Cisco VoIP - Phone - Cellular Integration

Orative, a member of Cisco’s Technology Developer Partner,  makes software that will enable customers to tie their cellular phones into their Cisco VoIP  program. Cisco customers will be able to use their cell phones to integrate with business communications applications, providing improved productivity, Hadden-Boyd said. For example, a caller could access presence information for employees in the corporate directory, enabling them to see at a glance whether users are available to take calls or messages. They will also be able to see and access messages from Cisco’s Unity voicemail and unified messaging platform and interact with Cisco’s Unified MeetingPlace voice and Web conferencing line.

Orative’s product line includes the Orative Enterprise Server, which will sit inside the customer’s firewall connected to Cisco’s Unified CallManager IP-PBX, and Orative Client Software, which gets installed on users’ cell phones over the air. The software runs on several mobile operating systems, including Blackbery, BREW, Java 2 Platform Micro Edition (J2ME) and Symbian OS. Orative is working to develop a version for devices based on Microsoft Windows, Hadden-Boyd said.

The Orative client attaches to a corporate network via an SSL log-in session, which takes place when the phone is powered on. Features such as conferencing, hold, call forwarding, least-cost call routing, and four-digit dialing are some of the CallManager features that extend to cell phones via Orative.

Cisco’s Cell phone VoIP integration package that will compete with Avaya’s Extension to Cellular feature, which ties cell phone users into a corporate Avaya PBX or IP PBX. Competitive products in cell phone/PBX convergence include Ascendant Systems (part of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion) and Divitas.

The Orative client software works with mobile devices running Symbian OS (which runs on phones from Nokia, Samsung and Ericsson), BREW and BlackBerry devices.

Main Source: voip-news.com