IBM Teams With 3Com to Deliver IP Telephony Solution

TMCnet Contributing Editor

IBM and 3Com Corporation have introduced a scalable IP telephony solution designed to run on a single system in conjunction with a customer’s core business applications.

The IBM (News - Alert) System i IP Telephony is based on IBM’s “all-in-one” business computing platform and 3Com’s (News - Alert) VCX systems. Thus, IP telephony becomes accessible to businesses of all sizes and requirements. They can now implement a complete IP telephony solution on one powerful platform.

The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), a Southern California-based college, has opted for IBM System i IP Telephony to combine voice and data capabilities on one integrated platform.

“We were evaluating IP telephony offerings from other companies, but when we heard about the new System i IP telephony solution we couldn't pass it up,” said Roxanne Reynolds-Lair, CIO of FIDM, in a press release. “With our System i IP telephony solution, we expect to save several thousand dollars per month, simplify our infrastructure, respond to business recovery situations faster and, best of all, set the foundation for FIDM’s growth over the next decade.”

Mark Shearer, general manager of IBM System I, says the System i solution is capable of running entire business and IP telephony of any organization simultaneously on a single system. “System i IP telephony can support less than 100 to thousands of phone users and our analysis shows that it can deliver a return on investment in months, not years,” declares Shearer.

IBM reportedly selected 3Com as its IP telephony partner because they share common values of integration, ease-of-use, reliability, scalability, security and support for open standards. Using open standards such as Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) creates a platform for modernization. That’s why, IBM has been able to integrate other applications running on the System i.

“IBM and System i customers are recognizing that VCX is differentiated by how it is architected to create a reliable and scalable platform to match the System I’s capabilities,” said Edgar Masri, president and chief executive officer, 3Com. “Additionally, the excitement from IBM business and solution-provider partners is a further proof point for VCX’s flexibility and validation for our open standard-based approach versus proprietary systems.”

For more information, visit www.ibm.com/systemi.

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Niladri Sekhar Nath is a contributing writer for TMCnet covering telecommunications, service providers and networking.