New Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch suite transforms enterprise communications into seamless multi-party, multi-device, multi-media conversations

Paris, April 5, 2011 — Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced a major advance in enterprise communications and customer service with the launch of a new suite of communication solutions. By bringing together multiple parties across any device and any media, Alcatel-Lucent enables enterprises to transform traditional one-party, voice-only communications into seamless conversations that can leverage a range of applications. As a result, enterprises can now more easily harness the power of consumer communication innovations, including video, mobility and social media, to improve engagement with customers and employees.

The Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch™ suite is built on the newly converged communications platform architecture unveiled last fall. It leverages Alcatel-Lucent’s market leading Genesys™ SIP Server and OmniPCX™ Enterprise solutions to deliver a converged and open architecture that supports multi-party, multi-device, and multi-media conversations for enterprises.

For example, Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch allows enterprises to intelligently manage  conversations by allowing users to seamlessly “hop” from one device to another and one media to another, while being able to add new people to the conversation in real-time  with context. Enterprises benefit from more meaningful, outcome-driven communications that maximize resources and reduce operational cost.

Enterprise IT staff benefit from the solution’s unified management capabilities, which eliminate the multiple management systems currently needed to run unified communications applications. Now, the IT department can define users with a fraction of the previous set of parameters from a central point, all performed in real time to make new communication solution rollouts faster and easier.

“Enterprises have come to face a set of challenges brought on by the proliferation of communication channels, groups, and sophisticated personal communication devices owned by employees, or their customers, who now want to be able to use them in the enterprise network,” said Brian Riggs, Research Director, Current Analysis. “It’s only through the support of open technologies, such as SIP, that IT managers will be able to support the numerous devices and channels in a manner that they were designed to be used and exploited.”

“The explosion of innovation in the consumer world is reshaping communications in the enterprise. Companies that do not open up to this innovation will not remain competitive,” said Tom Burns, President, Enterprise & Strategic Industries, Alcatel-Lucent. “We started conversations for customer service with Genesys and our G8 software, and with today’s announcement we are extending this approach across the enterprise with OpenTouch to unleash the power of consumer communication innovations to companies of all sizes.”

Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch Suite

With an open approach that protects investments, OpenTouch leverages decades of Alcatel-Lucent experience and expertise in enterprise communications and customer service, enabling employees and customers to take advantage of native multimedia, multi-device, and multi-party conversations.

The new suite includes the Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch Business Edition, which is a multimedia communications solution for the mid-market that can be installed on the business premises or in a hosted delivery model. This release supports up to 1500 users or 3000 devices and will be available in June.

Today’s announcement also features the new Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch Multimedia Services solution, which is a multimedia enabler for the Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise Communications Server (OXE). This provides existing Alcatel-Lucent customers investment protection and a transition path to future multi-party, multi-device, multimedia conversations. This release will be available in June.

Lastly, the Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch Federation Services solution, which enables the consolidation of SIP trunking and dialing plans for multi-vendor PBX environments and offers least cost routing for mobile phones, will be available later this year.

In addition to supporting multiple devices in an open environment, the new OpenTouch suite of solutions supports the innovative Alcatel-Lucent OmniTouch 8082 My IC Phone, a smart deskphone that enriches communications and productivity at work. Alcatel-Lucent today announced availability of the new smart deskphone on variety of platforms.