BroadSoft has teamed up with IBM to provide real-time communication and collaboration tools to businesses of all sizes. The BroadWorks Connector for Lotus Sametime provides a Lotus Sametime plug-in that allows enterprises to access its IP telephony and Unified Communications (UC) capabilities from within IBM’s unified communications and collaboration (UC2) platform.
BroadSoft said that with the new tool, service providers can expand their BroadWorks UC capabilities to large enterprises with IBM Lotus Sametime, and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with the IBM Lotus Foundations Reach appliance.
According to BroadSoft, the combination of the Hosted PBX offering and Lotus Foundations Reach would help minimise the cost and complexity of traditional UC offerings. BroadSoft is working with IBM to make UC more accessible to SMBs by providing a complete offering that couples the automation of everyday tasks with the ability to remotely configure and manage the system.
The BroadWorks Connector for Lotus Sametime adds new capabilities for Lotus Sametime and Foundations users such as Click-to-dial to BroadWorks-enabled devices, which allows the user clicks on a contact to cause a BroadWorks-controlled phone to go off-hook and initiate the call, from the Sametime UC client. ‘In a Call’ presence updates to the Sametime UC client provides the ability to view BroadWorks contacts’ presence and automatically updates the user’s status.
In addition, it also offers the capability to configure key BroadWorks services from the Sametime UC client allow to change BroadWorks Anywhere settings such as adding a new fixed or mobile end point to receive or pull calls; control Do-not-Disturb settings; manage call forwarding options; configure and enable Remote Office while away from the office; and control the list of simultaneous ringing destinations.
David Bukovsky, vice president of products at BroadSoft, said: The BroadWorks Connector for Lotus Sametime and our integration with Lotus Foundations Reach opens a new option for service providers to offer UC with a powerful combination of hosted and on-premises systems. BroadSoft is committed to accelerating UC adoption by SMBs.
“Working with IBM, we enable service providers to go-to-market with a comprehensive and cost-effective UC offering specifically developed for SMBs that will give them access to communications tools required to effectively run their businesses.
The BroadWorks Connector for Lotus Sametime will be available in the first quarter of 2010.
