Tellumat partners Vodacom on SME Business Bundle

All-out success continues for all-in-one Sigma communications platform.
Tellumat’s success with the Sigma communications platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) continues, as Vodacom Business signed to include the device in its SME Business Bundle.

Distributed in sub-Saharan Africa by Tellumat Telecoms, the Sigma has enjoyed critical as well as popular acclaim, notes Bennie Langenhoven, managing executive for Tellumat’s Telecoms and Technology Group business units.

In the UK, it has been used by BT to spearhead its SOHO (Small Office Home Office) broadband push. Locally, major network operators and broadband providers including Vox Telecom and iBurst have all agreed to market it to their customer bases.

And Gadget magazine (gadget.co.za) endorses the Sigma as putting small businesses on an equal footing with big companies, given the sheer wealth of converged communication functionality it gives them, affordably and with consummate ease of implementation and use.

Converged services in a box
Ermano Quartero, managing executive of Vodacom Business, says the role of the relatively new business unit within the mobile operator is to take it beyond mobile network services and into full converged telco service provision. It offers a full range of solutions ranging from customer equipment, last-mile fibre access to hosted applications, for SMEs right up to enterprises.
“The Tellumat association is key for us,” he continues. “They supply us with a platform that is vital to our mission, as regards SMEs.”
The Sigma will be re-branded as the Vodacom Business PBX and forms the core PABX and Internet gateway component of Vodacom’s SME Office Bundle, which will also include last-mile Internet access, phone handsets and application hosting.

Rigorous tender
Quartero says Vodacom went through a rigorous tender process. “We chose Tellumat for its credibility in the market, its local support, and of course this device. Everything Tellumat stands for and offers conformed to our requirements. We are pleased to note that their device is also the choice of our parent company in the UK, Vodafone.”
He adds the value of the Tellumat platform goes beyond the product-specific plaudits it has attracted. “Bundling allows us to offer easy monthly subscriptions, ranging from R1500 per month for a basic package to R3000 for the high-end package.”
The basic package includes 5GB of high-speed ADSL or WiMAX data access, Hosted Exchange and SharePoint Portal Services, a router and analogue as well as IP voice. The high-end subscription offers 10GB of data and more handsets.

A winner
“We know it is a winner and are hoping for an enduring relationship,” Quartero adds. “Based on how successful it is exactly, we may offer bigger SME packages based on the same hardware, or other hardware from Tellumat.”
He says Vodacom Business may further extend the bundle to smaller business customers or the home office market segment. “And as soon as we have traction in South Africa, we may take similar bundles to selected African markets, customised for local conditions.”
Langenhoven says the Sigma has spurred continued success for Tellumat, despite the recession. “Our aim is to continue to find the most enabling technologies at the best price for our customers and partners, contributing to the success of all concerned.”

Tellumat Telecoms Launches Its Online Communication Super Store

Visit our new store at: http://www.ttos-dsz.co.za/Shop/

A zero-hassle shopping experience with a next-day, to-the-door delivery service for all or your communication requirements.

Tellumat brings thriving ShoreTel IP communications range to SA

Acclaimed US firm shakes up markets, outshines big-name vendors

Tellumat Telecoms, the converged communications specialist in the Tellumat Group, has been awarded the exclusive South African distribution rights of the IP communications range from US-based rising star ShoreTel.

Since inception in 1998, ShoreTel has taken the US market by storm and is now enjoying rapid global growth – out-pacing the mushrooming IP comms market and doubling in size every year. The company has won critical acclaim from respected research firm Frost & Sullivan, which puts its “explosive growth” down to a “clean-sheet approach”. (ShoreTel designed its pure IP systems from the ground up, evading the baggage of TDM technology whilst not compromising on carrier-class reliability and quality.)

Independent research by Nemertes further gives ShoreTel’s extensive IP range top honours in every one of four categories (features, customer service, value and ease of use), and places it first among a veritable ‘who’s who’ of telecoms vendors*.

Bennie Langenhoven, Managing Executive of Tellumat Telecoms, says two years ago they began looking for communications technology with the potential to disrupt the market – “something in the unified (IP-centric) communication space with a strong and unique value proposition and proven reliability. ShoreTel’s range was very attractive in all these respects, and organisationally the company is also very impressive. We believe the SA market will embrace ShoreTel too.”

Langenhoven notes the following attributes of ShoreTel’s technology as the most impressive:

• Unique distributed architecture allowing simple integration into many business applications, failover reliability, scalability and cost-effective manageability
• Independently audited customer satisfaction programme (bonuses at all levels of the organisation are mapped to a customer satisfaction index)
• Lowest cost of ownership for VOIP solutions and
• Ease-of-use

ShoreTel's VOIP system includes state-of-the-art switches, feature-rich software and ergonomically designed phones for enterprise-class functionality at a low total cost of ownership.

