Alcatel-Lucent Targets Large Enterprise

According to Hema Ganapathy, director of large enterprise solutions marketing at Alcatel-Lucent, the new and enhanced portfolio, called Corporate Communications Solutions for Large Enterprises, targets a number of network transitions such as globalization, virtualization and centralization and offers a way to converge the networks to integrate applications with business process to fulfill Alcatel-Lucent's "dynamic enterprise" vision by aligning networks, people, process and knowledge.

"This is part of our continued investment in the enterprise," Ganapathy said, adding that the new developments are mostly in response to customer requests.

Alcatel-Lucent's renewed enterprise focus has paid off. Ganapathy said in the last two years the Paris-based communications giant has brought on more than 5,000 new enterprise customers and the average deal size has grown 20 percent or more. In addition, services revenue is up both for partners and Alcatel-Lucent, increasing more than 30 percent over the last two years.

The new portfolio centers around four key areas: building IP networks for convergence, providing collaborative tools regardless of location, tying together unified communications and business process, and connecting knowledge through Web 2.0 applications and realtime communications.

The update includes the new OmniSwitch 9000E, which has been designed for high-capacity deployments, scalability and virtualization with multivirtual routing and forwarding to enable hardware consolidation and reduce power consumption. The 9000E brings switching to the data center and enables the partitioning of applications and users across the network. It can chop power consumption by making a single routing switch work as several routers that serve different applications or groups. The 9000E is available in 10- and 18-slot configurations.

Alcatel-Lucent also added the new OmniPCX Enterprise 9.0, its interactive communications solutions that combine traditional telephone functions with support for Internet telephony and multimedia, including a Web softphone, unified communications applications, messaging and personal assistant applications. The new release is designed for secure, scalable, centralized architecture capable of serving 100,000 users. The system includes a SIP controller and expanded SIP trunking to enable the addition of new applications and SIP device management.

For the branch office, Alcatel-Lucent unveiled the OmniAccess 5510 router, a unified services gateway integrating network services, voice calling, WAN connectivity, VPN and intrusion prevention and detection.

The company also updated its OmniTouch Unified Communication Solution with release 5.1 and the OmniTouch 8600 My Instant Communicator, its unified messaging and communications client, which now includes multisession collaboration, mobile device integration and support for third-party unified communications applications such as Microsoft Office Communicator and IBM Sametime and Lotus Notes.

For the contact center, Alcatel-Lucent unveiled OmniTouch Contact Center Premium and Standard Release 9.0, along with the latest Contact Center Teamer Applications, to add new flexibility and cost savings. The solutions let agents quickly access back-office expertise by adding functions such as text to speech and voice, fax and e-mail integration, Ganapathy said.

Ganapathy added that the solutions encourage knowledge sharing internally between customers, partners and suppliers by including open APIs and allowing third-party integration.

"We have had a very active development program around voice and data and will continue to innovate and invest in these areas going forward," Ganapathy said.

For channel partners, the new portfolio opens up the potential to integrate new products into existing environments and offers opportunities to provide installation and maintenance services.

"Partners can develop a fully streamlined architecture, Ganapathy said.

Craig Walker, head of Alcatel-Lucent's medium enterprise solutions unit, added that the new solutions also open the door for VARs to diversify their offerings.

"VARs are ready to do more than just IP, more than just security, more than just telephony," he said, adding that Alcatel-Lucent is launching new technology acquisition programs, pre- and post-sales training and professional services around the new solutions. "It opens up access to this technology, not just for traditional partners, but new types of partners. We have the ability to take these partners out of their comfort zone and leverage their expertise in new areas."