Siemens Enterprise Communications Channel Partners Benefit from White Label Service Offerings as Companies Look to Reduce Costs and Transition to the Latest UC Technologies

MUNICH, March 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Siemens Enterprise Communications, a premier provider of enterprise communications solutions, today announced that the company's channel partners are benefitting from its OpenScale service offerings, as more organizations are confronted with the challenge of managing and updating their current multi-vendor communications systems. Already, partners such as A. Telecom in Brazil and Shared Technologies in the United States are working to help their customers unify their communications systems with solutions and services from Siemens Enterprise Communications. Over the last year, the company's global partners have signed white labeled services contracts in excess of euro 150 million with support from Siemens Enterprise Communications' global services organization.

Channel partners increasingly need to expand their portfolios of offerings to address market consolidation and give their customers flexible options in achieving communications goals, making Siemens Enterprise Communications' flagship OpenScape software suite an attractive option. Not only does OpenScape act as an integration layer, unifying existing communications systems, but partners will benefit from OpenScale's services portfolio of Professional Services, Installation, Maintenance and Managed Services offerings, as well as the scale of Siemens Enterprise Communications' network of services professionals. Whether requiring the technical support while they grow their own skills, or added reach when working with multi-national organizations, Siemens Enterprise Communications can provide partners with complete off-the-shelf services they can re-sell, or complement their own skills sets.

"OpenScale services are aimed at enabling partners to quickly and easily deliver managed and professional Services, rapidly get up to speed on our products, and help them deliver tailored services and solutions for complex requirements," said Bertrand Humel, senior vice president, channel management for services for Siemens Enterprise Communications. "Based on a modular approach, these offerings complement a partner's existing capabilities, without additional operating costs."

Included in this modular approach are OpenScale Essential Plus Managed Services, which consist of six main components: service desk, remote services, on-site support, spare parts, monitoring and service level management. This allows partners to opt for one or more of the components and blend them with their own services offerings to meet customer requirements. OpenScale Professional Services and training services also benefit from this modular approach, which can help partners maximize revenue while minimizing their cost base.

Field Tested and Partner Approved

Shared Technologies, a new Siemens Enterprise Communications partner which specializes in the design, implementation and ongoing maintenance and support of communication solutions for enterprise customers across the United States, is using the services while they bring their own skill sets up to speed.

"We want to quickly provide our customers with the best communications technologies, giving them the most options and flexibility in meeting their business goals, while allowing them to leverage their existing investments," said Glenn Means, chief operating officer of Shared Technologies. "OpenScale Services help us to immediately offer our customers the benefit of an integrated OpenScape migration path, while we establish best practices and hands-on training working directly with the Siemens Enterprise Communications services organization."

A. Telecom, a Brazilian voice and data solutions partner, was able to meet the unique requirements of Azul, a new local airline. By working with SEN Group's services experts, A. Telecom developed a hosted communications solution based on OpenScape, with its industry SIP and SOA standards that offered Azul the flexibility they needed to integrate with other business applications. The end result was a tailored Communications as a Service (CaaS) solution that allows Azul to provide communications to employees regardless of location, increased mobility, and better visibility and control over telephony-related expenses.

"Working with Siemens Enterprise Communications we were able to address a really unique situation, giving Azul the flexibility and scalability they needed to ramp up their operations, without having to worry about having the right technical resources," said Ricardo Amaral, project engineer for A. Telecom. "The Siemens Enterprise Communications team took the time to really understand the needs of the customer, demonstrate how together we could deliver on those needs, and ensure that not only could we provide UC, but we could guarantee availability and security, as well as keeping Azul's TCO low."

"Our channel partners have great opportunities that reflect the current state of the UC market," said Denzil Samuels, senior vice president of global channels and alliances at Siemens Enterprise Communications. "Customers aren't looking to replace their existing communications systems, but rather integrate their entire communications environment which requires an expanded skill set. With our OpenScale portfolio, we continue to reinforce our commitment to the channel by enabling our partners to address their customers' business and communications goals quickly and cost-effectively."

About Siemens Enterprise Communications

Siemens Enterprise Communications is a premier provider of end-to-end enterprise communications, including voice, network infrastructure and security solutions that use open, standards-based architectures to unify communications and business applications for a seamless collaboration experience. This award-winning "Open Communications" approach enables organizations to improve productivity and reduce costs through easy-to-deploy solutions that work within existing IT environments, delivering operational efficiencies. It is the foundation for the company's OpenPath® commitment that enables customers to mitigate risk and cost-effectively adopt unified communications. Jointly owned by The Gores Group and Siemens AG, Siemens Enterprise Communications companies include Siemens Enterprise Communications, Cycos, and Enterasys Networks.

For more information about Siemens Enterprise Communications or Enterasys please visit www.siemens-enterprise.com or www.enterasys.com

Note: Siemens Enterprise Communications & Co K.G. is a trademark licensee of Siemens AG. HiPath, OpenOffice, OpenScape and OpenStage, are registered trademarks of Siemens Enterprise Communications & Co K.G. or its affiliates. All other company, brand, product and service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

This release contains forward-looking statements based on beliefs of Siemens' management. The words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "forecast," "expect," "intend," "plan," "should," and "project" are used to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results to be materially different, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions, changes in currency exchange rates and interest rates, introduction of competing products, lack of acceptance of new products or services and changes in business strategy. Actual results may vary materially from those projected here. Siemens does not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Siemens Enterprise Communications