IBM puts 3Com's IP PBX onto all-in-one processor

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 25 October 2006 12:26

Business IT - Technology

IBM and 3Com have secured two initial customers in the US willing to sing the praises of their new approach.

The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Southern California is using the product to merge voice and data capabilities on one integrated platform. Roxanne Reynolds-Lair, CIO of FIDM. Said: "With our System i IP telephony solution, we expect to save several thousand dollars per month, simplify our infrastructure, respond to business recovery situations faster and, best of all, set the foundation for FIDM's growth over the next decade."

Polar Beverages, New England's largest independent soft drink bottler, selected IBM System i IP telephony to enable it to be more responsive to the variety of retail stores and delis it serves and to improve communications between Polar employees at its seven remote locations. "The stability of the System i IP telephony solution has been excellent - we haven't lost a single call," said Paul Paciello, director of IT for Polar Beverages. "Both 3Com and IBM have been very supportive as we adopt this new solution and, as a result, we expect to roll it out to all 400 of our employees by February 2007. We also hope to integrate IP telephony with our current collaboration applications like Lotus Sametime."

The System i IP Telephony Express Editions, expected to be available in early November 2006, are sized and priced for companies from 100-1,000 users. It can be added to new or existing System i platforms. it is offered in both single and double system versions - one to act as the primary system and another "correctly sized, configured and attractively priced" to serve as the back up system where the highest availability is required. A single system offering starts at $80,000 and a double system offering for high availability starts at $115,900.