Microsoft tends to get most of the limelight when it comes to traditional software vendors seeking to make a name for themselves in the business communications solution market.... Of course IBM’s strategy has been quite different, with the company not developing call control software of its own. However, this has not stopped IBM from delivering a growing number of unified communications solutions with call control software built in. Below I look at a number of them.
Sametime, of course, is IBM's flagship unified communications and collaboration software. It has no native call control software but, as noted above, can be readily integrated with a wide range of PBX systems. This is either done on a one-off basis, with vendor-specific integration with Aastra Clearspan, Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise, Avaya Aura Communication Manager, Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Nortel Communications Server 1000, and so forth. Or an underlying middleware layer can be used to connect Sametime to different PBX systems in a multi-vendor environment. This capability is at the crux of IBM's Sametime Unified Telephony solution, released earlier this year.
This strategy has allowed IBM to remain focused on its areas of expertise--server hardware and software, collaboration and messaging applications--letting telephony experts deliver the real-time voice technology that is their forte. But this does not detract from the fact IBM is building an increasingly interesting set of full-featured unified communications appliances without running into direct competition with its business suppliers in the telephony space.
You can read more on IBM's Sametime driven telephony solutions, including Lotus Foundations Reach, IBM Smart Cube, and IBM System i IP telephony, here.
