Mitel launches voice-over-IP apps, hardware

Mitel Networks last week unveiled IP telephony software and hardware aimed at integrating voice into desktop messaging applications and migrating businesses from TDM voice to voice over IP.

The company, which competes with Avaya, NEC and Nortel, launched its Collaboration Suite, a desktop and server software package customers can deploy to integrate voice and video conferencing, text chat and document sharing to end-user desktops.

Mitel also introduced the SX-200ICP, a 200-user IP PBX for small businesses or enterprise branch offices.

The Mitel Collaboration Suite is a new add-on for Mitel's Your Assistant unified-messaging application platform. The suite includes server software and client modules that deliver one application to desktops for managing multiple types of conferencing.

The Audio Conferencing Module lets end users arrange conference calls by dragging and clicking participants' names into a box on the screen. Calls are placed and switched into conference via a Mitel PBX or IP PBX that attaches to a Windows-based Collaboration Suite server. Video Conferencing module lets end users with Mitel camera phones add video to a conference by clicking a button in the desktop application or pressing a key on the phone.

The Data Collaboration module lets Collaboration Suite clients share documents, such as PowerPoint or Word files, while conferencing over voice and video. Data Collaboration also includes a secure real-time chat application for conducting sidebar conversations during a conference.

Mitel's SX200ICP is an IP version of its SX200 small-business PBX. The server-based IP PBX runs on a VXWorks real-time operating system and supports up to 200 users with IP extensions (such as Session Initiation Protocol phones and softphone clients), traditional Mitel phones or a mix of the two.

The IP PBX comes with a built-in voice mail system with a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) software stack. Mitel SMTP lets the box integrate with standards-based e-mail servers, letting end users receive notification of new voice messages through e-mail alerts, with a WAV file version of the voice mail attached to the message. This differs from larger-scale unified-messaging system, in which voice mail messages are stored on the same servers as e-mail and voice/e-mail in-boxes that are more tightly integrated.

The new Mitel offerings are a strong signal that the vendor is serious about enterprise IP telephony, says Ron Gruria, an analyst with Frost and Sullivan.

"The SX200ICP gives legacy SX200 users in small businesses a clear convergence path," Gruria says. He adds that Mitel's competitors have sent confusing signals in the past to their customers on the issue of TDM-to-IP migration.

The SX200ICP and the Collaboration Suite will be available this quarter. The SX200ICP costs around $300 per user (not including phones), while the Collaboration Suite starts at $400 per user.