Unify Enhances OpenScape EnterpriseUnify Enhances OpenScape Enterprise

Latest release brings updates to the UC, Voice, Branch, and Session Border Controller applications; forges tighter links to Circuit.

As evidence of the "practical approach" Unify is taking in positioning its collaboration portfolio, the company yesterday announced the latest release, version 9, of OpenScape Enterprise communications platform.

As Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal analyst with ZK Research, noted in his January post, "Unify Past, Present, and Future," Unify has designed the Circuit communications and collaboration tool for the digital workplace, while maintaining OpenScape for those companies not yet in the process of transforming themselves into fully digital organizations. The latest set of OpenScape Enterprise enhancements deliver on Unify's strategy to help chart a path to Circuit for OpenScape Enterprise customers, and allow complementary use of each, Jan Hickisch, vice president of global solution marketing, told me in a phone interview earlier this week.

OpenScape Enterprise v9, the first major communications platform release since the Atos acquisition, includes updates to the UC, Voice, Branch, and Session Border Controller (SBC) applications.

Similar to the version 9 release of OpenScape Contact Center, announced in January, OpenScape UC v9 features a Circuit-like user interface. Unify took key lessons learned from Circuit around development and go-to-market and incorporated those lessons into a revamped OpenScape UC user experience, Hickisch said. Now contact center agents, digital workers who have Circuit, and employees who rely on OpenScape, all have clients that share a similar look and feel.

"It's all part of the journey of bringing our customers forward to a digital workspace," he said.

In addition to what Hickisch said is a more personalized experience with OpenScape UC, the v9 enhancements bring more seamless integration into Microsoft Office 2016 and Office 365, and additional call control features and mobile device management for the OpenScape Mobile app.

The OpenScape Voice update includes:

For the branch, Unify now supports local voicemail service in OpenScape, as well as increased capacity for backup contact center agents and improved management tools. For OpenScape SBC, Unify has added improved support for NG911 deployments, including the use of location-awareness from remote phones to the OpenScape Voice platform.

OpenScape Enterprise v9, which you can check out next week at Enterprise Connect, is available now. You can find Unify at Booth 1501.

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