Vodafone Aust. Teams with Cisco & RIM to offer one-stop converged comms for SMEs

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 25 June 2008 08:39

Your IT - Home IT

Vodafone Australia, Cisco and the company behind the BlackBerry, Research In Motion (RIM) have teamed up to offer a one-stop shop communications service for small business combining fixed and mobile voice and data services, IP PBX, Blackberry and a converged fixed and mobile communications functionality. It will be sold, billed and supported by Vodafone on a fixed cost per month per user basis with no upfront fees.

According to the CEO of Vodafone Australia, Russell Hewitt, the move represents his company's implementation of Vodafone's global strategy shift, announced by group CEO Arun Sarin in May 2006 to be a total communications supplier. That followed a major restructuring of the global group announced a month earlier into two, largely, regional-focussed units and one focussing on new business and innovation.

Hewitt said that each group company had interpreted the new strategy differently to suit local market conditions and that the alliance with Cisco and RIM was a world first for the group, but was being closely watched by the board (which met in Australia earlier this month) and other Vodafone companies. Hewitt described the move as "our most significant strategic play since the launch of 3G services three years ago." It is claimed to be the result of a year-long collaboration between the three companies.

The solution is on trial with four 'friendly' customers and will be formally launched towards the end of the year: first in NSW and then in other states. However, anyone can register their interest at the Vodafone Business One website .

The service is aimed at SME of between 10-100 employees and comprises Vodafone mobile voice and data services, broadband Internet access and voice over DSL supplied by AAPT, the Cisco Integrated Services Router running Cisco CallManager IP PBX software, Cisco IP phones, Cisco WiFi access points, WiFi enabled Blackberries and the Blackberry push email and calendaring services.
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