The event was hosted by Mike Ballantine, Business Development Manager for Aastra who explained how the new release allows companies to change the way they work and conduct their business, “By embracing disruptive technology such as SIP trunks and IP telephony, new opportunities and options are immediately available to make significant call cost savings, reduce ongoing network charges and provide incoming ‘presence’ to offer a nationwide ‘local service.”
Version 6.6 on IntelliGate now supports SIP trunks and deals with them as any other type of trunk. SIP trunks can offer incoming ‘presence’ whereby a PSTN number in a separate location can be provided at the main site without the need for costly re-directs. Calls are delivered over Broadband connections and are just another IP Telephony application for VoIP.
Aastra says for many small to medium sized businesses, IP Telephony has been seen as a ‘would be extremely beneficial but can’t justify the cost’ option - until now! Aastra has launched version 6.6 for the IntelliGate IP PBX range which utilising existing onboard technology has now been able to reduce the capital cost of entry level VoIP applications by up to 70%. The vendor adds that with the ability to connect SIP trunks it provides businesses with a highly competitive and flexible IP telephony solution. Added to which the latest IntelliGate release also offers new features such as voice mail as standard and CTI Outlook integration for every user at no extra cost.
This latest release enables all Aastra Resellers to upgrade their customer base to help them maximise the benefits of IP Telephony. Aastra say that existing IntelliGate customers can be upgraded quickly and easily to benefit from all the latest features and enhancements available with new IntelliGate version 6.6. Aastra has also partnered with Tiscali who can offer an end to end Managed Quality of Service broadband telephony solution, providing a business class IP Telephony service, ideal for business of all sizes.
Aastra’s new Office eDial CTI offering, further extending the suite of options available, provides free of charge screen based computer telephony. By offering Outlook integration, this enables users to screen dial from their Outlook Contacts and with the name of an incoming caller appearing as a ‘screen pop’ on the PC. It is also possible with this feature to highlight and ‘click and dial’ any telephone number visible on the screen - no matter what its format.
IntelliGate 6.6 now provides a voicemail box for every extension as standard, fully integrated with all Aastra’s Office handsets, providing interactive screen prompts and basic voicemail functionality. This is ideal for small companies and provides a platform to the extensive range of voicemail / auto-attendant and Unified Messaging options available with IntelliGate.
Mike Ballantine says, “IntelliGate 6.6 is focused on providing IP Telephony and VoIP applications to businesses with remote workers or multi sites that require networking. We can now provide a total seamless and a highly affordable solution with centralised resources, enabling end users to save money and improve their own customer support and internal communication. Furthermore, easy upgrades for existing IntelliGate users provide Aastra resellers with yet another reason to target their customer base, generating more sales and added value.”