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Mitel Partners Trumpet Growth at Asia Pacific Partner Conference

Mitel (NASDAQ: MITL), a leading provider of unified communications software solutions, has presented awards to Australian systems integrators TTGroup and AVC. Anne Wrencher, operations manager for Mitel Australia and New Zealand commented, “Once a year we bring our channel partners together from across Asia, to learn about upcoming technologies, and share our successes in the market. This year 110 partner delegates attended our MPower conference in Phuket, travelling from Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Malyasia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, and Vietnam.”

The award for Top Channel Performer for Australia and New Zealand went to Brisbane based TTGroup, who achieved the largest annual revenue growth across Australia and New Zealand. Wollongong based AVC was awarded the Prize for Innovation, for a project at IMB Building Society, which incorporated sophisticated virtualisation technologies into a unified communications deployment.

TTGroup Communications specialises in delivering innovative business communications technology solutions to government agencies, and businesses of all sizes. Founded in 1992, the Brisbane based integrator is Mitel premierPARTNER accredited, employs more than 60 people, and is one of Queensland’s largest private companies.

Bob Bishop, CEO for TTGroup commented, “We started business in 1992 with a simple focus – to support our clients with communications solutions that improve their productivity and competitiveness. TTGroup has partnered closely with Mitel for many years, and the flexibility of their broad portfolio of sophisticated unified communications solutions has been a major part of our recent success. We believe that Mitel’s latest mobility and virtualisation technologies will help us to offer innovative new services and solutions, and win new clients.”

Mitel UC supports Android™, BlackBerry® PlayBook™, and iPad™ devices

Mitel, a leading provider of unified communications (UC) software solutions, today unveiled the Mitel Freedom architecture, a single, cloud-ready software stream that delivers an array of communications options for businesses looking to integrate a voice solution into best-in-class networks and applications. The Mitel Freedom architecture is designed to decrease operating costs — for example, businesses can save up to 45 percent in corporate mobility costs and reduce the number of required communications servers by as much as 85 percent.

Mitel is also announcing new supporting offerings and capabilities including Mitel AnyWare, a cloud-based UC service, desktop virtualization integration with VMware View™, and expanded UC support for Android™, BlackBerry® PlayBook™, and iPad™ devices.

Mitel UC Advanced Mobile for iPad

Mitel Freedom Delivers:

An in-office experience, giving employees access to a rich suite of UC features on the mobile device of their choice, regardless of location. This supports the trend toward "bring your own mobile" in the business world and creates a single identity and presence status that follows the user, not the device.
An open architecture that enables organizations to break free from the "walled garden" vendor model and design a communications network based on best-in-class technologies that map to business objectives and integrate into the best-of-breed network and desktop applications. It provides the ability to fit an organization's network architecture by allowing them to deploy Mitel communications solutions on industry standard servers, Mitel hardware, or in a virtualized or cloud-based environment.
Predictable and manageable total cost of ownership with flexible purchasing, financing, and subscription-based options. This includes deployment options ranging from self-managed on premises solutions to cloud-based UC services or a combination in between.

Mitel UC Advanced Mobile for Android

New Mitel Freedom Solutions and Services:

Mitel AnyWare — Mitel AnyWare is a cloud-based UC service that bundles everything a typical business user needs, from IP handsets to long distance service, for an all-inclusive monthly per-user subscription fee. This service delivers enterprise-class communications features, scalability, and simplicity by eliminating the need for customers to administer and maintain premises-based equipment. Mitel AnyWare can deliver up to 45 percent cost savings per user when compared with premises-based solutions. Mitel AnyWare is currently available from Mitel in the United States with additional service providers delivering Mitel-based hosted offerings globally. For more information visit: www.mitel.com/mitelanyware.
Desktop Virtualization with VMware View™ — To further strengthen Mitel's virtualization strategy, the company intends to expand its relationship with VMware to include desktop virtualization. By combining Mitel's UC applications with VMware View, customers would be able to benefit from a rich, integrated, high performance desktop experience.
Unified Communicator® (UC) Advanced Mobile for Android — Supporting the strategy of enabling a consistent, rich user communication and collaboration experience, anywhere, on any device, Mitel UC Advanced Web and Mobile Portal already provides remote access to corporate communications capabilities such as managing presence, viewing corporate contacts, call history, and voice mail details from a mobile device or tablet. Mitel is designing a UC Advanced Mobile client for Android that leverages the capabilities of these devices to provide additional enhancements such as location-based presence via GPS or Bluetooth. This will be available the first half of 2011. Mitel also plans enhanced integration of UC Advanced into iPad and BlackBerry PlayBook devices.

