Nortel Networks and Microsoft on Tuesday extended their two-year-old partnership with the launch of four unified communications products.
The products include the Converged Office unified communications suite, Multimedia Conferencing, and solutions for branch offices and hosted service providers. The Carrier Hosted Unified Communications Solution, for example, will allow service providers to offer hosted unified communications solutions to SMBs and enterprises using Nortel's Communication Server 2000 softswitch with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging.
The solution allows providers to equip workers with instant messaging, VoIP, click-to-call, video conferencing and other multimedia services through Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, the companies said.
UC Integrated Branch, meanwhile, extends unified communications to branch office and remote sites by combining Office Communications Server 2007 mediation server capabilities into the Nortel Secure Router 4134.
Nortel said it will continue to work with Microsoft on a fully hosted unified communications product that can handle voice, presence/IM, conferencing and unified messaging. The two firms will also partner on integration of Nortel’s Contact Center application with Microsoft’s Office Communication Server.