Telecom technologies in a slow economy

By Mathias Peña Grez, Senior Editor

The economic slowdown is affecting even its industry leaders. However, in these tough times, it is not a forgone conclusion that the entire industry should fall to its knees; in fact many companies are prospering by addressing the challenges & needs of the market. Recently Marc Skinner, the Director of PLM for Media5 Corporation, discussed the issues not only facing the telecom industry, but also gave insight on how the industry is evolving for everyone.

Media5 is new to a lot of people but it actually is not new at all?
Marc Skinner: Exactly, Media5 has existed for 10 years, but people have gotten to know us as either Mediatrix or M5T. Until the fall of last year, Media5 had been only the holding company for the brands, but we decided that the synergies of the two divisions made it logical to combine the strengths under one new banner. Mediatrix and M5T certainly still exist as thriving product and technology solution brands, but going forward we will develop our strategic offerings under the Media5 brand. 

Media5 has been focused on a specific market segment of the telecom industry, the branch/multi office. Why?
Marc Skinner: The world is shrinking and the office is no longer the large building in the center of town. The number of remote workers has increased dramatically in the last few years – by over 35% in North America alone. The Best-in-Class Organization Standards, a US Government initiative, are developing solutions for optimizing and accelerating network traffic and remote management of branch office networks. Countries like Australia and many in the European Union have led the way by passing initiatives amongst government employees as well as companies in every market segment to minimize travel by having employees work from remote locations or home.

In this environment, more and more headquarters may be in one city with offices all over the world, increasing the need for communication systems and solutions that will allow organizations to communicate reliably and securely as if they all were in that one building in the center of town.

The world is also becoming a lot “greener” and companies are trying to minimize their carbon footprint by minimizing employee travel.

The breadth of our technical expertise is one of the strengths of Media5; the telecom marketplace is changing rapidly and you have to be able to bring the latest technology built into the right solutions to the market. We feel that we are ideally positioned to bring the combination of our award-winning VoIP gateway products and technology leadership to the branch office market segment.

What are some of the competitive advantages of VoIP for multi-site, branch office environments?
Marc Skinner: We have worked with companies of all sizes, from small bakeries in Austria to government departments in the UK. They all tell us that, particularly in these tough economic times, there are a wide variety of tangible benefits by integrating VoIP technologies.
  
Cost Savings – Many multi-location businesses report monthly savings of 50 percent and more when switching to VoIP from a legacy PSTN system. VoIP offers potentially dramatic returns from increased worker productivity and reduced overhead costs. And though productivity gains can be hard to quantify, overhead savings are measurable, and in some cases, dramatic. VoIP technology enables companies to set up their remote workers anywhere – on the road or in their homes – reducing the cost of physical office locations.

Productivity – A converged network increases efficiency for the end user by mobilizing information and unifying communications resources.

VoIP enables users in remote locations to share information instantly. Remote workers can be in contact with any other office or employee easily and efficiently. This flexibility promotes collaboration across all locations.

FMC users can move seamlessly between different communications modalities, from Wi-Fi to cellular networks without interruption. This redefines the remote office as a virtual workspace unified by connectivity rather than a physical location.

Communications Infrastructure A single unified communications system increases efficiency and improves system performance. Many companies have streamlined operations by replacing multiple systems in remote offices with a converged voice platform that spans the whole company.

A VoIP solution can reduce the total equipment complement needed, lowering hardware costs. Aside from IP phones, VoIP gateway and the existing LAN or WAN, companies maintain little to no hardware on premises.

Maintenance is much easier on a converged voice network – especially across remote offices. Historically, IT staff made any changes to the system on premises. In a multiple-office company, each location would have to call on its own on-site maintenance team. With VoIP, IT staff can make changes to the entire communications network from one central location.

Remote offices maintain the security of office communications. VoIP consolidates all users into a single private network, regardless of their location.

Why is security so crucial when it comes to Branch office applications?
Marc Skinner: Legislative initiatives like Sarbanes Oxley or HIIPA all require the entity to put into place measures to secure communications, so if you are a public company or associated with healthcare, part of the government, financial institute, or a law firm, security is always a high priority. However, for any company implementing VoIP, the last thing you need is a breach so security should be something you take into consideration.   

Your new product line is geared towards branch-office applications, can you tell us a little about the Media5Boss line?
Marc Skinner: Media5Boss stands for Media5 Branch Office Secure, Survivable solutions; they are suites of “all-in-one” solutions designed specifically for security and survivability in multi-site, branch office environments.