Mitel and Telstra to Deliver Virtualised Communications Solutions to Australian Businesses

Mitel announced that Telstra has expanded its portfolio of Mitel products to include Mitel Virtual Solutions. These solutions allow businesses to leverage their investment in virtualisation to help reduce maintenance costs, reduce power consumption, and decrease provisioning, installation, and application management overhead.

IMB Building Society has selected Mitel and Telstra to leverage its investment in VMware by deploying Virtual Mitel Communications Director (Virtual MCD) and Virtual Mitel Applications Suite (Virtual MAS). "We have made a significant investment in VMware and the more applications we can run on this infrastructure, the better the result for our business," said Alby Salido, IT infrastructure services manager, IMB. " Mitel Virtual Solutions help us take our infrastructure strategy to the next level and with support of VMware data center management tools, allow us to increase the resiliency of our business-critical communications solutions. The solution provided by Mitel and Telstra works in conjunction with our existing business continuity plan with the aim to reduce costs, consolidate maintenance, and minimize complexity for all applications in our data center."

Mitel's Virtual Solutions leverage VMware vSphere 4 to enable businesses to consolidate Mitel's voice and unified communications applications alongside non-voice business applications to help improve productivity and efficiencies in management and provide a single business continuity plan. With Mitel Virtual Solutions , Telstra can also offer customers a range of deployment options depending on the needs of the business. Customers can choose to purchase and deploy as an on-site premise solution, in the customer's data centre, or another outsourced data center.

"Mitel Virtual Solutions builds on the existing Mitel product suite we offer our customers to enable them to drive more efficiency and productivity in their organization," said Boris Corluka, director unified communications Telstra. "Our customers are constantly looking for ways to consolidate their data centers. With the Mitel Virtual Solutions our customers are able to utilize the latest unified communications applications through a virtualised service that is driving ICT cost savings for their organizations."

Telstra has also certified its SIP trunking connectivity with the full range of Mitel Virtual Solutions. This allows customers to deploy a complete end-to-end software-only communications solution that includes call control, unified communications applications, and public network connectivity and services all from one vendor.

"Mitel prides itself in forming strategic relationships with best-of-breed partners to continue to develop solutions that tailor to the changing needs of individual customers," said Gwilym Funnell, vice-president for Mitel Asia Pacific Region. "Working with Telstra we can continue to offer our customers communications solutions that can run on Mitel platforms, industry standard servers, or in virtualised environments all connected through ISDN or SIP trunking. This gives customers an unprecedented choice of deployment options and the opportunity to retire their legacy PBX in favour of a pure software solution."

TTGroup Communications won the MITEL Dealer Sales Award for 2010

We are delighted to advise that TTGroup Communications won the MITEL Dealer Sales Award for Australia ! This was the only award for Australia from a long list of spectacular results from China, Korea, India, Singapore etc. Congratulations everyone for doing your bit to help get us over the line yet again ahead of all of the others Australian MITEL resellers from BrightStar Distribution and 247 ! Well done and thank you !

Mitel Sales Award 2010

Mitel Announces Availability of Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry Mobile Voice System 5

Mitel announced the availability of Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry(R) Mobile Voice System 5 (BlackBerry MVS) with voice over Wi-Fi calling, extending Mitel's unified business communications features securely to BlackBerry(R) smartphone workers over cellular and Wi-Fi networks. The solution is designed to increase employee responsiveness and productivity and allow users to maintain a single corporate identity.

With Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry MVS 5, companies can make their staff more accessible through their work phone number and keep cellular calling costs under control. Calls made through BlackBerry MVS are routed through Mitel Communications Director (MCD) which helps with adherence to company policies and enables savings on long-distance and international roaming charges. Employees also benefit from the convenience of a single work phone number shared between their desk phone and BlackBerry smartphone. Employees can be more reachable through their work phone number and can even enjoy the convenience of extension dialing from their BlackBerry smartphone.

The combined Mitel and BlackBerry solution offers seamless handoff between devices within the user's personal ring group, moving calls without restrictions to and from their desk phone, BlackBerry smartphone, home phone, or soft phone. It is also easy to use since incoming calls ring all devices simultaneously and employees can access BlackBerry MVS and Mitel's business communications features using a familiar interface.

Mobile workers can take advantage of voice over Wi-Fi calling available through BlackBerry MVS 5 to extend their reachability where cellular networks are not available, and reduce overall roaming and wireless charges. The Mitel solution enables BlackBerry smartphone users to take full advantage of Mitel business communications features without the need for a desk phone. One of the advantages of Mitel's voice virtualisation strategy is the ability for IT managers to consolidate and combine Mitel and BlackBerry applications into a single virtual environment, bridging the gap between fixed and wireless telephony applications. MCD, BlackBerry MVS, and other business applications can be run simultaneously on the same server, enabling customers to better leverage their existing investment and use Mitel to connect to third-party telephony systems.

Mitel Offers Unified Communications, 3G/4G Service for Mitel Mobile Customers

Mitel announced two major enhancements to its Mitel Mobile voice and data service through Mitel NetSolutions. These enhancements provide corporate mobile users with improved efficiency and availability through increased speed of access to data services and extending the unified communications office experience to mobile users.

Mitel introduced Mobile Wireless Integration which enables users to seamlessly access their entire corporate voice network from their mobile device. This means that their mobile phone acts exactly like a desk phone, offering the same functionality and convenience as a desk phone for both inbound and outbound calls. This enables mobile workers the ability to access Mitel's award-winning portfolio of mobility, conferencing, and collaborating applications. "Mitel has always understood the needs of the mobile user and the introduction of Mobile Wireless Integration is further proof of this," said Chris Wittrig, CIO of MOS Group, Inc. "With these new enhancements Mitel is providing total convergence between wireline and wireless networks that will enable our mobile employees to use their mobile device as if they are at their desks."

With Adaptive Mobile Connect(SM), Mitel customers can gain access to lightning-fast speeds, with hybrid 3G/4G data services. With compatible devices, Mitel now offers a bundle of services for optimal performance and convenience--and in the case of limited 4G coverage, 3G service is automatically available as a backup. Adaptive Mobile Connect also provides a disaster recovery capability should wireline service be interrupted. "Mitel has been our communications partner for many years and we are excited to implement the new 'Adaptive Mobile Connect' from Mitel Mobile," said Jason L'Odense, IT director for Mobile Mini Inc. "The high speed data offering will enhance our business continuity strategy in the event of WAN failure and provides further reachability for our employees."

"Mitel Mobile is a convenient one-stop shop for all Mitel customers. With demand for 3G and 4G capabilities growing quickly, becoming a leader in offering hybrid 3G/4G service packaged with our unified communications solutions was the next logical step," said Jon Brinton, president of Mitel NetSolutions. "In fact, Mitel Mobile users can unify their multiple devices for all their voice and data needs; the service bundles the benefits of mobile services and the corporate voice network, all on mobile devices."

Mitel Becomes a Platinum Partner in the Oracle Partner Network

Mitel announced that it has become a Platinum Partner in the Oracle Partner Network (OPN). In achieving Platinum Level status in OPN, Oracle has recognized Mitel for its in-depth expertise and excellence in delivering an integrated voice and data virtualised desktop solution for customers worldwide.

