Siemens Enterprise Communications Sees Growth in North America Fueled by Key Wins, Channel Expansion and Product Innovation

RESTON, Va., Feb. 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Siemens Enterprise Communications, a premier provider of enterprise communications solutions, announced today that it saw increased growth and product momentum in the critical North America market, by providing customers with innovative, flexible and affordable solutions that address business needs. Major milestones contributing to the company's growth include a series of new products that drive efficient operations, strategic channel expansion and numerous awards and accolades from industry analysts, experts and media.

Siemens Enterprise Communications' customer-centric approach has driven an over 25 percent increase in new business orders in the United States, including several new logo wins. This business momentum reaffirms the market demand for cost-effective, flexible unified communications (UC) technology provided by Siemens Enterprise Communications. Constant changes in enterprise communications – including social networking, cloud-based models and the proliferation of mobile devices – have brought companies to a tipping point in choosing to keep up with the evolving needs of their business and customers, increasing the need for UC solutions.

Through new and expanded strategic relationships with partners including ArrowS3, Ingram Micro, Black Box and Verizon, Siemens Enterprise Communications is further extending its commitment to the channel and improving customer reach. These initiatives increased sales and support resources for the company's channels by a factor of five. Strategic partnerships have also consolidated a portion of the company's legacy accounts to increase efficiency and boost customer support.

"As a leading solution provider for unified communications, Black Box has experienced significant growth with Siemens Enterprise Communications in 2011 and we continue to see strong demand from our clients for advanced unified communications solutions as we enter 2012. Siemens Enterprise Communications' complete solution suite and our world class service and support bring a very good ROI for our customers," said Brian Jones, Vice President, Black Box Network Services. "As a Premier Partner, it has been a pleasure working with Siemens Enterprise Communications. Their executives have demonstrated a unique and keen understanding of the needs and commitment to partner relationships and in today's world of communications and collaboration, we've been very successful in working together to bring award winning and very customized solutions to the market."

Siemens Enterprise Communications' innovation and advancement in the UC marketplace earned the company numerous awards and recognition from industry analysts and media, including the following:

• Gartner, Inc. 2011 Magic Quadrant "Leader" for Unified Communications and Corporate Telephony
• Frost & Sullivan's Customer Value Enhancement Award for Voice and Unified Messaging Platform
• ITEXPO's Best in Show for OpenScape Cloud Services
• Nemertes Pilothouse Awards for both UC and Contact Center

"Siemens Enterprise Communications has really demonstrated qualities of a market leader over the past year," said Rich Costello, Senior Research Analyst, IDC. "The company offers a broad portfolio of communications and collaboration tools and has experience delivering comprehensive UC solutions to various geographic regions and types of enterprises. Siemens Enterprise Communications works to expand its partnerships and customer base, as well as its technology and innovative solutions – leading to significant results and strengthening its position as a major global player in the UC space."

Siemens Enterprise Communications added a series of new products in 2011, continually innovating and advancing the UC marketplace. Key products released this year include OpenScape Office V3, an all-in-one UC solution allowing mobile workers to easily communicate across multiple locations, and OpenScape Session Border Controller to deliver superior Voice over IP (VoIP) security and cost savings to OpenScape Voice customers. Other product developments this year included the delivery of Contact Center Solutions in the cloud through a global distribution agreement with inContact and the general availability of OpenScape Cloud Services.

"This has been an outstanding year for Siemens Enterprise Communications as we've continued to push UC innovation and our ownership in the marketplace," said Chris Hummel, CMO and President, North America, Siemens Enterprise Communications. "Siemens Enterprise Communications is dedicated to developing solutions that meet our customers' business needs while increasing productivity and reducing business costs – a key factor in maintaining our position as an industry leader."

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 unified 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 includes 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