NEC and Intermedia Announce UNIVERGE BLUE
NEC customers now have access to a new set of cloud-based communications and collaboration solutions through NEC’s partnership with Intermedia, a cloud communications provider. Primarily aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this new set of solutions is titled UNIVERGE BLUE and has offerings in the following areas:
- UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT: A Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solution that is accessible through NEC desk phones, mobile, and desktop applications.
- UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE: A Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solution that scales from single channels for SMEs to a large omnichannel environment. This solution integrates either with CONNECT or as an overlay for existing private branch exchange (PBX) systems.
- UNIVERGE BLUE MEET: A conferencing and collaboration solution that enables screenshare, remote control, recording, transcriptions, and integrations with Office 365 and G Suite. It also offers webinar scaling of up to 1000 participants.
- UNIVERGE BLUE SHARE: A file sync, share, and backup solution with built-in antivirus.
NEC emphasizes its “dynamic delivery” options, enabling customers to choose whether to move fully into the cloud for its services or retain a hybrid connection.
UNIVERGE BLUE is now live in the US and Canada, with upcoming launches in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (CY20, Q3); Australia (CY20, Q4); and the rest of the world (CY21, Q1).
Source: NEC Unified Communications Scorecard at SoftwareReviews. Accessed June 29, 2020.
Our Take
NEC was an Info-Tech 2020 award winner for its UCaaS offering. These offerings are now bolstered through its partnership with Intermedia. For NEC customers looking for cloud-based communications and collaboration solutions that readily integrate with their current system, UNIVERGE BLUE will be a welcome announcement. If an organization can unify its toolset into one platform, without having to go through the pains of trying to configure a third-party solution, securing endpoints becomes much easier. This also reduces the typical pains of vendor management, end-user confusion from having to switch between apps, and costs of implementation.
Of course, UNIVERGE BLUE is not intended as a best of breed; organizations will need to ensure they have a good pulse of what capabilities end users need to meet their workflows. However, UNIVERGE BLUE meets all table-stakes capabilities and will certainly be the default for NEC customers before they need to look elsewhere.
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