"We are pleased to extend our relationship into the Oracle community given our success in delivering desktop virtualisation solutions to customers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Australia, in addition to other locations worldwide," said Stephen Beamish, vice-president of marketing and business development for Mitel. "Working with Oracle, Mitel continues to offer customers' choice in how they deploy their business communications applications as well as providing them with an integrated voice and data thin client solution."

The Mitel Unified IP Client for Sun Ray voice-enables Oracle's Sun Ray Clients, providing employees access to all their telephony and desktop applications from any location worldwide via a single Java Card. This improves flexibility and mobility for employees, including virtually seamless mobile phone hand off, four-digit dialing, and a single sign on option. From a management perspective, this can help provide businesses with lower operating costs, simplified IT management, and enhanced security.

Additionally, customers today can benefit from the ability to run Mitel's complete unified communications software suite including Mitel Communications Director (MCD), the company's core call control software, on Oracle's line of integrated Sun Fire x86 clustered systems and StorageTek tape and library storage solutions. This enables organizations to streamline their operations, leading to increased efficiencies, decreased costs, and ease of management.

"We are delighted to have Mitel join the Oracle PartnerNetwork," said Ted Bereswill, senior vice president, North America Channel Sales, Oracle. "This is another example of how Oracle's solutions can help companies such as Mitel, to distinguish their offerings, gain competitive advantage, and leverage their operational investments."

Mitel Redesigns the International Herald Tribune's Communications System

Mitel has been selected to redesign the communication system for the International Herald Tribune to help improve staff efficiency, reduce costs and provide unified communications capabilities and connectivity from anywhere. The International Herald Tribune, the global edition of the New York Times, is an international organization employing over 300 people of 47 nationalities in offices all around the world.

With its four editions a day, the paper is distributed in 180 countries, six days a week. Approximately 240,000 copies are read every day, and an estimated five million Web surfers visit the paper's internet site. In order to optimize its production, while taking into account the human, structural, and technological challenges facing the business, the IHT wanted to modernize its communication architecture to make life easier for employees on the road; reduce costs; consolidate its infrastructure; develop its brand image; and standardize its entire architecture in Europe. Taking advantage of the reorganization of its Paris head office, IHT decided to replace its aging communications system in favor of an IP telephony and unified communications solution from Mitel.

"We had a number of different phone systems in the Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) offices without any backup, and they were old so they risked failing at any time," said Christophe Duprat, director of information systems for the International Herald Tribune, EMEA. "We could not control communication costs in a detailed manner, and the poor way in which call dispatching was being handled at reception was creating an image problem for us. Moreover, because of the disparate architecture it was impossible for our service desk to handle new requests from collaborators, and monitoring user accounts was tedious. "Finally, given the keen interest in teleworking, we wanted to upgrade our existing system but we realized it was too obsolete and complex to satisfy the requirements of users on the road or those who simply wanted to work at home from time to time."

Secondly, Mitel introduced value added services to optimize costs and facilitate alternative ways of working:

The IT team's DECT antennas and handsets were replaced by the Mitel Dynamic Extension application, which provides single number reachability, enabling a call to a user's business number to simultaneously ring up to eight devices in a personal ring group, and provides seamless hand off between devices. This ability redefines 'work where you are' with a single voice mail box and simple access to business communications features from any location. This, combined with the Mitel Teleworker Solution that enables businesses to easily enjoy the benefits of UC through a low-cost, secure, "plug and work" solution at remote workstations, can cut IHT's international communication costs considerably and increase productivity.
The implementation of the unified messaging solution, Mitel NuPoint Messenger IP, allows users to listen to their voicemails from their mailbox. The mobile users can now access their desktop voicemail from anywhere.
The new communication infrastructure allowed the IHT to implement a system for controlling costs and to give the computer service desk an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) solution so that they no longer miss any incoming calls or give callers the endless run-around among various positions.