Mark Swendsen, ShoreTel MD in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, says the company delivers its solutions exclusively through a two-tier channel composed of in-country distributors and resellers. “ShoreTel has developed an innovative channel partner programme, and will be running a series of educational seminars, vendor showcases and regional exhibitions, to recruit a lean, forward-thinking channel of VARs.”

“We are delighted to be launching our presence officially in South Africa with this new distribution agreement with Tellumat,” he adds. “We have secured a major position in VOIP sales in the US and are very much looking forward to bringing the many benefits of our system, including reliability, scalability and ease of use, to organisations there.”

Langenhoven says, “Tellumat took its time to come up with a potential partner whose portfolio and organisational ethos would serve its own customers well in the long run. “We generally select a product range on the basis of tangible value – quality at a low total cost of ownership and a good return on investment. All these metrics are answered convincingly by ShoreTel.”

* The Nemertes report is available at: http://www.shoretel.com/resources/industry_research/downloads/shoretel_nemertes_executive_summary.pdf

I am Presence

By: Dominik Schulte-Zurhausen, Marketing Manager, Tellumat Telecoms

The business and social environments are changing rapidly. More importantly, the way we, as individuals, can and choose to communicate is evolving constantly. Competition is fierce, technology is moving at an ever more rapid pace and communication can no longer be served through a telephone on a desk, a mobile phone in a pocket, a fax machine in an office or even a full featured PBX in a basement.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect to the evolving communication landscape is the fact that the line between people`s business and personal lives is eroding. This is especially true in respect to how people and businesses choose and wish to communicate with each other. Personalized, intuitive, always on, any time, any place service is the order of the day. As business leaders and decision makers we need to be aware of these changes and capitalize on these so that any possible positive benefits have a constructive impact on the bottom line while at the same we are able to minimize any inherent negative impacts that these changes may bring to the surface.

How an organization communicates and empowers its stakeholders to communicate with it is, in today’s environment, a key differentiator and business driver to operational success or failure.

In order to maintain operations and gain a competitive advantage; business decision makers are required to make more precise, effective and faster decisions with regards to their communication platforms while ensuring flexibility in the platform and guaranteeing ROI.

Our world has changed. Technology has changed and is continually changing the way we work, live and play. If you are like me, ‘Generation X’ bordering on ‘Generation Y’, then you may identify with this article. If not then this article may be of even greater importance to you.

While technology has impacted and changed every facet of our personal lives, businesses have to a large extend failed to react accordingly. 9 to 5 is still the modus operandi with regard to the general workforce. Businesses that adhere to this rhetoric do not harvest the full benefits that their payroll has to offer. It’s actually quite simple, you give someone a hammer and that person can drive in nails, give that same person a toolbox and he will create. The type of workforce you employ is by and large not defined or constrained by their willingness or ability, but by the tools you, the business, have made available to them.

This has the effect that employers are not leveraging ICT advances to their full potential and employees are experiencing an ever widening rift between their work place and personal lives.

My working day starts at 8:00 and ends at 16:30. However, if you are in the services industries and in any way working within the connected community then I hope you join me in saying that the static notion of a 9 to 5 idea of a job is archaic at best and should be relegated to the attic right along side with Taylorism.

A typical modern lifestyle requires flexibility. Being physically in the office when presence is required and/or when it makes economic and social sense to you, the employer and/or customers. In my case: I hold down a full time job. I study at night. I have friends and family spread across multiple time zones all over the world. My web presence is a part of my life. I am always connected. It defines me. I am my networks and my associated presence defines me. 24 hours a day. I do not switch off or change my presence between 9 and 5.

How do I do this? While you sit in the traffic so that you can get to the office by 8 I have already scanned my mails, read the latest news, listened to last nights market indicators, reviewed my voicemail, scanned my faxes, updated my presence and made various content contributions through various media channels.

When I drive to work it is after rush hour, saving me an hour and a half of frustration and burning petrol. I am efficiently cruising to work having peace of mind that I am up-to-date on all fronts. Everyone on my network knows exactly where I am, how I am, what I am doing and how to get hold of me. Phone me, skype me, fax me, SMS me, twitter me, comment on my blog, email me, find me on Facebook, leave me a message on MySpace, send me an instant message or interrogate my linked in profile anytime anywhere. I will know that you are trying to contact me and who you are where you are and how you are.

But that is me. I don’t consider myself at the forefront of what is possible. If you really want to know what is possible at the bleeding edge then go to the schools and watch your kids. That is where next generation services will be defined. That is your window into the future. Not a trade show. Not a magazine, but right here with our kids. Watch, learn, apply and enjoy your competitive edge.

Dynamite Comes In Small Packages

Now and then we come across a product which is simply in a league of its own. A product that, over night, sets new boundaries, challenges what was there before and unreservedly changes the way we operate. Today I would like to introduce you to just such a product - the Tellumat Sigma, a compact all-in-one micro/home office data and voice solution perfectly engineered for the SOHO market.


