By Marianne Grace V. Sarmiento
THE joint venture firm of Siemens AG and American private equity firm The Gores Group has tapped local distributor Wordtext Systems Inc. (WSI) in launching its enterprise unified communications (UC) solution in the Philippines.
According to executives, WSI will use its reseller network to sell the UC solution to local small and medium enterprises in the health care, hospitality and business-process outsourcing sectors.
Daniel Mountstephen, managing director for Asean of the JV firm Unify GmbH & Co. KG, said he sees “a lot of potential” for their UC solution called OpenScape Business to takeoff in the Philippines. “Our partnership with WSI simplifies the deployment and delivery of cost-saving voice and UC solutions across enterprises.”
The local launch of the UC solution comes two months after the International Data Corp. (IDC) cited customer challenges in selecting which UC vendors are chosen. IDC said these challenges include cost justification, return on investment, identifying proper use cases, implementation and support skills, and the integration complexities associated with UC deployment projects.
“Vendors can offer a range of deployment options for customers today [premises, managed, hosted, cloud, hybrid], either directly or through channel partners, helping to alleviate some of these challenges,” IDC said in a statement issued in July. Mountstephen touts its UC solution for single and multisite businesses for deployment and delivery of voice and UC operations across enterprise. It can function on top of a company’s existing network, using established interfaces and supporting all common communication protocols, he explained. It also enhances interoffice collaboration as it can be accessed through smartphones, tablets, laptops and personal computers, supporting the company’s bring-your-own-device strategies, Mountstephen added.
He defines UC as integrating e-mail, fax, instant message, video conferencing and Web collaboration, eliminating the need to switch between programs and applications. It is also scalable and can fulfill communication requirements of firms with 500 people, Mountstephen said.
Image credits: Marianne Grace V. Sarmiento