Microsoft To Direct Small Businesses Seeking Unified Communications Solutions With VoIP Integration To Alteva
Alteva, a unified communications solution provider headquartered in Philadelphia, today announced that it has engaged in a partnership with Microsoft and Broadsoft to provide a true hosted Unified Communications (UC) solution to small businesses. Alteva has developed a way to interconnect its hosted voice and messaging services with Microsoft Communication Services product suite, including Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint and Office Communications Server (OCS), for both its small business and enterprise customers.
Microsoft is actively pushing the capability of a fully integrated communications platform by partnering with Alteva, Comcast, and Go Daddy, among others, to provide more productive communications, improve employee productivity and enhance office efficiency. Alteva has been selected as one of the only hosted voice service providers to offer the complete suite of Microsoft Communication Services, with integrated voice services.
"By allowing for more fluid and direct collaboration between employees with one another, suppliers, partners and clients, a unified communications solution helps businesses of any size to streamline communications," said William Bumbernick, CEO, Alteva. "It also helps reduce costs and minimize delays to assure faster interaction with anyone important to the organization, even if they are not physically at the same location. By working together with an innovative company like Microsoft, we are now able to provide a proven and reliable, fully integrated communications solution."
In its recent key trends report titled, "Managed and Hosted Unified Communications," Nemertes Research predicts the adoption of managed communications services will continue to increase across the board in 2010 and beyond. The report states, "We expect the use of managed services for other UC applications to double or even triple by 2011, similar to what we saw with managed VOIP over the last couple years." The report also states that a big driver toward managed services is the increased adoption of complex unified communication and collaboration applications. "The increasingly virtual workforce has led to growth in adoption of applications such as VOIP, unified messaging, video conferencing, Web conferencing, and document sharing."
"Other companies claim to offer UC, but in actuality they are only referring to basic VoIP features such as voicemail messages as a .wav file in your email. True UC is much more than that," said Louis Hayner, Chief Sales Officer, Alteva. "Alteva's UC product with the full suite of Microsoft Communication Services products integrated with Voice over IP phone service, allows for a truly cloud-based UC environment where basic business-based technology like voice is combined with office communications such as instant messenger, video conferencing, desktop sharing, telepresence, etc. This capability is changing the landscape of enterprise businesses, creating unprecedented productivity enhancements."
Unified Communications Packages with Microsoft Communication Services
Microsoft Communication Services enables employees to access critical business information from any location, at any time, on any device. Working remotely, employees can now access email and customer information, view and edit documents, manage calendars, and collaborate with coworkers as if they were still in the office. When integrated with Alteva's hosted VoIP, customers will benefit from voice-enabled Outlook calendars and email, phone presence, vendor bill consolidation, scalability, increased control, business continuity and mitigation of technology obsolescence.
This enables smaller organizations to easily integrate voice, messaging and collaboration systems. Having HD phones and hosted voice services on a high-quality, enterprise-grade platform interconnected with Microsoft Communication Services products including Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint and OCS, provides a plethora of capabilities at a tremendous value.
Product Availability and Pricing
Because each organization is different and has different communication needs, Alteva has just launched a Web store, where organizations with less than 25 users can easily select the right UC solution to suit their needs. Alteva has designed four different UC packages from which small businesses can choose from including its UC Complete bundle that allows users to realize the benefits of a fully-integrated, HD voice-enabled unified communications solution (priced from $38 per user, per month), Alteva Collaboration & Voice Communications (priced from $25 per user, per month), Alteva Desktop and Expanded Collaboration (priced from $28 per user, per month) and Alteva Desktop Communications Basic (priced from $15 per user, per month). Alteva also offers a la carte purchasing options for those who seek only to purchase Exchange email, OCS or Alteva's hosted VoIP. Customers with 25 users and above should contact an Alteva representative at 877-258-3821 to receive customized pricing.
In conjunction with the release of its new UC offering, Alteva has launched its new corporate website at www.altevatel.com, which features details about the packages offered on the Web store, with access to the store, a new corporate overview video, training videos and other information to help customers and prospective customers learn more about Alteva's products and services.
Microsoft will support Alteva and the new product offering by including Alteva in a special promotion that directs prospects to the Alteva Web store, through its Microsoft Communication Services page at www.microsoft.com/hosting/en/us/default.aspx.
Alteva will showcase its UC solutions at the Microsoft Hosting Summit (April 27-29) in Bellevue, Washington.
About Alteva
Alteva, a Unified Communications (UC) solution provider headquartered in Philadelphia, offers the most reliable network, the most responsive and proactive customer service and the best value to its customers. It delivers cloud-based UC solutions including Voice over IP phone systems and service (VoIP PBX), hosted Microsoft Communication Services, fixed mobile convergence, and advanced voice applications for the desktop. Alteva's service requires minimal installation and configuration while eliminating monthly phone and on-premise system maintenance charges, reducing overall communication costs and enabling organizations to improve productivity. By combining Alteva's voice service with Microsoft Communication Services products, including Microsoft Exchange, Office Communication Server (OCS), and SharePoint, Alteva's customers receive a true, high-quality, voice-enabled UC solution that easily integrates with existing business applications. Alteva is North America's largest provider of enterprise hosted VoIP, and provides hosted UC solutions to businesses in all 50 states and four continents. For more information, visit http://www.altevatel.com.
SOURCE: Alteva