Product Overview
The Sigma is the only all-in-one voice and data solution, available in South Africa, specifically designed for the diverse needs of the SOHO market. If you are a small business or home user that requires a full featured telephony system (PBX) and feature rich, reliable broadband internet access then the Sigma, without a doubt, belongs right on top of your wish list.

The Sigma is akin to an ICT ‘Swiss-army-knife’ for the SOHO market, combining all of your home/office data and voice requirements into a smart, efficient, single appliance platform.

Can you imagine still requiring separate appliances for your scanning, copying, faxing and printing requirements? Surely not, the world has moved on to smarter, more efficient and more integrated devices.

The Sigma does the same and more. It packages your broadband router, wireless DECT phones, telephony system (PBX), private telephone extensions, network switch, 802.11 b/g WiFi and firewall requirements into a seamless and cost effective desktop solution roughly the size of an A4 sized page (or a small box of cornflakes!).

Steven Ambrose, from gadget.co.za had this to say, “The Sigma integrates all your home, and small office communication needs, into one small box. The Sigma is truly the sum of all your communication needs in your small office and at home.” You can read his full report here.

Features

I could list every single feature that relate to enterprise class telephony systems and every feature of bleeding edge broadband access routers and still not give this little big beast the justice it deserves. Instead I will highlight to you a couple of key attributes of the Sigma. At the end of this article I will provide you with the links to download the complete feature list at your leisure.

• Full featured and integrated PBX that supports, 4 wired extensions, 4 wireless (DECT) extensions, Voicemail, Music on hold and many more telephony features. On the access side you can connect 2 PSTN lines and up to 2 VoIP lines giving you a total of 4 trunks on only 2 wires. This offers end user the security and reliability of PSTN for emergency and local calls and the cost advantages of VoIP for long distance calls.
  

• Broadband Access through an on-board ADSL 2+ router, firewall LAN network switch, WiFi (802.11 b/g) router and WAN port allowing you to connect any 3^rd party access device. This appliance, the Sigma, gives you the capability to download at up to 24Mb/s, connect 4 wired PC`s to your network and share one internet access account. You can also extend your network natively through 32 802.11 b/g WiFi devices giving you a total network capacity of 36 high speed LAN network ports.
  

• Price sensitivity is proven time and time again by comparing the standalone devices required to give you the same baseline functionality that the Sigma provides. A full featured ADSL router, a 4 port DECT solution, a small hybrid PBX and all the cables, power adapters and peripherals you would need for a similar integrated system will set you back considerably more then a Sigma integrated solution in terms of CAPEX. In terms of OPEX you will be spending significantly less on energy costs, real estate costs (desk space), setup time costs, and maintenance and configuration change costs.
  

• The Sigma is environmentally friendly. You can now have a clear conscience that when running your business or home solution that you are operating in the most energy efficient way possible.

To Sum Up
The Sigma is a surprisingly cost effective, all-in-one (data and voice) solution for any one/two line home or office environment. It will delight your pocket, does not require you to obtain a PhD to set it up or operate it, and is scalable to the dynamic environment you operate and live in. It places at your disposal, at the fraction of the cost, the features and functionality that usually only medium to large corporate enterprises enjoy.

“Our customers’ offices are slick, energy efficient, always on and rely on only a single appliance. Whether our customers are at their desks, on the couch, in the garden, on the road or surfing the web, they are an effective, professional and contactable presence. Always. It is actually quite simple. Sigma run SOHOs are simply better. Period”- Dominik S-Z, Marketing Manager, Tellumat Telecoms.

For more information please do not hesitate to contact me at dschulte@tellumat.com or visit our website. You can download the full Sigma brochure and feature set here.

Business and Green Computing

By: Dominik Schulte-Zurhausen, Marketing Manager, Tellumat Telecoms

The term ‘Green Computing’ addresses the efficient use of computer resources by business and individuals alike. As natural persons I like to think that we are all aware of the criticality that our personal and business decisions have on the environment.

However, a business, in the sense of being an entity which has no such innate prerogatives as to be concerned about the environmental impacts that its operations have on the environment can not by itself be expected to factor in the long-term value and importance of initiatives such as ‘Green Computing’.

This is where business decision makers and policy makers need to step in order to steer the organization with awareness and knowledge. Due to the fact that, in most part, these business drivers/custodians are measured by their performance in regards to a single bottom line we can not and should not expect them to divert any attention onto issues that they are not measured, audited or rewarded for.

‘Green Computing’, from a technology point of view, is effective and has the potential to dramatically redress the environmental impact that our business creates. What is needed is not more hype around these technologies, but rather an educated and demanding shareholder base that expects of its executives quantifiable returns on multiple bottom lines. I.e. the triple bottom line: Planet, Profit, People

Showcasing the Convergence 30 Communication Platform

By: Dominik Schulte-Zurhausen, Marketing Manager, Tellumat Telecoms


If you are an SME enterprise trying to stay afloat in today’s volatile business climate then you are looking for an office ICT solution that suits your sensitive cash flow reality in these uncertain yet opportune economic times.


