Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise today announced enhancements to its OpenTouch Suite are now available to help a broader group of businesses adopt unified communications.

The Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise OpenTouch Suite 2.1 includes added visual and mobile communications capabilities.
These enable businesses to achieve more productivity in the workplace and offer a personalised connected experience with a single client interface across all devices. The new release also offers a smooth transformation from existing communication systems.

With the world entering an age of “supermobility” – where mobile devices provide voice, video and content collaboration – companies need to provide employees tools and technology that allows them to be productive on the go from anywhere around the globe.

The Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise OpenTouch Suite 2.1 enhances real-time conversations with a simplified user interface for visual collaboration at the desk and on the go. The Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise unified communications experience, recognised for reducing complexity, offers a simpler and more intuitive interface at the desk and on-the-go while combining its leading enterprise telephony services with instant messaging, HD video and web conferencing into a single application.

With the release of OpenTouch Suite 2.1, the OpenTouch Conversation collaboration tool interface becomes newly available on:
* Latest Android tablets and smartphones where mobile workforce and field experts can easily share content with back-office experts in a few taps via the OpenTouch Conversation visual collaboration capabilities;
* NEW 8088 Smart DeskPhone with its superb design and advanced call screening features, offering one-tap HD video escalation to executives and to all employees using a video conferencing endpoint. When combined with a HDMI monitor, it is fully integrated with the UC system, minimising the need for dedicated clients for conferencing;
* 8068 DeskPhones offering a superior audio experience, ultra-fast access to the unified directory via its external keyboard and unified routing with smartphones to employees who are often on the go and need comfortable audio experience at the desk;
* iPhone and Android smartphones of existing Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise customers using instant messaging and one-tap access to join OpenTouch meetings from a simpler interface. OmniPCX Enterprise users who need easy on-site mobility benefit from contactless session shift between desk phone and their NFC-enabled smartphone.

With OpenTouch Suite 2.1:
* Enterprises can choose between on-premise deployment or “as a service” model with OpenTouch Enterprise Cloud :
o OpenTouch Enterprise Cloud makes it easy for a business to choose UC as a Service (UCaaS) with a simple licensing structure, offering a 100% OPEX model that extends to management and API services
o OpenTouch Enterprise Cloud now offers a framework with certified IaaS to ease business partner enablement
* Centralised deployment lowers operation costs and ensures branch office survivability with Passive Communication Servers that now support VMWare and KVM
* 100% IP communication networks with lower operating costs are accessible to organisations in need of a large number of cost effective desk phones. The introduction of the 8001 DeskPhone offers business grade SIP communications and centralised management at a very affordable cost.
* Businesses can offer UC on the go to a higher number of employees while requiring less resources to operate: All OpenTouch Conversation software clients offer VPN-less access through reverse proxy with better scalability than legacy VPN technology.

“Our OpenTouch solutions have been recognised for their simplicity while offering cutting edge technology,” says Eric Penisson, vice-president and GM, Communications Solutions Business Unit, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise.

“The latest release of OpenTouch is no exception as it provides enterprises quality mobility applications on Android tablets and smartphones and intuitive visual collaboration at the desk to create a personalised connected experience. Its flexible architecture options suit customers looking for private or private cloud deployment models, and enables them to adopt unified communications more easily.”