30 March 2011

New version of Aastra SIP-DECT excels in on-site mobility
for small, medium and large enterprises

Johannesburg 30th March, 2011 – Aastra, the market leader for enterprise DECT sales in EMEA and number three worldwide , today announced the latest version of its highly scalable cordless SIP-DECT™ solution to increase productivity and accessibility while mobile. This solution is designed to meet the real-time communications demands of businesses with on-site mobile workforces and is highly suitable for numerous market sectors and industries including: manufacturing; hospitality; security and care facilities; retail and industrial complexes.

This mobility offering can be fully integrated into an IP environment and combines the versatility of SIP with all of the benefits offered by DECT: high voice quality, confidentiality and competitive Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Aastra’s SIP-DECT solution offers more than just voice communications - it provides employees access to important messages and emails on the move, making it a powerful Unified Communications tool that improves responsiveness.

Enhancements include increased scalability for very large deployments of up to 4,500 DECT handsets. Other key improvements include:

Informing and communicating more effectively
Integrated Messaging and Alerting addresses the needs of businesses that wish to communicate with an individual or groups of employees when a voice conversation is not possible or optimal. Messages and alerts may be sent to pre-defined DECT handsets, which is appealing to sectors such as retail, when staff in large stores can be contacted and located without the need for intrusive loudspeaker announcements for customers. Alerts can be generated from a wide range of input sources including handset terminals, handset users, RSS feeds and email.

Instant emergency responsiveness
Location-based service is ideal for the care industry or high security environments. This service enhances responsiveness for employees requiring emergency assistance by helping to locate them, for example in a ‘man down’ incident triggered by the handset. It can also help to identify the closest member of staff able to address an urgent situation. Using a locating server and web browser, the DECT handsets appear on a map.

Cost effective flexibility
Aastra offers further gains in the competitive TCO of its SIP-DECT solution with handset sharing. This user-friendly feature is appropriate for businesses with shift workers. Employees can retrieve their individual settings by activating their user profile when taking any handset in a charger rack. The efficiency of sharing handsets lowers costs while delivering flexibility.

Eliminating interference caused by the structure of a building
Poor voice quality, problematic reception and broken communication between employees are commonly experienced in industrial and large scale environments such as metal warehousing or concrete structures. The DECT XQ technology developed by Aastra provides improved voice quality regardless of the physical environment.

“SIP-DECT devices deliver many of the most sought-after qualities of an enterprise IP telephony endpoint, including security, mobility, cost effectiveness, simplicity, voice reliability, manageability and rich functionality. Aastra is uniquely positioned to bring the best of two worlds together: the advanced capabilities of mobile IP telephony and the robustness of DECT technology. With its latest SIP-DECT solution, Aastra is adding a third element to the equation: the potential to integrate additional unified communications elements. The company’s strong SIP philosophy, extensive endpoint expertise, and synergies across platforms, enable Aastra to deliver superior value to its customers.” declared Alaa Saayed, industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

The andel’s hotel in Berlin is a modern business hotel and conference facility. Accommodating up to 1,000 guests, its 200 strong workforce is constantly on the move across 14 floors. The andel’s hotel required a state-of-the-art communications system that would benefit customers and staff, ensuring that every team member -- from housekeeping to management -- could be reached without difficulty. The solution also needed to overcome interference to mobile communications from the reinforced concrete structure of the building. “Aastra’s SIP-DECT solution ensures that any employee can be contacted quickly wherever they are in the building. This means we can respond more effectively to any incident and meet the needs of our guests,” said General Manager Ralph Alsdorf. “There is no doubt that we benefit from highly efficient processes and as a result we are able to position ourselves as one of the city’s top business hotels.”

“Aastra’s SIP-DECT offering is a best-in-class enterprise mobility solution. It delivers optimal levels of performance and scalability enriched with superior functionality to meet the specific needs of vertical markets. Combined with our market-leading range of DECT handsets, we are clearly demonstrating how we are shaping the future of enterprise DECT solutions, commented Thomas Stephan, Head of Product Line Management for SIP-DECT, at Aastra. He continued, “Through this solution we remain committed to leveraging open standards, essential for businesses as they seek investment protection and interoperability with existing systems.”

This SIP-DECT solution has been developed entirely by Aastra and includes:
- The OpenMobility® Manager (OMM), software that administers all DECT handsets and mobility activities (roaming, seamless handover between base stations – including across multiple locations - and media stream). Dedicated applications for alarm, messaging and locating services as well as third party applications can leverage from the functionality provided by OMM.
- Aastra DECT handsets dedicated for business use.
- Aastra base stations known as Radio Fixed Parts (RFPs) which can be connected to IP networks. The base stations are available for indoor use, outdoor environments as well as a dual mode WLAN/DECT model which offers the best of wireless in a single unit: DECT for mobile voice and WLAN data for mobile computing.

The solution can be deployed in most open-standard IP environments including Aastra call control managers, as well as deployed by other third party SIP compliant call managers including Centrex solutions.

ENDS

About Aastra Telecom South Africa

Aastra Telecom South Africa is the sub-Saharan business unit of Aastra Technologies Limited, (TSX:“AAH”), a leading company at the forefront of the enterprise communication market. Headquartered in Concord, Ontario, Canada, Aastra develops and delivers innovative communications products and applications for businesses. Aastra’s operations are truly global with more than 50 million installed lines around the world and a direct and indirect presence in more than 100 countries. Aastra is entirely dedicated to enterprise communications and offers one of the most complete portfolios of unified communications solutions individually tailored to satisfy its customers’ requirements. These range from feature-rich call managers for small and medium businesses and highly scalable ones for large enterprises, integrated mobility, call centres solutions to a wide selection of terminals. With a strong focus on open standards, Aastra enables enterprises to communicate and collaborate more efficiently. For additional information on Aastra, visit our website at http://www.aastra.com or www.aastrasa.co.za

Aastra Telecom South Africa (Pty) Ltd

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