Alcatel to deliver centralized IP telephony and applications on IBM blade servers for large enterprises, outsourcers and service providers

Paris, February 21, 2006 — Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced plans to deliver integrated solutions that bring together Alcatel’s leading IP telephony and applications with IBM BladeCenter servers. The solution is ideal for large enterprises and data centers, outsourcers and service providers seeking to centralize telephony services within their overall IT environment, while providing flexible deployment models that support both premise-based solutions and managed communication services – or a mix of both.

Providing the ability to consolidate communications and IT infrastructure – along with applications –into a single environment, the offering will integrate Alcatel’s OmniPCX Enterprise IP communications platform, the Alcatel OmniVista management solution, and the Alcatel OmniTouch Unified Communications suite of applications into IBM environments.

Through a centralized approach, enterprises can securely deliver the same level of services to thousands of remote users, regardless of their location. Specifically, this includes dial-by-name, call back, voicemail, personal attendant, automatic call distribution, unified messaging and real-time collaboration capabilities. In addition, the solution provides the IT organization with a single point of administration that allows for improved control of resources and service usage across several organizational units.

The solution can also be incorporated with various business workflow processes through a series of Web services interfaces that permit a flexible and cost-effective way to integrate communication interactions into business workflows, greatly increasing the speed in which business processes are completed.

“Communications has always been mission-critical, but IP telephony and applications integration are taking it to the next level,” said Jean-Luc Fourniou, Senior Vice President, Alcatel Enterprise activities. “Our work with IBM underscores our commitment to provide flexible deployments models that bring communications and IT together to drive employee productivity and improve the speed of business processes.”

“We are delighted to be working with leading companies like Alcatel to deliver solutions that address the needs of clients in the fast-growing IP Telephony market,” said Jim Pertzborn, vice president, Telecommunications industry, IBM Systems & Technology Group. “Together our goal is to provide clients integrated BladeCenter-powered solutions that help maximize the cost benefits of deploying IP-based communications services – whether premise-based or outsourced management communications services.”


About Alcatel Enterprise solutions
With more than 500,000 customers, Alcatel is a leading provider of communication solutions to small, medium, and large enterprises, as well as to public sector institutions worldwide. Alcatel’s enterprise portfolio provides business communication applications, including Unified Communications and Contact Centers, an advanced IP Telephony offering, and IP Networking products. Alcatel’s enterprise solutions deliver an enhanced competitive edge to businesses of all sizes by increasing customer satisfaction, employee productivity, and operational efficiencies.



About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 12.3 billion in 2004, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries.

Contact Information

Mark Burnworth

Alcatel

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