Searching for a business communication platform that is scalable, reliable, cost effective and packed with all the usual features that big enterprise enjoys can be a frustrating endeavor for any SME. In all probability you have scoured the market place and found a confusing array of solutions that can fulfill one or maybe two of your requirements in isolation only. Alternatively, you have found solutions whose CAPEX and OPEX costs you simply can not justify in your current cash flow situation.

If this is you, then your search is over. It is time for you to let go of your communication headaches and let us, the experts, provide you with an appropriate platform with long term growth potential. This will free you to focus on what is important to you; your business and your future. We are proud to offer to you a platform that addresses all your requirements in an easy-to-use and intuitive package- the Convergence 30 SME communication platform.

The Convergence 30 (C30) is a SME voice and data offering designed and engineered by Lake Communications in Ireland. In its segment, the C30 is the market leader and corporate solution of choice with as much as 45% market share in the UK (source: MZA Q3 07).

About the C30 PBX
In South Africa, we have already sold around 850 systems to our many respected clients including BT, Anglo American and Clicks, all of which are already enjoying the continued benefits that the C30 and Tellumat Telecoms product-service bundled has to offer.

About Lake
Lake Communications is a privately owned company operating out of Ireland with branch offices in the UK and USA. Lake specializes in designing and supplying major international markets with leading edge converged voice and data solutions. Their market strategy is to create strong channel partnerships with distributors around the globe which can augment their product offerings through local market knowledge, product support and technology expertise. Lake`s flagship products are the C30 (OfficeLink in the UK), aimed at the SME segment, and the Sigma which is aimed at the SOHO segment.

Our Partnership
Tellumat Telecoms has partnered with Lake Communications to bring Lake`s award-winning all-in-one, solutions to the South African market place.
Our joint strategic partnership allows South African SME and SOHO customers to enjoy the benefits of these internationally acclaimed solutions while at the same time having total peace of mind that can only be gained from dealings with a renowned and respected telecommunication and data expert with a vast array of local knowledge, expertise and resources at its disposal.

The Value Proposition
Whether you have a small or medium office requiring between 2 to 40 extensions; whether you require analogue, digital or IP connectivity or whether you operate a single branch or multiple branch offices across the world; The C30 will, without a shadow of a doubt fit your requirements, suit your pocket, delight your staff, partners and customers.
With a C30 platform you not only solve your immediate and future technical business voice and data requirements, but as a result of partnering with Tellumat Telecoms you are also partnering with one of the most respected names in the communication industry in South Africa. The C30 coupled with 'Tellumat Telecoms' expertise and record of service excellence is guaranteed to provide your business with clear, quantifiable and incontrovertible business value from day one.

The C30

The C30 is a modular, full-featured, converged, voice and data solution for the SME environment. Designed from the ground up to serve the needs of the SME market sector which requires proven cost effectiveness, granular scalability and enormous flexibility, the C30 delivers bar none other. At the C30`s core is a one-of-a-kind modular architecture which gives it its unique appeal and allows it to grow with the enterprise in accordance with your requirements. In essence, the C30 architecture allows you to tailor-make/plug-and-play your own custom-fit communication system. Some of the functionality on offer:

• Enterprise-ready telephony feature sets


• Built-in least cost routing (LCR)


• Support for digital exchange lines (BRI/PRI)


• Support for analogue extensions for any ICASA-approved phone


• Support for digital extensions for power users


• Open-standards based IP extensions (SIP/H323) i.e. no vendor lock-in trap


• An extensive voicemail system


• Mature unified messaging features


• Integrated ADSL router


• Build in WiFi Router


• Firewall


• Remote management


• And many more

Scalability
The C30 was designed to be scalable both in terms of extensions as well as exchange line connectivity options. As a minimal configuration the system acts as a traditional stand-alone 8x4 (extensions x exchange lines) PBX whereas as a maximum it can act as a 40x20 (extensions x exchange lines) standalone system and/or a full featured multi-node system with up to a 1000 systems being networked together (SIP Server Required) giving you virtually limitless scalability.

Extension Scalability
The basic system can be extended through 4 additional extension modules which provide 8 additional extension ports per module. This means that the C30 is inherently scalable with regards to extensions and can scale from 8 to 40 extensions in increments of 8 extensions at a time.

Exchange Line Scalability
With the addition of extension modules the system can also grow by 2 exchange line modules. Each exchange line module supports 2 exchange line ports. This means that with regard to exchange lines, the C30 scales from 4 to 20 exchange lines (digital or analogue) in increments of 2 ports at a time.

