BT and Cisco have strengthened their collaboration by a breakthrough in unified communications (UC), with the launch of a cloud based IPT offering from BT’s Onevoice UCC portfolio. Together, the two companies are launching a scalable, business-grade, global hosted IP Telephony service, which reportedly allows businesses to reduce upfront investment costs.
Neil Sutton, vice president of global portfolio at BT Global Services, said: “BT and Cisco’s collaboration on this innovative, cloud-based unified communications system will help businesses reduce capital expenditure in this difficult time, while giving them the ability to introduce productivity enhancing tools.”
The new hosted IP telephony service is based on Cisco Hosted UC services as the platform for collaborative voice communications. It allows businesses to bring converged voice, mobile and data services to every desktop in the organisation, according to BT.
Available now in the UK, the hosted IPT service from BT will also be available to businesses in the US and EMEA in 2010 followed by Asia Pacific.
Chris Dedicoat, president of Cisco Europe, said: “Cisco and BT are deepening our established collaboration today to introduce a truly transformational unified communications solution delivered through the cloud at a compelling price point. We believe this new hosted offering will help accelerate our combined ability to bring the benefits of unified communications to more customers globally.”
