Channel Marketing Manager David Dyer told Comms Business Magazine that he had been advised by Mitel, the new owners of Swan Solutions following their purchase last year of Inter-Tel, that Callview would no longer be sold to third party PBX vendors such as Siemens.
“We have taken the view that we now need to churn those systems affected by Mitel’s decision and sell them an all Siemens solution. Those end users that have recently invested in Callview will surely be very disappointed. We further understand a very short timescale has been set by Mitel for the phasing out of support for Callview systems installed on third party PBX systems.”
Jim Robertson, Commercial Director at Siemens distributor MTV Telecom commented, “With Mitel buying Inter-Tel this was inevitable. However, Siemens has a very much improved alternative to Callview with their Pro Centre Agile. In my opinion end users appreciate having choice and with this in mind we are also evaluating other alternatives that will enhance the call centre proposition for Siemens and the channel.
MTV Telecom made the decision over 12 months ago to focus on the Pro Centre Agile which has been well received within the channel. Any resellers that wish to receive further information on how MTV Telecom can help with new or existing customers should contact their account manager for further information.”
Swan Solutions sold more that 8000 Callview systems with the large majority of these attached to Inter-Tel Access systems both here in the UK and in more recent years, following Inter-Tel’s acquisition of Swan Solutions in 2002, in North America.
The only other third party PBX vendor that integrated their systems with Callview was Telrad.