Reliability
The C30 is a hybrid system supporting both TDM (Time Division Multiplex as in traditional PBX`s) and IP communication (as in next generation converged IP-PBX). Being an inherent hybrid system (TDM and IP) you get the reliability benefits of both the connection (TDM) and connectionless (IP) oriented world. TDM systems do not rely upon the IT switching fabric to provide and maintain dial tone making them easier to deploy and less dependent on IT resources and expertise. IP-PBXs have the benefit of merging voice traffic with data traffic on one converged network infrastructure and providing advanced features such as presence management.
The C30 can also be equipped with a battery backup unit that will ensure that your business is able to receive and make calls during a power failure while analogue exchange lines are automatically switched to particular extensions to allow calls to be made and received on these lines until your businesses power can be restored, thus ensuring you business continuity. In addition to these features, the system can also be setup to automatically report alarms to your maintenance center of choice that will be able to rectify any anomalies before they become a constraining factor on your business.All in all, when blending the C30`s innate reliability assurance features with a strategic business disaster recovery plan then the system can present an always-on and available solution, even in times of disaster when your competitors become non contactable.

Cost Effectiveness
Whether you are a single 2 to 4 extension office or a multi-branch national or international enterprise with up to 40 extensions per branch the C30 is positioned to reduce your monthly communications expense while at the same time empowering your workforce to be more effective and more efficient.Using ‘Least Cost Routing’ (LCR) over multiple providers throughout different times of the day, built-in VoIP interfaces and free-of-charge internal calls, your monthly telephony expense is sure to shrink dramatically.However, the C30 platform is so much more then purely an exercise in cost management. In Tellumat’s view, cost reduction equates to only a fraction of the overall business benefits that a tailor-made, strategically aligned and accurately implemented communication solution has to offer your business` bottom line. It is these intangible intrinsic efficiency gains, even if difficult to quantify initially, which are a major factor to consider when going through a purchasing decision cycle for a communication solution.

As such, I invite you to contact me to request a comprehensive analysis of your business communication requirements in order to present to you a complete cost-benefit analysis in respect to the suitability of the C30 solution to your particular business. We don’t believe in selling PBX`s, we build and grow businesses by gearing them through innovative and cost effective technology.

Features
The C30 hosts a complete set of powerful digital features such as, but not limited to:

• CLI


• Networked call routing


• Direct dialing in (DDI) for a big-company look and feel


• Voicemail


• Auto-Attendant


• Courtesy Service


• Custom Call Routing


• HelpDesk


• Hospitality Services


• And many more

In addition to the standard set of features, you can now enable your business with free intra-site phone calls and enjoy lightning-fast e-mail and broadband access. These features, are of course accompanied with the peace of mind that cyber crime from the external network can not penetrate your C30`s state state-of-the-art firewall thus protecting your valuable business data.

Some select features:

• Make low cost VoIP based calls to anywhere in the world or across the road using the C30`s build in VoIP functionalities.


• Harness the versatility of next generation networks using build in connectivity options to both data and voice networks.


• Deliver integrated content (voice and data) directly to your staff’s desktop (via your corporate network or wirelessly) thereby hugely increasing their efficiency potential.


• Enable your workforce to work and access their data and voice resources remotely, any where any time.


• Take the C30 to the maximum. Network a thousand systems together and create/manage a single dialing plan with up to 50000 extensions.


• Enable your staff to work freely in the office without worrying about missing a single contact point. The C30 allows users to pick up their messages (internally and externally) anywhere in the world using any device available to them. Your staff will be contactable any time, any where on any device.


• Delight your customers by staying open to request 24x7 by utilizing the C30`s powerful call routing features and automated directory services.

In addition to all of the standard traditional and non traditional telephony features, the C30 includes a complete and powerful set of data-voice features such as call recording which allows you to record all of your important calls.
Are you tired of being tied-in to your vendors’ devices? No more. Now you have the freedom to choose from any standard analogue phone or standards (SIP/H323) based IP terminal.

Do you require more control and versatility in your endpoint? No problem, opt for one of our digital telephones which offer a complete feature set to the end user in an intuitive and congruent manner.

Whether you want to setup a small office with a few handsets and a minimalistic feature set or you are planning to equip your global enterprise with carrier grade data-voice tools and features, the C30 will simply mould itself around you and your requirements. Downsize or upsize, move, add or change any part of your system any time, without missing a beat and zero downtime.

In Conclusion
Having highlighted what the system can do, what it is capable of and what organizational demographic is suited to a C30 platform, one can easily become stigmatized into believing that the C30 platform will suit all business profiles. This, simply, is not the case at all.The C30 platform caters only for businesses (single and multisite) which have a need of between 4 and 40 extensions per branch/office. Anything below or above these boundaries will be more appropriately served through other product-service offering from Tellumat Telecoms product line-up.Furthermore, it is important to stress the point that the C30 platform is intentionally designed as a hybrid solution. It is for these customers, which wish to begin to migrate to VoIP, but are not ready to take the complete leap into a pure IP world just yet. As such, if you require a traditional PBX or pure IP based system then contact us for our alternate product offerings that are more suited to your requirements.

Should you:

• Have any further questions


• Require a quotation


• Would like a live demonstration


• Are unsure of the platform`s suitability


• Need a cost/benefit analysis

Then please do not hesitate to contact me at dschulte@tellumat.com

What is Unified Communication?

