Siemens, BT Partner For Converged Communications

The global sales agreement aims at helping companies reduce costs, remove complexity and risk, improve collaboration and enhance business processes by integrating current voice and data infrastructures and opening up a transition path to a centrally managed IP-based communications platform.

Siemens vice president of global partner sales Andrew Kelly said the Siemens and BT converged solution, which combines Siemens' OpenScape suite of communications software applications and OpenScale services with BT's MPLS network, will help companies consolidate and converge their voice and data tools at their own pace, one site at a time if needed. Users can migrate from an existing multi-technology environment to a centrally managed converged communications platform upon deployment. Additionally, the solution offers a single SLA as well as a pricing model with a single point of contact for end-to-end managed services.

The relationship stemmed from the two companies sharing several mutual engagements with customers and both companies realized their complimentary portfolios can deliver solutions and services such as voice, data, telephony, mobility and collaboration applications.

"We realized there was a common thread," Kelly said.

According to Kelly, both Siemens and BT noticed inefficiency and fragmentation in how customer infrastructures were being managed. He said the partnership is designed to manage customers' existing infrastructure and leverage in-house services and services from channel partners to streamline the infrastructure and ultimately cut costs.

"Through mergers and acquisitions, many of our customers have accumulated complex, usually multi-vendor voice and data infrastructures," said BT vice president of systems integrators and channel partners Chris Ainslie. "Our agreement with Siemens offers them a way to leverage their significant legacy investments while opening doors for greater collaboration and better execution."