The deployed solutions allow now to cover the needs of all users, regardless of profile:

Deskbound user with a dedicated workstation
Teleworker at a small remote site or working from home
Mobile users, generally traveling and occasionally working from home
Mobile users, generally traveling and occasionally working from home
On site mobile users

"The chosen communications architecture and its mobility, integrated messaging, collaborative capabilities, IP telephony and administration applications have made the company more flexible and more mobile while allowing us to control our costs. Thanks to our transition to unified communications with Mitel we can address the real issues facing an international daily paper," concludes Duprat.

Sheldon College Responds Rapidly with Mitel Solution

Mitel® (Nasdaq: MITL), a trusted provider of unified communications solutions, today announced that Sheldon College has successfully implemented a campus wide Mitel unified communications solution, with a fully integrated critical incident notification and response system. Sheldon College is an independent, non-denominational, co-educational College catering for students from Kindergarten (Pre-Prep) through to Year 12.The College campus includes a Long Day Care facility for children from 15 months of age. The College also boasts a 2000 seat Sport and Entertainment Centre with full catering facilities. Sheldon College employs 210 academic and corporate staff supporting a student population of in excess of 1500 students.

Dr Lyn Bishop, Principal and founder of Sheldon College commented, “Our College aims to provide a 21st century, high quality education for students based on traditional values and progressive thinking. Our use of computer based teaching technologies has grown rapidly in recent years, so we decided to modernise our campus network. As part of that upgrade, we implemented a Mitel unified communications solution to help us communicate more effectively, whilst at the same time reducing our ongoing costs.” To support the needs of their 58 acre campus, Sheldon College deployed Mitel Communications Director running on the Mitel 3300 IP Communications Platform (ICP). The entire solution was designed and implemented by TTGroup, a Mitel premierPARTNER based in Brisbane. TTGroup provides ongoing remote management and support for the College data and voice infrastructure.

Project planning commenced in July 2009, with installation occurring in March 2010. A high speed Gigabit Ethernet fibre network backbone was installed between buildings, with Mitel handsets and Power over Ethernet deployed throughout the College buildings. A large scale 802.11n wireless LAN was simultaneously deployed, allowing flexible access to the College’s computer systems for both staff and students. In order to further improve the efficiency of communications and reduce ongoing running costs, the Mitel Applications Suite (MAS) has been implemented by the College. Installed onto a single server, the applications in MAS allow the College to easily produce reports, track phone usage, and help identify ways in which call costs might be reduced. In addition, MAS enables teleworking capabilities, and the ability to seamlessly link mobile phones with desk phones, thereby making it easier for teachers and administrators to work when away from their office desks. The solution now allows staff mobile phones to be linked to their desk phones, with calls routed automatically based on the time of day and the staff member’s work schedule. This ensures that staff can be easily contacted when working away from their desk, without the need to give out private mobile phone numbers.

Dr Lyn Bishop continued, “We are always looking at ways to become more productive, and maximise the time our staff spend with students. Our Mitel unified communications solution has helped us to improve our handling of parent phone calls, with an automated inquiry system which sensibly directs calls to the most relevant and available person. Some inquiries can now be dealt with fully automatically, with notices such as sporting fixture details read to parents via the computer.” Mitel Unified Communicator Advanced and Mitel UC Advanced Softphone have been deployed to the computers used by administration and teaching staff. Phone calls can now be made by simply clicking on user names in a single organisation wide phone directory. Presence information shown in the directory makes it easy to determine whether a colleague is at their desk, busy, or working from home. The Mitel UC Advanced Softphone allows laptop users to make and receive phone calls directly from their laptops, either via the campus wireless LAN, or by using their home broadband Internet service.