By: Dominik Schulte-Zurhausen, Marketing Manager, Tellumat Telecoms

To attempt to define the term ‘Unified Communication’ is to open up a hornets nest of endless, yet needless discussion around the semantics. My view is quite a simple one in that unified communication (UC) is just that:
UC is a unified methodology to aggregate the communication requirements of an organization and its stakeholders. As such, UC attempts to presents an integrated communication interface to all stakeholders of the business in today’s rapidly evolving environment.

This is quite a mouthful, so let us break it down a little:
The word ‘unified’, in this context, means to a have a single, integrative and cohesive means to communicate and collaborate with all stakeholders of the business.
The word ‘communication’, in this context means any and all communication media available to the business. These media being voice, video, mail, web, IM and fax etc.

As such, UC attempts to provide a seamless, intuitive, personalized and unified communication interface to all stakeholders. These stakeholders can take the shape and form of internal staff, external staff, customers and suppliers. The view is that different stakeholders utilize different communication media, tools and devices in different situations throughout their day. Thus, UC attempts to integrate the applicable media resources under a presence-aware interface that is intuitive, customizable, personalized, device agnostic and easy to use.

In light of the fact that UC`s low level purpose is to present all communication media channels in an integrated manner to the end user, UC products can then be defined to be those technology artifacts (hardware, software and processes) which support the underlying media and allows for integration into a single user interface that allows for enhanced collaboration and improved business process structures. UC solutions are then not stand alone products, but rather suites of incorporated tools that enable the business and the individual to integrate their communication requirements.

The idea of UC has been around for over a decade, but it is only recently that UC has become a viable and practical business tool. According to Gartner 2008, the two main trends which have lead to this sudden acceptance and interest are:

• The proliferation of IP networking throughout the enterprise and telecommunication carriers.
  
• The capability of software applications to provide all communication requirements via off-the-shelf (OTS) computing hardware and delivery of data via IP packets to the end user device.
  

Of course in South Africa and many other developing nations around the world, the constantly reducing cost of bandwidth has also given a dramatic rise to the demand and interest for UC solutions based on IP networking.

The key technologies in providing UC are:

• Real-time transactions such as voice and video calls via fixed, mobile or soft phones
  
• Live collaboration using voice, video and web conferencing with options for application sharing
  
• Instant messaging (IM) based communication for peers and groups alike
  
• Delayed messaging such as e-mail, voice-mail, sms/mms, fax based communication
  
• Multi-endpoint (endpoint agnostic) support such as desktops, laptops, phones and mobile phones
  
• Value added applications that allow for presence management, directory services, skills based routing, personal assistants, CEBP (through API and/or service interfaces and tools that facilitate the integration of business application with communication)
  
• Wireless technologies supporting voice and data mobility (DECT, IP-DECT, WiFi, WiMax, GSM, UMTS, Pico-Cell etc) with options for transparent handover
  
• Least cost routing over a variety of media channels
  

The theory is that a properly deployed and leveraged UC solution will increase the efficiency as well as the effectiveness of an organization in today’s rapidly evolving business climate.

What is not Unified Communications?

UC is not a one vendor solution approach to a business` communication requirement, or even a once of investment in new communication technology. It is not VoIP in isolation; VoIP is just one of the tools. UC is not a PBX sitting in a back office or a server sitting on a rack.
In fact, UC communication is not even a true stand-alone technology in itself.

UC is just this:
A systematic and ongoing methodology which aims to harness the inherent benefits that a plethora of current and future communication technologies can provide to business` and individual end users alike.

To wrap up

UC is a methodology that loosely hints at an ongoing process of applying associated suites of communication technology tools that when properly integrated with well defined and robust business processes and existing business applications can deliver exceptional organizational efficiency and effectiveness improvements when compared to competing enterprises that do not leverage such technologies .

The cost of communications

Business communications (voice minutes as well as bandwidth) generally rates among a business's top three costs, across all industries and geographies. It shares this dubious honour with the monthly salary bill and capital expenses. So how can you bring about savings?
In South Africa the cost of telecoms is traditionally higher than the global norm. In fact, it has often acted as a deterrent to foreign investment in the country, a huge loss especially to the call centre outsourcing industry. Add the current global economic downturn to these factors, and the call to contain the cost of telecoms becomes deafening, says Langenhoven, managing executive, Tellumat Telecoms.

Return on technology
Langenhoven says one of the surest ways to achieve communications savings is through the judicious use of technology. While some vendors market their technology as boosters of top- or bottom-line earnings, the real strength of communications technology is in its potential to save money.

“In fact, return on investment in technology purchases is measured almost solely in terms of cost - the costs incurred versus the costs saved by virtue of owning technology. If the cost incurred is less than the cost saved, and the quantum of the saving is high enough, you've made a sound purchase,” he says.

The case for efficiency
In this way, a very good case can still be made for communications technology that increases efficiencies and saves money - even or perhaps especially in troubled times.

