, and solving problems more effectively then you can choose the ingredients you need to make that happen.  Pretty cool!!

Jan 19 2010

NEC WINS IBM Lotus CTO Award!!

Bringing together NEC technologies to create powerful solutions is what really strikes the hearts and minds of IBMers. In fact, it really strikes when you are utilizing IBM software technologies. At the Lotusphere show this week some of our NEC developers joined to showcase some leading technology concepts through actual prototypes.
Using and NEC device that can be easily worn on your belt it can connect audio and video and can provide data feeds from devices such as healthcare equipment (in the case of an @Home Patient Care scenario). Interesting, but only really valuable when you realize that this data can all be converged (or “Mashed up”) at a web portal (yes, IBM Websphere Portal) so that a Nurse or Doctor can assist this patient. Moreover, if the portal can also mashup services like Lotus Connections to establish an online knowledge base of experts/specialists and historical cases and it can mashup services like LotusLive to enable instant collaboration you
get an entirely new level of business value. Servicing customer situations with “a real expert” is expensive, and they’re usually in limited supply. Therefore if we can connect with remote people (patients, field support/service personnel, etc.) using multimedia technologies our efficiency and customer service quality can increase significantly. Naturally communications among humans invariably requires and audio connection and utilizing NEC’s Sphericall software services enables these applications to easily connect the different users as needed – not as phone calls dialed through a keypad, but through and automatic set of workflow instructions that just know people are trying to communicate.
In fact, the idea of the wearable device is so slick because there is not even a concept of dialing! You hit a button and the audio, video and data signals are set up to a dispatcher to help you, pretty important for elderly home health care.
NEC calls this approach the Visual Field Support (VFS) framework and the framewo
rk includes technologies from both NEC and IBM.
This week the IBM Lotus Chief Technology Office team reviewed demonstrations by numerous vendors and found the VFS framework to be one of the more compelling uses of combined vendors technologies
. As a result they awarded NEC with their annual CTO Award!!
Congratulations to the NEC Japan team!!
Jan 19 2010

THE STREETS OF LOTUSPHERE

Entering the Dolphin hotel in Orlando for the annual IBM Lotusphere event you will observe the logo’s of IBM Lotus strategic partners, the first identity of NEC shows up here…

Officially, Lotusphere opened on Sunday with their annual Business Development Day. This is an opportunity for Lotus Partners to hold business discussions with IBMer’s and other Business Partners, discovering new opportunities, preparing the for the forthcoming week of events, and establishing new relationships. If anyone has this process of “relationships” = “business” figured out IBM does!
Jan 19 2010

NEC Announces Sphericall for IBM Lotus Foundations

It was the culmination of lots of work at NEC, and at IBM, to get a simplified integration of NECs software collaboration technology onto the new IBM Lotus Foundations appliance. This morning at the opening of the annual Lotusphere show we started live demonstrations in the Lotusphere Product Showcase and in the Foundations Solutions Lab for IBM Strategic Partners.

Below is the press info…


Press Release Booth 207-209

NEC Announces Enterprise-class Unified Communications for SMBs, Fully Integrated with IBM’s Lotus Foundations Appliance

NEC UNIVERGE Sphericall combined with Lotus Foundations creates complete communication solution for small and medium businesses

LOTUSPHERE ORLANDO, FL, January 18, 2010 – Today at the annual IBM Lotusphere conference in Orlando, Florida, NEC Corporation of America (NEC), a leading provider and integrator of advanced communications, networking and IT solutions, announced UNIVERGE® Sphericall® for IBM Lotus Foundations, a unified communications solution that is fully integrated with IBM Lotus Foundations, an appliance that extends IBM Lotus Sametime unified communications and collaboration (UC²) tools with the ability to connect to telephony,.

Sphericall for Foundations is designed as a pure software solution for small and medium businesses (SMBs) that combines all the basic communications needs with the power of new unified communications tools. The solution is tightly integrated with the Lotus Foundations appliance, making it one of the easiest and most complete business solutions available. Leveraging the autonomic technology in Lotus Foundations, a business can install and configure their entire UC environment in a single, easy to manage and cost-effective solution.

