By Khali Henderson

In an effort to make UC more “contagious,” IPcelerate Inc. introduced Monday at the 2009 VON Conference & Expo its next-generation framework for the delivery of unified communications across multiple vendor platforms plus two new offerings – IPsession NG and Webur – built on the framework.

Called NIPA 2.0, the framework now supports not only Cisco Systems Inc., for which the framework originally was written, but other gear makers’ solutions. IPcelerate has announced publicly its work with NEC, but executives said additional relationships would come to light soon. It also supports mobile devices, with certain Nokia models and the Apple iPhone being the first. Interestingly, for service providers, the framework now supports hosted delivery for the first time.

IPcelerate CEO Kevin Brown said many of the company’s recent strategic partnerships have been with service providers. These telcos want to move beyond selling apps for Cisco Unified Communications Manager to selling apps for other platforms and devices as well as delivering managed and hosted services.

He said NIPA 2.0 gives sp partners and traditional VARs tools to create their own products. CTO Alok Jain said the goal was to expose UC to other environments, e.g. business applications and social networks and any device, to create new business solutions.

In that way, Brown said, NIPA 2.0 represents a fundamental change that and his staff at IPcelerate expect to “make UC more contagious” by making it a more adaptable part of life and business.

Key to this is NIPA 2.0’s new Web Services module, which extends the embedded applications and capabilities of the framework to social networking and business applications and databases, and the NIPA 2.0 Thin Client Framework for Mobile Devices (with Web Services embedded), which resides on mobile devices, extending the embedded applications and capabilities of the NIPA framework to the mobile device

IPfusion 2.0, a drag-and-drop Integrated Development Environment (IDE), provides the tools and methodology for IPcelerate and its integrators/development partners to create new products designed to integrate with many aspects of a customer’s business initiatives, processes and results.

This approach enables IPcelerate partner to insert themselves into non-communications conversations, giving them greater opportunities to serve customers, Brown said, explaining it’s not about UC, but about patient management for a hospital, or attendance management for a school.

IPcelerate also announced the next generation of its flagship IPsession platform, IPsession NG, which was built on the new NIPA 2.0 framework, bringing the new capabilities, such as interaction with social networking and business applications, to core Cisco platform users.

At the desktop, IPsession NG includes two new modules: IPconcierge and the Mass Messaging Module. IPconcierge is a Midlet-based personal application suite that will run on IP phones, delivering a personalized user experience through a fully touch screen QWERTY keyboard, touch-screen writing, and personal contact and messaging groups providing an innovative way of delivering text, voice and digitized notes using IP phones. The Mass Messaging Module is a business communications application based on NIPA 2.0’s alert, notification and messaging engine. Mass Messaging enables companies to create a specific response for managing an event that involves multiple steps and actions, and then initiate that response with the touch of a single button or icon on the IP phone.

Webur for the iPhone and iPod Touch is a new app built on the IPA 2.0 Mobile Thin Client and Web Services module. It delivers a range of capabilities for the mobile user, including creating and managing personal and corporate groups that are used for messaging, alerting, recording, conferencing, dial-out, and social presence.

Service providers and partners can choose to host Webur services, creating recurring revenue streams for themselves. By providing Webur in a hosted environment, these partners can offer subscription-based or usage-based services for their customers, delivering business-oriented communications solutions such as recording of mobile calls, mobile-initiated pre-programmed conferences, mass alert notifications, and dial-out applications.

Companies that have deployed corporate unified communications internally (on-premises) can use Webur to extend their unified communications features and experience beyond physical, geographic or cultural boundaries.