The College has used Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to tightly integrate their Mitel IP based communications solution with a Benbria BlazeCast critical incident notification and response system. The integration allows sophisticated delivery and tracking of critical multicast messages via Mitel handsets, mobile phones, and loudspeaker systems located around the campus. This enables administrators and teachers to rapidly issue emergency notifications using predetermined action plans, while instantly tracking responses from staff across the entire campus. Dr Lyn Bishop commented further, “Every school needs to plan for emergency situations. By integrating our Mitel handsets with the campus emergency response system, we are now able to accurately deliver messages to any point in our campus, whilst tracking responses with confidence. This has helped us to deliver a safer campus environment for students and staff alike.”

Gwilym Funnell, Mitel Vice President for Asia Pacific commented, “Schools with large campus environments face challenges keeping in touch with staff. Mitel’s unified communications solutions make it easy for colleagues to tell whether you are at your desk, teaching a class, or out in the playground. Calls can be automatically directed to the most relevant person, while avoiding disturbing staff who are busy in the classroom.” About Sheldon College Sheldon College is an independent, non-denominational, co-educational College based in Brisbane. Founded in 1997 by Dr Lyn Bishop, Sheldon College has become one of the leading academic institutions in the country. The College boasts an outstanding educational program catering for the academic, sporting and cultural dimensions of College life. About Mitel Mitel Networks offers a comprehensive portfolio of IP-based communications solutions, which consists of IP telephony platforms, unified communications and collaboration applications and managed and network services. By integrating voice, video and data communications with business applications, Mitel enables businesses to improve their performance. Mitel is a leader in the market evolution to unified communications and collaboration, enabling customers to move beyond basic fixed telephony and disparate communications tools toward integrated multi-media communications and collaboration between users, wherever they may be located. Mitel’s U.S. headquarters are in Phoenix, Arizona. Global headquarters are in Ottawa, Canada, with offices, partners, and resellers worldwide.

Mitel UC Advanced Mobile for BlackBerry Smartphones Now Available for Download on BlackBerry App World

Mitel released version 3.2 of its Unified Communicator Advanced solution. This release allows BlackBerry smartphone users to mobilize and gain access to Mitel UC features available through UC Advanced. The BlackBerry smartphone application, Mitel UC Advanced Mobile, is available for download on BlackBerry App World. UC Advanced is a software client that allows users single-portal access to all collaboration tools, including deskphone, softphone, mobile devices, visual voice mail, secure instant messaging, presence, audio and web conferencing, desktop video conferencing, document sharing, and email. The Mitel solution enhances organizational efficiency and connects the right people and information automatically and effectively.

Mitel and Telstra Expand Partnership to Deliver Mitel Portfolio to Customers

Mitel announced it has signed a direct partnership agreement with Telstra, Australia's leading telecommunications and information services company. Mitel will expand its longstanding relationship with Telstra and provide its customers with access to Mitel's portfolio of scalable unified communication solutions, including its line of software, applications and hardware offerings. As Mitel's first Premiere Solution Provider in Australia, Telstra is now able to bundle Mitel offerings to customers via both direct and indirect channel options.

With more than 23,000 customers in the region already, Mitel is geared to expand its already established reach into the Australian and New Zealand markets with its full line of offerings. Since the partnership was first established in 2006, Mitel and Telstra have previously offered Mitel's voice solutions, which include the Mitel 3300 IP Communications Platform (ICP), a highly scalable and easy-to-use voice communications IP-PBX platform, and its complementary suite of applications. With this new partnership capability Mitel and Telstra are now poised to offer businesses expanded capabilities for their communication needs. "With market and customer demand for voice and data solutions growing, there has been further demand that we offer Mitel's portfolio to new and existing customers," said Carol White, director unified communications, Telstra.

"By expanding an already established partnership with Mitel, we are able to bring our customers the tools needed to successfully run their businesses with the technology required to be competitive, efficient and cost effective." Together, Mitel and Telstra are now able to offer a suite of complementary products to businesses looking to unify communications across multiple platforms and locations. "With this enhanced partnership with Telstra, we're able to bring Mitel's portfolio to a market in which we've traditionally been very successful," said Gwilym Funnell, vice president and managing director Asia Pacific Region, Mitel. "With a longtime partner with strong customer traction in the region, Mitel is in place to meet the demand for scalable and flexible communication solutions quickly and efficiently with best-of-breed offerings alongside Telstra."