Survivability is a key differentiator for the Media5Boss. The Media5Boss–Branch solution allows a remote office to maintain telephone service even while the Internet is down. The solution maintains telephony features for the branch extensions, while providing PSTN access. The solution requires minimal configuration as the integrated SIP Proxy learns passively as devices are initially registered in the branch office, allowing transparent activation when the WAN link fails. The solution is further enhanced by Security features that allow the encryption of the Media and signaling streams.

The Media5Boss-Branch can also act as a Session Border Controller for voice scenarios, thus controlling real-time traffic flows in and out of the branch office. These powerful features make it the premier single box branch connectivity solution for VoIP Enterprise or VoIP Centrex scenarios.

The Survivability and Call Admission Control capabilities, the availability of voice call routing and SBC functionalities, the ability to terminate SRTP calls, as well as the state-of-the-art QoS functionality make the Media5Boss-Branch a true one-box-solution for branch offices. For larger applications (beyond 150 users), we have introduced the Media5Boss-Convergence products.

The evolution of Mobility Communications is also one of the key drivers in the Enterprise marketplace. To address this need, we have launched the Media5Boss-Mobility, an all-in-one Fixed Mobile Convergence solution combining the technologies of the M5T MC Client and FMC Controller, with a variety of popular dual mode handsets, allowing users to freely roam between Wi-Fi and cellular networks. It is very intuitive to use and provides a homogeneous interface for instant messaging, contacts, presence, and more unified communications features. This solution is specifically designed for the mobile worker, and enables them to maintain contact no matter where they are in the world.

The movement towards Mobility is one market trend that we’re very excited about. We have seen a definite shift from wireline to wireless services; in the US alone, over 20 million lines have been disconnected in the last few years. In Europe, the number of wireless users now exceeds wireline users in most countries.

About Media5 Corporation
Media5 Corporation is a leading global provider of secure and survivable VoIP products, technologies and services with an innovative portfolio of award-winning solutions for use at the edge of the telecommunications networks. Ideal for multiple-branch applications where security and survivability are paramount, Media5 solutions are widely deployed by a fast growing number of Service Providers and Enterprise Networks, as well as by thousands of public, private and governmental organizations worldwide.

Media5 products and solutions are widely interoperable and have received commercial endorsement from some of the world’s leading manufacturers of telecommunications equipment, as well as from large telecommunication carriers.

Product Lines

Powerful Expertise & Technology
Media5 offers industry-leading MMoIP solutions:
 
Mediatrix VoIP access devices and secure VoIP gateways are innovative VoIP communication solutions for enterprises and service providers designed for immediate deployment within existing network architectures, simplifying the migration to VoIP and resolving complicated network assessments and equipment interoperability issues.

Mediatrix products and solutions focus on delivering IP telephony's basic benefits: cost-effectiveness, reliability, scalability and security.

M5T products offer advanced software technologies, new services, algorithms and protocols for establishment and control of secure real-time sessions. M5T software components deliver tools that allow communication product manufacturers to deploy comprehensive, secured IP edge devices and user agents within converged networks.

Carriers and service providers also use M5T solutions to support their secured IP services offering.

Above all, M5T solutions provide a high level of customer and technical support service, which is essential for any successful integration.

Media5Boss are suites of “all-in-one” solutions designed for security and survivability in multi-site, branch office environments. Survivability is a main differentiator for the Media5Boss. The solution allows a branch office to maintain phone service while the Internet is down. The solution is also transparent and requires minimal configuration.

The SIP Proxy learns passively as devices are registered in the branch office.

Media5Boss-Branch: An industry-leading branch office solution specifically geared to support secure real-time communication scenarios like Voice-over-IP. The Media5Boss-Branch all-in-one systems enable companies to accomplish a branch consolidation of their IT infrastructure while assuring the quality of service, security and survivability of their communication infrastructure. One key element in this is the network convergence of data and voice networks. The Media5Boss-Branch Series fully supports this migration by providing Session Border Controller (SBC) functionalities.

Media5Boss-Convergence: Ideal for connecting up to 10,000 users, the Media5Boss-Convergence Series enables Enterprises and Service Providers to connect branch offices to central data centers or to hosted service offerings.

Media5Boss-Mobility: An all-in-one Fixed Mobile Convergence Solution offering seamless mobile collaboration that allows users the convenience to roam freely between Wi-Fi and cellular networks. This enables the enterprise to reduce communication costs and increase worker productivity by using Wi-Fi networks where they are available, with the fall-back to cellular networks when out of range of Wi-Fi.

Contact Media5
Headquarters
Media5 Corporation
4229 Garlock Street
Sherbrooke, QC
J1L 2C8
T: +1 819 829 8749
F: +1 819 829 5100
E: sales@media5corp.com

EMEA
T: +49 (0)30-3496-2085
E: sales@media5corp.com

CALA
T: (954) 349-0394
E: sales@media5corp.com