OTTAWA, Sept. 29, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mitel® (Nasdaq:MITL), a leading provider of unified communications software solutions, today announced the availability of Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry® Mobile Voice System 5 (BlackBerry MVS) with voice over Wi-Fi calling, extending Mitel's unified business communications features securely to BlackBerry® smartphone workers over cellular and Wi-Fi networks. The solution is designed to increase employee responsiveness and productivity and allow users to maintain a single corporate identity.
With Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry MVS 5, companies can make their staff more accessible through their work phone number and keep cellular calling costs under control. Calls made through BlackBerry MVS are routed through Mitel Communications Director (MCD) which helps with adherence to company policies and enables savings on long-distance and international roaming charges. Employees also benefit from the convenience of a single work phone number shared between their desk phone and BlackBerry smartphone. Employees can be more reachable through their work phone number and can even enjoy the convenience of extension dialing from their BlackBerry smartphone.
The combined Mitel and BlackBerry solution offers seamless handoff between devices within the user's personal ring group, moving calls without restrictions to and from their desk phone, BlackBerry smartphone, home phone, or soft phone. It is also easy to use since incoming calls ring all devices simultaneously and employees can access BlackBerry MVS and Mitel's business communications features using a familiar interface.
"Through membership in the BlackBerry Alliance Program and the use of the new PBX interoperability platform that is now available with BlackBerry Mobile Voice System 5, Mitel has developed and certified interoperability between BlackBerry MVS and Mitel Communications Director for their customers," said Jeff McDowell, senior vice president at Research In Motion. "Organizations running a Mitel communications system can now use BlackBerry smartphones as wireless extensions of their deskphones to make employees more accessible while away from their desks and take advantage of potential savings on long distance and international calling charges."
Mobile workers can take advantage of voice over Wi-Fi calling available through BlackBerry MVS 5 to extend their reachability where cellular networks are not available, and reduce overall roaming and wireless charges. The Mitel solution enables BlackBerry smartphone users to take full advantage of Mitel business communications features without the need for a desk phone.
"Making and taking desk phone calls on a BlackBerry smartphone is a simple yet powerful concept and we see great opportunity for our customers to leverage the native BlackBerry experience and Wi-Fi capabilities with BlackBerry Mobile Voice System 5 integrated with Mitel Communications Director. This can lead to greater gains in responsiveness, productivity, and cost savings across their organizations," said Stephen Beamish, vice-president of marketing and business development at Mitel. "The BlackBerry platform made it easy for us to extend the Mitel unified communications experience in a secure and intuitive way on BlackBerry smartphones."
One of the advantages of Mitel's voice virtualization strategy is the ability for IT managers to consolidate and combine Mitel and BlackBerry applications into a single virtual environment, bridging the gap between fixed and wireless telephony applications. MCD, BlackBerry MVS, and other business applications can be run simultaneously on the same server, enabling customers to better leverage their existing investment and use Mitel to connect to third-party telephony systems.
Rabobank, N.A., a California community bank that provides personalized service and a full array of quality products to individuals, businesses, and agricultural clients, is deploying Mitel Communications Director with BlackBerry MVS 5. Rabobank is fortunate to be selected to participate in the trial proposed by Mitel Communications Director and BlackBerry MVS, says Neil McSweeney, SVP/chief technology officer for Rabobank, N.A. "The concept brought by Mitel and RIM extends the features and functionality our employees enjoy in the office securely to their BlackBerry devices. This 'follow me service' should offer a technologically secure way of providing seamless availability to our customers and potential cost savings to the bank that could help our overall profitability."
Earlier this year Mitel announced it is an Elite member of the BlackBerry® Alliance Program and last month announced the availability of Mitel Unified Communicator® (UC) Advanced Mobile for BlackBerry smartphones. This provides mobile workers access to all their corporate contact information, presence status, call history, and visual voicemail. The application uses location-based services natively present on BlackBerry smartphones to automatically update a user's status information and call routing preferences. Mitel UC Advanced Mobile is available for download on BlackBerry App World™
Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry MVS 5 is based on MCD 4.2. BlackBerry MVS 5 is available today in North America from value-added resellers (VARs).
About Mitel
Mitel Networks (Nasdaq:MITL) is a global provider of business communications solutions and services, consisting of unified communications and collaboration software applications, IP telephony platforms, mobility applications and managed and network services. Mitel enables businesses of all sizes to move beyond basic fixed telephony tools toward integrated multi-media collaboration solutions, accessible from anywhere, helping to improve performance, gain competitive advantage, and reduce costs. Mitel's global headquarters are in Ottawa, Canada, U.S. headquarters are in Chandler, Arizona and EMEA headquarters are in Caldicot, UK, with offices, partners, and resellers worldwide. For more information visit:
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CONTACT: Mitel Networks Corporation Media Danielle McNeil 613-592-2122 x4643 danielle_mcneil@mitel.com Twitter: @Danielle_McNeil Industry Analysts Kevin Johnson 613-592-2122 x6690 kevin_johnson@mitel.com Twitter: @Kevin_Johnson Investor Relations Cynthia Hiponia 613-592-2122 x1992 investorrelations@mitel.com