Mitel Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2010 Financial Results

Mitel announced on 30 June its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended April 30, 2010. All financial results are in US dollars. Financial highlights:

Revenue for the fourth quarter was $163.9 million, compared to $162.2 million in the third quarter
Non-GAAP net income for the fourth quarter was $17.4 million, compared to $14.3 million for the third quarter
Successful completion of our initial public offering on April 27, 2010 with approximately $147 million in gross proceeds
Cash and cash equivalents as of April 30, 2010 were $76.6 million, up 170 percent compared to a year ago
Operating cash flows for fiscal 2010 were $34.4 million, an increase of 290 percent from fiscal 2009.

Mitel Honoured With Frost & Sullivan 2010 Global New Product Innovation Award

Based on its recent analysis of the enterprise telephony platform and endpoints markets, Frost & Sullivan recognises Mitel® with the 2010 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation. In February 2010, Mitel made a ground-breaking announcement of the support of Mitel Communications Director, the company's core voice infrastructure, on VMware servers, becoming the first real-time voice application designed for the VMware vSphere 4 platform.

Until Mitel's breakthrough product, no vendor had virtualised an expansive range of real-time applications on a single generic server, and placed it in the virtualised data-centre environment, instead of maintaining a separate set of hardware, processes, and tools for voice communications. Mitel's strategic move to partner with a virtualisation leader such as VMware is likely to have a far-reaching effect on Mitel's ability to offer competitive solutions for a larger customer base. Mitel chose VMware over others for its core capabilities in server, desktop and applications virtualisation. This strategic relationship will equip businesses with the necessary tools to deploy a complete virtualised UC solution.

Mitel virtual solutions allow businesses to optimally use their resources, from reduction of infrastructure operating costs, server consolidation, simplified business continuity, and disaster recovery plans, to centralised management of business resources. For small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), it offers all of its communications solutions on a single server, designed to lower cost and ease management. For its larger customers, it offers a service-oriented infrastructure model for corporate data centers, promising infrastructure optimisation and cost reduction.

Additionally, the solution allows businesses that have just invested in more standard telephony infrastructure to move to a virtualised set-up, when they are in a position to do so. Mitel's offering aims to increase customer satisfaction by enabling simplified alternatives that add value and provide superior benefits to organisations of all sizes.

Virtualised data centres can reduce infrastructure operating costs by up to 60 percent. Fewer enterprise hardware components also means a smaller footprint, reduced power and cooling costs, and less time spent on server and application management. As enterprises work toward streamlining business processes through their IT and communications infrastructure, technologies such as virtualisation are promising to dramatically change the way communications networks operate in the future.

While the market for server virtualisation is fast approaching maturity, real-time and non real-time communications application streaming is still evolving. These technologies address a major enterprise challenge – delivering communication solutions irrespective of location, device, and time. Frost & Sullivan expects these factors to accelerate the adoption of Mitel's products in the next few years.

Skype for Business is now working on a Mitel phone system

Mitel announced that Skype for Business has been tested and certified for compatibility with Mitel 3300 MCD. The SIP trunking will provide the following features: basic calls, automatic call distribution (ACD), NuPoint Voicemail, packetization, personal ring groups, mobile extension, Teleworker, fax. More news to come soon.

Mitel Becomes Official Partner of TV Festival de Cannes supplying communications for TV team, festival press and VIP room

Mitel announced it is an official partner of TV Festival de Cannes taking place May 12 - 23, 2010. Mitel will be providing a unified communications solution for the TV station's team, the festival's press room, and the palace's VIP room.

Stations will be installed on location to provide communications access during the festival period. The flexibility of the Mitel IP phones equipped with the Mitel Wireless LAN Stands allow them to be connected through a wireless interface minimizing the requirement for fixed network wiring which significantly reduces the logistical burden of installation and makes it an ideal solution for such short-term events.

