Research In Motion (RIM) is helping more businesses bring together the desk phone and smartphone. RIM today announced plans to make BlackBerry Mobile Voice System 5 (BlackBerry MVS 5) available to more corporate phone systems and unified communications applications. BlackBerry MVS 5 with voice over Wi-Fi calling will soon be available for Avaya Aura 6.1, Avaya CS1000 Communication Server, as well as legacy phone systems such as Avaya Communications Manager and Nortel Communication Server. It is also currently available for Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Call Manager Express, and Mitel Communications Director. BlackBerry MVS 5 has also been re-architected to be more extensible with third party applications and phone systems.
“Working with RIM, Avaya customers have expanded options to increase their mobile productivity,” said Eric Rossman, vice president, Developer Relations and Alliances, Avaya. “By using BlackBerry Mobile Voice System 5 with Avaya Aura and Avaya CS1000, enterprises can more fully exploit investments previously made in BlackBerry solutions to benefit their IT organizations, end users and customers.”
BlackBerry MVS unifies corporate phone systems with wireless communications allowing employees to cost effectively make and take desk phone calls practically anywhere in the world on their BlackBerry smartphones. BlackBerry MVS 5 supports calls over cellular or Wi-Fi networks with automatic, prompted or manual handoff between these networks based on employee or administrator preferences. Employees can make and take desk phone calls on their BlackBerry smartphone directly from the same phone interface they use for cellular calls and enjoy the convenience of single number reach, extension dialing, and phone system features like hold, transfer and ad-hoc conferencing. Calls are routed through the company’s phone system, with a set of IT policies and controls for administrators to set least-cost routing for savings on long-distance and international roaming charges. Call routing through the corporate phone system also helps with adherence to company policies and regulatory compliance requirements.
“Using the right communication medium at the right time, whether it’s an email, an instant message or a phone call, is important to success in business, and voice communications through BlackBerry Mobile Voice System can play a fundamental role in providing a secure and cost-effective unified communications experience for mobile workers,” said Jim Tobin, senior vice president, software & services at Research In Motion. “We are pleased to extend BlackBerry MVS to more corporate phone system brands like Avaya and Nortel and make BlackBerry MVS available to more businesses.”
Businesses, Healthcare and Government Embrace BlackBerry MVS
Businesses and government organizations are increasingly embracing BlackBerry MVS as an enterprise-grade unified communications solution as they adopt new work practices and evolve business processes across their organizations. BlackBerry MVS is also particularly popular in hospitals and healthcare facilities where doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals are highly mobile on-site and require an effective way to reach staff and respond quickly.
LTT Vending Group, the largest independently-owned vending company for refreshment services in the United Kingdom, is a good example of an organization using BlackBerry MVS to increase the professionalism and productivity of their mobile workforce. With more than 80 percent of their workforce equipped with BlackBerry smartphones, and 25 percent of those currently set up with BlackBerry MVS, LTT Vending is projecting reduced telecommunication charges by at least one third with BlackBerry MVS.
Enabling Flexible Work Scenarios and an Increasingly Mobile Workforce
The introduction of voice over Wi-Fi calling with version 5 is also opening up new opportunities for businesses to securely and cost effectively connect their mobile work force, embrace flexible work scenarios such as telecommuting, and advance the agility and responsiveness of their organizations by enabling employees to be more accessible while away from their desks.
Organizations are embracing opportunities presented by BlackBerry MVS in a number of work scenarios, including:
One BlackBerry Smartphone for Both Work and Personal Phone Calls with Separate Bills – Companies can allow employees to use company-owned BlackBerry smartphones for personal phone calls, or personal BlackBerry smartphones for work phone calls, while keeping the bills separate and company phone calls managed with BlackBerry MVS. The cell number can be used for personal while the BlackBerry MVS number can be used for business. Separate and distinct ring tones identify calls as work or personal. Also importantly, employers keep the work phone number if an employee leaves, thereby preserving control of incoming calls from customers, business partners and other parties that are relevant to the business.
Desk Phone Alternative – A BlackBerry smartphone with BlackBerry MVS provides common capabilities of a desk phone and can be used as a wireless extension of a desk phone or even as an alternative to a desk phone for highly mobile employees such as sales staff.
On-Campus Wi-Fi Only Desk Phone Extensions – BlackBerry MVS can also be used to deploy Wi-Fi-only BlackBerry smartphones for Wi-Fi-enabled multi-campus operations or for employees who are highly mobile in a Wi-Fi-enabled building or campus and who do not require cellular service. Examples include doctors and nurses in hospitals, customer service staff in hotels, and workers in manufacturing.
Telecommuting – Employees who work from home and are set up with a home Wi-Fi network can use BlackBerry MVS on their BlackBerry smartphone for low-cost access over Wi-Fi to the corporate phone system without the need for a work-based landline or cellular line in some cases.
Extensible Architecture Makes BlackBerry MVS Available to More Phone Systems; Enables Integration with Unified Communications Applications
BlackBerry MVS 5 has been re-architected to be more extensible with third party applications and phone systems via SIP and VoIP gateways. A standards compliant and scalable VoIP gateway from AudioCodes has been added to BlackBerry MVS 5 to connect legacy and newer versions of Avaya and Nortel phone systems. A Universal SIP connector has also been added to the latest version of BlackBerry MVS to allow other phone system vendors to mobilize their IP-based offerings with BlackBerry MVS. Mitel was the first phone system vendor to use the Universal SIP connector to build interoperability with BlackBerry MVS with its launch of Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry MVS 5. Vocera Communications also uses this direct SIP connection between the Vocera communications system and the BlackBerry MVS 5 platform to support the Vocera Connect Wi-Fi BlackBerry client. In addition, a direct SIP connection was used to extend BlackBerry MVS 5 to Cisco phone systems.
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