“Now more than ever, SMBs want to take advantage of the benefits that unified communications can bring to their business, but they often do not have the resources and ability to customize and manage multiple applications,” said Jay Krauser, general manager, sales support and engineering, NEC Corporation of America. “The integration of Sphericall into Foundations with Sametime software opens up opportunities for businesses to give everyone in their organization access to enterprise-class communication features and functionality.”

In addition to the networking and IT software services that the Lotus Foundations solution provides, the power of the NEC UNIVERGE Sphericall software enables many new options for businesses to enhance collaboration within their business, including:

Connect Mobile and Remote Workforce back into Your Business:

  • Make mobile phones an integral part of your Business Phone System
  • Easily and economically setup work-at-home office extensions
  • Utilize PC Video Softphone and Messaging
  • Add Wireless (WiFi) telephones to untethered office users

- More -

Save Travel Costs and enhance communications among your teams:

  • Integrate video conferencing meeting room equipment
  • Add personal video telephones
  • Utilize Video Softphone technology

Easily utilize Existing Services or Equipment

  • Connects existing analog fax machines or conference phones
  • Connects directly into existing telephone services, analog or digital

Leverage the Benefits of New Services and Easy Administration

  • Works with Cost effective SIP Trunking, combining Internet and VoIP
  • Easy Web and Graphical Administration can be Local or Remote
  • Add other Foundations Solutions such as Multi-Function IP Printers 1,000′s of SMB integrators and resellers are turning to IBM to take advantage of Lotus Foundations’ innovative design and open technology base. IBM’s expansive unified communications and collaboration portfolio continues to attract business partners looking for affordability, flexibility and ease of use. Each of these new IBM Business Partners represents an opportunity for IBM to expand its reach into new ecosystems, broadening the Lotus Foundations partner community. NEC’s UNIVERGE Sphericall for IBM Lotus Foundations offers Foundations partners the ability to provide telephony as part of their portfolio as a quick and easy add on.
    “Small businesses want the benefits collaborative tools can provide, but these tools must be simple to buy, install, and maintain,” said Brent Kelly, Senior Analyst & Partner at Wainhouse Research. The ability for the Foundations Server to auto configure itself and a significant portion of the telephony system is a compelling capability that should make unified communications and collaboration much easier for channel partners to sell and for the SMB to adopt.”

NEC’s UNIVERGE Sphericall for IBM Lotus Foundations and the IBM Lotus Foundations application solution will be made available from NEC Corporation of America as a complete offering, enabling a one-stop-shop for registered NEC dealers. Interested dealers and IBM Business Partners should contact NEC directly at the information below. Those attending the Lotusphere event this week can meet NEC partner representative at the Product Showcase or at NEC’s Bird of a Feather session.

For more information on IBM’s Lotus Foundations please visit www.ibm.com/lotus/foundations.

More information on NEC can be found here:
www.necunified.com (link resides outside of ibm.com)
www.NECToday.com (link resides outside of ibm.com)
Twitter at www.twitter.com/NEC (link resides outside of ibm.com) and @NEC Facebook fan page: NEC Unified Solutions

Contact:
Kris Kozamchak
Marketing Communications
NEC Corporation of America
469.426.7332 mobile
214.262.6528 office
Kristi.kozamchak@necam.com

About NEC Corporation of America

Headquartered in Irving, Texas, NEC Corporation of America is a leading provider of innovative IT, network and communications products and solutions for service carriers, Fortune 1000 and SMB businesses across multiple vertical industries, including Healthcare, Government, Education and Hospitality. NEC Corporation of America delivers one of the industry’s broadest portfolios of technology solutions and professional services, including unified communications, wireless, voice and data, managed services, server and storage infrastructure, optical network systems, microwave radio communications and biometric security. NEC Corporation of America is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NEC Corporation, a global technology leader with operations in 30 countries and more than $42 billion in revenues. For more information, please visit www.necam.com (link resides outside of ibm.com).