BANGALORE, INDIA: Alcatel-Lucent, the provider of voice, data and video communication services solutions worldwide, has released its collaboration platform for small and medium businesses in India, providing new features such as push mobile and fax server solutions.

The Extended Communication Server (ECS) is a solution that transforms the way small and medium enterprises communicate by delivering fully integrated communication, collaboration and mobility solutions that are scalable, reliable and cost-effective, said a press release.

Part of the Alcatel-Lucent Office portfolio, the Extended Communication Server family and OmniPCX Office family of IP-PBX systems deliver collaboration and unified communication solutions tailored to the specific needs of SMBs, it added.

According to the release, the push mobile feature within ECS lets employees retrieve emails, calendar, contacts and tasks on-the-fly and in real-time on their mobile devices, keeping in touch with their business anytime, anywhere.

Push mobile offers a secure, flexible, easy to deploy provider independent solution without the need for specific subscription, where data carrier services are the only requirement.

In a market where faxing is still a common and highly useful form of business management, the fully integrated fax server feature, available in November 2008 as part of Alcatel-Lucent’s Office Communication Solutions offer, lets users send and receive faxes on their email web interface bringing businesses increased productivity and efficiency, it said.

“Alcatel-Lucent has long lasting experience in communications innovation and expertise in developing and selling solutions tailored to small-medium businesses,” says Charles Braud, vice president, Small Business Solutions for Alcatel-Lucent’s Enterprise activities.

Jan Zuurbier, Alcatel-Lucent vice president sales and support for emerging markets added: “With the ECS, we help businesses to connect their people and processes for real productivity gains, with overnight cost savings. Time, resources, and budgets are limited, and the ECS allows small businesses to do more, and at a competitive price point.”

7705 SAR-F

Alcatel-Lucent also announced the launch of the 7705 SAR - Fixed Form Factor (7705 SAR-F) and enhanced operating system software.

The expansion of the 7705 SAR family brings significant feature enhancements that respond to operator demand for more bandwidth and scalability at lower operational costs - from core to the cell site, said a company release.

New features and functionality of the single-rack unit 7705 SAR-F include: cost-effective scaling, resiliency/redundancy covering synchronization, uplinks and power feeds as well as extreme temperature hardened characteristics (-40degrees C to +65 degrees C), it added.

"The one unit aggregation router product category is an important one for many 3G and 4G operators looking to migrate to IP backhaul," said Patrick Donegan, senior analyst, heavy reading. "It enables the cost and performance benefits of IP to be extended out from the core of the network all the way to the cell site."

The company statement said that more than 230 operators in 90+ countries have selected the Alcatel-Lucent IP/MPLS portfolio, and since its availability in Q2 2008, more than a dozen service providers have selected the Alcatel-Lucent 7705 SAR.