"We are delighted to be accompanying TV Festival for this new edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Participating in such an event requires very high standards: the solutions employed needs to be of exceptional quality and reliability and they need to be easy to install and use. Our offer meets these criteria," said Lionel Hovsepian, European sales director, Mitel.

TV Festival, the official international Cannes Film Festival TV Channel, will be broadcasting live and in exclusivity the highest moments of the event: Best of Opening and Closing Ceremonies, press conferences, photo calls, interviews and Red Carpets with all the selected official film casts as well as numerous short reports outlining the different facets of the Festival, "Un Certain Regard" selection, the backstage organization and evening events.

Mitel Joins BlackBerry Alliance Program and Announces Plans to Deliver Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry Mobile Voice System 5

Mitel announced that it has joined the BlackBerry Alliance Program as an Elite Member and announced plans to add BlackBerry Mobile Voice System 5 (BlackBerry MVS 5) to its feature-rich unified communications solutions. The combined solution will enable fixed and mobile voice communications, and help to increase corporate efficiencies and promote employee responsiveness and productivity while reaping mobility benefits. Mitel will preview Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry MVS 5 with voice over Wi-Fi calling to attendees at WES 2010 this week, highlighting its plans to extend access to Mitel's business communications applications on BlackBerry smartphones.

The planned solution will combine the advanced telephony features of Mitel Communications Director (MCD) with the mobility features of BlackBerry MVS 5 across corporate networks. Additionally, Mitel's Dynamic Extension solution allows for the seamless call hand off between devices meaning employees can answer a customer call at their desk, continue it on their BlackBerry smartphone, and complete the call on a home phone line.

Mitel currently offers feature-rich unified communications applications for BlackBerry smartphones to provide the same user experience as on a Mitel desk phone, including the ability to:

Access unified communications and collaboration information, including corporate contacts and voicemails, using Mitel Unified Communicator (UC) Advanced Mobile Portal;
Automatically update Mitel's Dynamic Status using Mitel UC Advanced Dynamic Location, a recently announced BlackBerry smartphone application which uses GPS and other location-based services from the BlackBerry smartphone.

Mitel Releases Unified Communicator® Advanced 3.1

Mitel®, the trusted provider of unified communications software solutions, today released version 3.1 of its Unified Communicator® (UC) Advanced solution. UC Advanced allows users single-portal access to all collaboration tools, including deskphone, softphone, mobile devices, visual voice mail, secure instant messaging, presence, audio and web conferencing, desktop video conferencing, document sharing, and email.

Mitel is offering three key enhancements to UC Advanced : web and mobile portal improvements, a new dynamic location client application available for BlackBerry® smartphones, and the offering of UC Advanced as a server appliance. With the continued demand for road and corridor warrior applications, UC Advanced Web and Mobile Portals have been enhanced to allow the user to work independently of the PC client. UC Advanced Web and Mobile Portals continue to allow the user to view corporate contacts and user and device presence information, view call history and voice mail message details, and download and play voice mail messages from the web browser.

UC Advanced Dynamic Location, available for BlackBerry smartphones, allows the user to define the GPS locations to associate with each Dynamic Status, and changes Dynamic Status based on GPS location or by manual selection. Mitel's innovative development allows for GPS location capabilities with minimal drain on device batteries. Additionally, by making UC Advanced available as a server appliance pre-installed with Mitel Standard Linux®, Mitel provides a low-overhead, easily deployed solution for businesses of all sizes.

With a single interface and capabilities that enable mobility, integration, and efficiency from a single launching point, the solution plays a critical role for businesses seeking to collaborate with employees, partners, and customers. Mitel's solutions offer rich collaboration capabilities as workforces become more scattered and business travel is on the downswing, as well as Mitel's ability to deliver solutions that provide the same in-office experience to workers regardless of location.