Hosted VoIP

UK Government departments soon will be able to achieve significantly increased efficiencies and cost savings following the launch of Global Crossing Unified Communications, a service developed by Global Crossing based on the HiPath 8000 softswitch from Siemens Enterprise Communications (News - Alert).

Global Crossing Unified Communications provides customers with fully managed hosted IP

Telephony, collaboration, and messaging solutions over a single, converged IP network designed to improve productivity, consolidate diverse systems, and maximize efficiencies.

"With this initiative, Government is breaking new ground by adopting a uniquely flexible, 'secure communications anywhere' IP-based managed solution," confirms Anthony Christie, managing director, UK and Europe, Global Crossing. "By implementing this solution, they will contribute a key element to the HM Government's broader transformation goals, which include reducing infrastructure costs, by ensuring staff can work effectively as they deliver high-quality public services, wherever they are located."

This service is one of the first deliverables of an agreement between the two companies that will create a range of hosted services based on Siemens' (News - Alert) HiPath 8000 softswitch

platform. The service complements Global Crossing's recent confirmation of the Managed Telephony Service (Mts) four-year contract extension delivered through OGCbuying.solutions.

"The long standing partnership between Siemens and Global Crossing means the Government has the expertise behind the roll out of this new hosted secure telephony system, to lead the way in the creation of a completely flexible working environment," said David Leighton, sales director public sector, Siemens Enterprise Communications. "This strategy embodies Siemens' open communications strategy of simple and straightforward communications regardless of time, device or location. The open SIP

platform provides unsurpassed scalability, flexibility and the highest level of security to meet the critical requirements of
Government departments."

Global Crossing's Unified Communications (News - Alert) is available via a secure Government Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP VPN). It provides voice services through a hosted Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP

) solution that is designed to meet the high-level requirements of the criminal justice system and secure Central Government environments, such as HMRC and the Treasury. The company plans to develop a version of the service for multinational corporations.

Government now can provide its employees the ability to access calls simply via a laptop, wherever they are located, enhancing an organization’s disaster recovery processes. The service also helps organizations implement solutions that contribute to reducing CO2
emissions.

For Global Crossing, the initiative is expected to propel the company to the forefront of IP-based unified services. The first phase will deliver IP telephony services to the desktop, hosted from a highly resilient and secure
carrier-class soft switch in Global Crossing's core network. The second phase will introduce presence-based features and collaboration tools that will drive productivity savings.

Spencer Chin is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

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Global Crossing Develops Unified Communication Solutions Based on Siemens Technology

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