By Khali Henderson

Siemens Enterprise Communications announced Tuesday OpenScape Business, a rebranded UC offer for small and medium businesses that combines the company’s previous OpenScape Office and Hi-Path 3000 platforms for SMBs with 500 or fewer employees. OpenScape Business will be generally available in June.

A similar combination is planned for an April release to midmarket and large customers from 500 to 1,000 employees. Called OpenScape Enterprise, it combines Hi-Path 4000 and OpenScape Voice and UC servers.

Meanwhile, OpenScape Business is part of Siemens Enterprise Communications’ goal to drive simplicity for SMB customers and their channel partners, allowing the company to go to market with one brand and focus its product enhancements on one platform, explained Peter Kehoe,  senior vice president of global business channels for Siemens Enterprise Communications.

OpenScape Business delivers voice, UC, Web collaboration, mobility as well as integration into office applications, such as CRM. The platform is available in an appliance or virtualized software.

Mobile SMB employees can use OpenScape Business on a variety of devices and tablets. Plus it offers a mobile client for multiple operating systems instead of a Web-only options found in many competitive solutions, which brings the same UI from desktop to device  even if the office is a PC environment and the device is Apple iOS, said Susan Ericke, senior marketing manager  SMB segment.

OpenScape Business also offers a migration path for TDM customers to upgrade to IP.

“A lot of customers are still on TDM but need UC tools,” said Ericke. “OpenScape Business offers UC to TDM customers within one appliance.”

Specifically, OpenScape Business will support TDM customers with voice with IM and presence. IP can be added by switching out the main board to access full UC functionality without having to buy a new platform.

While OpenScape Business will be marketed for Greenfield deployments, it also offers investment protection and an easy migration path for customers currently using OpenScape Office or HiPath 3000, said Ericke. In the case of the TDM-based Hi-Path, customers will be able to leverage the components and housing and desksets while changing out the main board, for example.

OpenScape Business also is scalable, growing with the numbers of users. Ericke said the initial card supports 50 users while a booster card can support up to 150. For larger deployments up to 500 users, customers can add another server.

That investment protection also extends to Siemens Enterprise Communications sales partners. Ericke said that because it combines two existing platforms, partners can leverage their existing training.

“You could consider this the next-generation of OpenScape Office and Hi-Path 3000,” she said.

In addition, Web-based management tools simplify installation, management and upgrades.