Ringier Opts for Unified Communications from Nortel, Microsoft

CA Solution Boosts Productivity, Helps Deliver World News Faster

ZURICH, Switzerland - Ringier AG, Switzerland’s largest publishing house, has deployed a unified communications solution built on fully-integrated technologies from Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT ] and Microsoft.

Unified communications will enable Ringier to accelerate the flow of information across the company, helping its journalists get world news out faster. The solution also helps to reduce operating costs, increase productivity and simplify the Ringier IT environment.

“We expect to see productivity increase, especially for our journalists, by as much as 20 percent by using integrated communication tools from Nortel and Microsoft,” says Hansjoerg Grolimund, project leader and head of collaboration and communication, Ringier AG. “As market leaders, Nortel and Microsoft offered a complete, one-stop shop solution as well as the services and support we sought. The one-click desktop access for video, VoIP, presence and instant messaging provides real value to editors and journalists who can work more efficiently from anywhere and keep in touch with critical resources at all times.”

Ringier chose unified communications from the Innovative Communications Alliance (ICA), an industry partnership between Microsoft and Nortel to deliver industry-leading unified communications solutions to enterprises. The solution was chosen because it was simpler than competitors, not requiring third-party components to deliver features such as VoIP, voice mail, e-mail, instant messaging or Web conferencing. By integrating these capabilities, unified communications gives users the ability to have one telephone number that can ring to multiple devices including their Nortel desktop phone, the Microsoft PC Mobile Client or mobile phone. Other features include presence awareness and the ability to click-to-call users from any Microsoft device. Nortel Global Services was used alongside Swisscom’s comprehensive design and implementation verification services to minimize the risk of the combined deployment and to leverage the broad expertise Nortel gained from worldwide deployments with Microsoft Office Communications Server.

“By merging its separate communications and collaboration tools into a single, unified communications environment, Ringier’s information technology tools are less complex to use and easier to manage,” said Thomas Marfurt, country leader, Nortel Switzerland. “In 2009, Ringier plans to have 3,000 employees in Switzerland using the new solution. Nortel will continue to work with Ringier to maximise the network´s availability, redundancy, ease of management, configuration and security.”

The Ringier unified communications environment is built around Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Nortel’s flagship Communication Server (CS) 1000 and provides a broad range of end devices to fit the needs of the very different workplaces in a media company. Microsoft Office Clients for mobile worker, LG/Nortel 8500 series phones and over 1000 Nortel IP Phones are planned to maximize communication flows in Ringier. Swisscom, a Nortel Gold Solutions partner, is leading the project with Nortel unified communications consulting services to enable early adoption and a fast deployment of new technology to the customer.

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