'Office-in-a-box' from Nortel

BANGALORE: Nortel has launched its Business Communication Manager - 50 (BCM 50) for the Indian SMBs, SOHO markets and call centers.

The “office-in-a-box” solution is an all-in-one platform for converged voice and data communications for companies with three to 20 stations.

The IP-enabled product includes telephony, unified messaging, multimedia call center and interactive voice response, IP routing and switching all in one package.

Nortel's director channel, Rajat Tandon said: “Today, the market is understanding the need for mobility, flexibility and scalability. We are moving towards a service delivery model in India, hence communication systems have to be robust. The SMBs instead of buying silos of such equipment can instead buy this product, which can take care of routing, VPN, Ethernet switch and you can put in a soft phone, a digital or an IP phone, so you don't need different devices.”

Meant to improve a company's core business processes, the product's scalability ranges from 10 to 200 plus stations using a mix of digital and IP stations.

The scalable product can start up small and grow to a higher capacity, added Tandon.

According to Nortel's product marketing executive, Brian l'Anson, “It works seamlessly and can be used onsite or in a remote computer, it only needs an IP phone.” Voice mails can also be accessed via a PDA, which makes it convenient for field executives and teleworkers.

The BCM 50 is priced between $350-500 per user and includes the IP PBX, handset and communication applications. The India pricing however, has not yet been worked out.