“Here are two simple examples: rather than make a series of phone calls to track someone down, well-integrated communications technologies will bring the search down significantly and dramatically enhance efficiencies. And powerful modern collaboration tools easily beat being physically present at a meeting in another town for sheer value. It is almost unthinkable to burn money in a period that some commentators are already calling the Great Recession,” says Langenhoven.

What savings are and are not
“The true savings of converged communications and applications like unified communications are not so much the lower cost of voice minutes and bandwidth, as often claimed. Most of the savings lie in improved efficiencies,” he says. Businesses realise they can effectively do the same things and achieve the same outcomes more efficiently, more quickly or more cost-effectively. In some cases the re-engineering of business processes together with integrated voice technologies makes the critical difference to an organisation.

“If businesses integrate communications technology effectively and manage technologies like presence well, they optimise their external interaction and become more effective. Once they reach their customers, suppliers and partners without incurring great cost, they realise cost benefits and achieve an edge over less clear-thinking competitors. Some of these savings are measurable; others, like saved opportunity costs, less so,” he says.

Take care
It would serve companies well to remember that total cost of ownership of a technology goes far beyond its upfront price. Maintenance is an oft-forgotten invisible cost that sometimes blind-sides technology buyers. For instance, least-cost routing is often embraced without considering the high cost of maintaining it.

“In short, be sure to look at both sides of the deal - costs saved versus costs incurred. Does the right side pull the scale down?” asks Langenhoven.

Tellumat offers leading IP-based unified communications

While some vendors continue to market voice over Internet Protocol(VOIP), it is time to move on from this misleading term in the quality conscious arena of enterprise communications. “VOIP will find it hard to live down its association with cheap Internet calls,” says Bennie Langenhoven, Managing Executive of Tellumat Telecoms, the communications specialist in the Tellumat Group. “But IP-based communication is so much more than that. When done right, it enables efficient, productive communications through convergence, or what has come to be known as ‘unified communication’.”

Unified communications benefits
The benefits of unified comms (UC) include:

• Increased productivity – for instance the ability to do e-mail on the run, work seamlessly from home or collaborate on a wide range of platforms, internally or externally (combining instant messaging, e-mail, white-boarding, application sharing and conferencing with voice calls);


• Customer satisfaction – presence management allows customers to find a representative wherever he or she may be. Staff interaction with customers need never be unprofessional, as communication is always front-ended with a company number;


• Reduced costs – one needs fewer resources (including skills) and less infrastructure to handle unified communications than one does to handle separate voice and IT comms. Presence management also allows optimal routing of calls via the cheapest channel;


• UC can even be environmentally friendly: conferencing tools reduce travel carbon emissions,


• Automation – integrated with business processes, companies can auto-generate meaningful communications. For example, a debtors clerk can be reminded of a specific customer’s due date though integration with the company’s ERP system.

Business process end-game
The magic of UC is IP or Internet Protocol, the common fabric that weaves together traditional computer communications (e-mail, IM and Web-conferencing) with voice (fixed and mobile), video and new Web 2.0 communications tools.
Where will UC lead us?
To an end-game of communications driven business processes, Langenhoven says. “In the future, voice will be driven by business processes. There won’t be a dedicated voice switch that is integrated into the enterprise back-end. Voice will be an application like any other on the network, built into business processes from the ground up. Voice switching will be driven by business rules, not by the number dialled.”

Place your bets
The technology battle around unified comms is still intensifying, and is waged by traditional IP stalwarts including Cisco and Microsoft on the one end, and telecoms vendors like Siemens and Alcatel-Lucent on the other. Two years ago Tellumat went in search of UC technology that would heavily impact the market. Recently it won the distribution rights for Shore-Tel, a North American rising star that has both critical acclaim and excellent growth figures. Frost & Sullivan recognises ShoreTel’s “explosive growth” (its sales have doubled each year since inception in 1998, outpacing the bustling IP comms market). The research firm notes that ShoreTel has an edge over other players, in that it had started “from a clean sheet of paper”, an approach that solves the integration conundrum in a way that the other camps are finding hard to emulate. Langenhoven says among others, ShoreTel’s pure IP focus and distributed architecture attracted Tellumat. “We were looking for something to compete well in the new (unified) technology space, something that offers both a strong differentiation and a high degree of reliability. To us as long-time manufacturer-distributors of PBXs, the need for reliability is a non-negotiable. At the same time, we appreciate the IT mindset of a network that easily supports multiple sites. In ShoreTel we found the best combination of those qualities.”
He says the following attributes of the vendor and its range are the most impressive:

• Unique architecture and simple integration into many business applications


• Independently audited customer satisfaction programme (bonuses at all levels of the organisation are mapped to a customer satisfaction index)


• Lowest cost of ownership for VOIP solutions


• Ease-of-use, and


• Cost-effective manageability, thanks to the distributed IP architecture

Independent praise
Langenhoven and Frost are not alone in their praise. A second independent research organisation, Nemertes, rated ShoreTel’s portfolio against those of Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, Siemens, 3Com and Alcatel-Lucent. Unbelievably, it awarded the newcomer top honours in every category (features, customer service, value and ease of use). Overall, ShoreTel rated as follows against its peers:
While the results are highly favourable to ShoreTel, notes Nemertes, the report was conducted solely by it, and was not sponsored by any company, including ShoreTel. Langenhoven’s take on the vendor’s winning qualities is that Tellumat generally selects a product range on the basis of tangible value, which translates into quality at a low total cost of ownership and a good return on investment. “All these metrics are answered convincingly by ShoreTel. One can scarcely imagine a better value proposition than this.”

