Alcatel-Lucent's OpenTouch suite hits the market early

Alcatel-Lucent's OpenTouch video conferencing suite, previewed in April and scheduled to start shipping early in the first quarter, has arrived a little early, the company said, and is now generally available.

Built on Alcatel-Lucent's new Enterprise's converged communications architecture, the product leverages OmniPCX Enterprise, Genesys SIP solutions and Alcatel-Lucent carrier technologies. The OpenTouch architecture uses a SIP-based conversation layer, which is between the applications layer and server layer, to deliver multi-party, multi-device, multi-media collaborative conversations. The architecture can facilitate conversations on any network and on any end-point.

OpenTouch includes native conferencing capabilities, supports mixed media, and enables users to move freely between any device within the same conversation. For example, a conversation can begin via instant messaging, voice or text, and be escalated to a video call or team collaboration session. The system lets any user easily add or remove multiple participants as well as make other media connections or links available to participants.

The product is available in three packages, an appliance server based version--its Business Edition--that provides advanced telephony features with embedded unified communications capabilities pre-integrated on a single industry standard appliance server; a hosted edition on a blade server platform--its Business Edition Hosted--that delivers those features and capabilities in a premise version and features extended management functionalities; and its Multimedia Services, a software add-on to complement existing Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise communications servers.

For more:
- see this release

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