Siemens Debuts New Platforms

Dubbed "Practical Convergence Today,' the products include the HiPath 3000, a voice and data platform that scales from 20 to 500 users, and the HiPath 4000, a platform that scales up to 30,000 users.

Both platforms support any vendor's analog phones, and digital and IP phones from Siemens. They come with software applications that provide such features as a contact center, unified messaging, voicemail and

e-mail, along with personal productivity features that include the ability to automatically dial from a directory in a PC. They also offer Web-based management.

The platforms use integrated gateways to change the circuit-switched signals into packet-switched traffic that travels through a LAN or WAN. A Siemens proprietary protocol called CoreNet IP sends signals,both traditional circuit-switched signals and packets,through the network.

The idea of the Practical Convergence Today campaign is to help customers who aren't ready to abandon a traditional telephone system but want to have the flexibility of testing or switching over to an IP-based phone system, a company official says.

The HiPath 3000 family includes the HiPath 3300, which scales up to 20 users, the HiPath 3500, which scales to 100 users and the HiPath 3750, which scales up to 500 users.

The HiPath 3000 platform includes models that can be networked to scale to 1,000 users. The platforms will be available in March, and will sell for $375 to $525 per port, depending on the configurations and models selected. The HiPath 4000 will be available in May, and will cost $350 to $800 per port, depending on the configuration and model.

Siemens' enterprise division also announced the optiPoint 500, a new digital telephone that comes in five models. The phones, available this month, have multilines, full-duplex

speaker phones and a standard USB connection that simplifies using computer telephony applications. Prices range from $140 to $375.

Tim Stone, a product management director at solution provider Norstan Communications in Cincinnati, has installed the HiPath 3500. A chief selling point for Siemens' platforms is that they work with other vendors' software applications, he says. That's important, as more software applications for IP phones are expected to come out within the next year. Users connecting to either a circuit-switched system or an IP system will be able to use those applications with a Siemens platform, he says.

"You can mix both worlds together very gracefully,' Stone says, adding the platform takes the IP-convergence capabilities of an application and makes them available to all users.

Siemens has sold roughly 25,000 of its Hicom PBXs in the United States. Officials say they hope to upgrade those customers to the new platforms and also plan to aggressively compete with Cisco and 3Com for new clients.