* The Nemertes report is available here:
http://www.shoretel.com/resources/industry_research/downloads/shoretel_nemertes_executive_summary.pdf

Earth Hour and Tellumat

Earth hour is around the corner (Saturday at 20:30 SAST) and we at Tellumat Telecoms are proud to announce our full support of this important initiative. Come 20:30 SAST time, we will be powering down all non-critical systems, and we challenge our partners, suppliers and customers to do the same. Together we can make a difference.

Please visit Earth Hour and join us in this important initiative.

Tellumat Telecoms’s position is that technology and the environment do not have to be in opposition, but rather that technology, if properly deployed, can and must play a vital role in greening and preserving our precious environment.

According to Bennie Langenhoven, Managing Executive for Tellumat Telecoms, “At Tellumat Telecoms we are committed to the protection of the environment, providing a safe and healthy workplace and the empowerment of the communities in which we operate. In order to do so, we strategically source and provide technology solutions which allow businesses to better manage their carbon footprint while at the same time, increasing their bottom lines through effective and measurable efficiency improvements.”

• Our next communication solution provides effective power consumption savings of 27% to 62%, when compared to our competitors’ offerings.

• We provide smart efficiencies whereas our competitors provide efficiencies through externalising their power consumptions on the environment.

• Greenhouse Gas emissions, energy consumption and waste are serious concerns for Tellumat Telecoms, our suppliers and our customers.

• According to Gartner, 80 % of execs say green initiatives are growing in importance; 43 % say they consider a vendor's "greenness" when selecting suppliers.

• Climate change remains the most pressing and daunting issue challenging the world today, and we acknowledge the need for aggressive action including “absolute” emission cuts.

Tellumat Telecoms provides real and tangible benefits to the environment we operate in, our customer base, our customer’s bottom lines as well as the broader community in which we operate.

Tellumat bolsters enterprise communications proposition

Tellumat Telecoms, the communications technology specialist in the Tellumat Group, will boost its formidable business communication offering this year with some of the lessons it learned selling to smaller customers in 2008.

Bennie Langenhoven, managing executive of the business unit, reports signing many new small and medium enterprise (SME) customers last year, having aligned itself in that market segment with sought-after telco partners including Telkom, iBurst, Orion Telecom and Vox Telecom. “Several of them are doing really well for us,
and we want to add to their portfolios,” says Langenhoven.

Tellumat further expects to sign more partners in the SME space this year, but more importantly, it wants to extend its offering with some of the existing partners, to use them in its larger enterprise channel too. “We already have a good reputation as a business comms supplier,” Langenhoven says. “It is this strength that attracted these great partners to us in the first place – telcos, service providers, ISPs and the bigger resellers and distributors. Now it makes sense to use them to reinforce our enterprise proposition.”

Tellumat enterprise credentials

• Importation, warehousing and logistics experience to support customers and partners


• Pre- and post-implementation service portfolio, including project management, systems integration,
  support and training


• A strong research and development capability within the Tellumat Group, which enables Telecoms to
  customise products or easily integrate them into customer infrastructure


• Solid experience in various core and access technologies, including ADSL, wireless, leased line,
  microwave, WiMAX and satellite


• Long-standing voice experience (two decades in which it sold two million ports)


• Leading brands (Lake Communications’ all-in-one Sigma small business comms unit; Inter-Tel’s hybrid
  and pure Internet Protocol platforms, as well as its management platform and collaboration apps; KIRK
  DECT and Wi-Fi telephony; and Polycom’s IP and conferencing solutions). Tellumat will soon be
  launching a leading enterprise IP communication solution


• Local intellectual property (locally-manufactured PBXs, GSM payphones, microwave links and more)


• Premier case studies (microwave backhaul links for Neotel and the SA National Defence Force, as well
  as many enterprise networks, call centres and cordless installations)


• Global clout (since Inter-Tel’s merger with Mitel, Tellumat has access to the brand, technologies and
  close presence of Mitel)


• Local identity and empowerment (Tellumat is a Level 4 BBBEE Superior Contributor in terms of the dti’s
  Codes of good Practice)

Langenhoven says he is confident that Tellumat can continue its success, which he says is based on contributing to the success of its customers. “Despite a global economic downturn and some fall-out in traditional telco supplier circles, we’ve grown our turnover by 30% last year,” he says. “Our partners andcustomers can expect the Tellumat they know and trust to continue to provide great technology and service to them in years to come.”