Session Manager provides cost savings and increased call control though deployment of a SIP trunking solution

Covergence(r) announced that Mtel selected the Covergence Session Manager (CSM) to deliver a single point of policy enforcement for real-time applications used within its Whizper online contact center services. The Covergence Session Manager will enable Mtel to increase the scalability and flexibility of its on-demand hosted contact center services through utilizing the advantages of the SIP
protocol between customers’ contact center and their remote agents. This provides significant cost savings and eliminates the need to route calls over legacy infrastructure and the public telephone network (PSTN).

Mtel provides an on-demand multi-channel contact center solution for enterprises, providing ultimate flexibility, scalability and reliability. Mtel is using the session management features of the CSM to dynamically route calls, monitor Quality of Service (QoS), security, Network Address Translation (NAT), and collection of call detail records.

“When it comes to delivering hosted on-demand voice services to some of the region’s biggest companies, reliability, scalability and cost are all critical,” said Leon Schuurmans, CCO, Mtel. “It’s not enough to just have an IP architecture, you have to be able to control and manage it so you can be certain that you can deliver on your promised customer experience.”

The Covergence Session Manager, a super-set of traditional Session Border Controllers (SBCs), is designed specifically to address the challenges of the most vulnerable region of IP networks - the access edge. Enterprises are moving rapidly towards the deployment of SIP trunks because they provide a direct connection between an IP device and service provider IP network, eliminating the need to connect to the PSTN. The Covergence Session Manager ensures interoperability between a wide range of SIP trunking solutions and IP PBXs enabling Mtel to quickly deploy secure, manageable SIP trunks to take advantage of reduced costs and accelerate the deployment of additional new on demand services. Covergence Session Manager is the most comprehensive solution available for controlling, managing, and protecting carrier and enterprise SIP trunks.

“As businesses look to take full advantage of the power of IP-based Unified Communications, so issues such as cost reduction, dynamic scaling and communications-enabling new services are coming under real scrutiny,” said Steve Harris, Managing Director, EMEA, Covergence. “However, for the real benefits, this move to IP has to be end-to-end, which means keeping calls on SIP from beginning to end. Linking together these islands of IP within an organization through SIP trunking is critical to truly unleashing the efficiencies of IP-based communications. We’re delighted by the success of Mtel in using the Covergence Session Manager to deliver a single point of control throughout their organization and in delivering mission critical services to their own blue chip enterprise customers.”

Further reinforcing its credentials in managing SIP trunking for both service providers and enterprises, Covergence has attained SIPconnect Compliance Certification from the SIP Forum. This validates that CSM complies with the SIPconnect reference architecture, protocols features, and rules necessary for seamless peering between SIP-enabled IP PBXs and SIP-enabled VoIP service providers. Introduced by the SIP Forum, the SIPconnect Compliant Program was created to help validate and ensure multimedia communication interoperability among IP communications equipment manufacturers, software providers and service providers, as well as to promote further adoption of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) as the standard for IP-based communications. Launched in March 2008, the Covergence SIP Trunking Interoperability program, (http://www.covergence.com/advantage) ensures interoperability between a wide range of Service Provider SIP Trunking solutions and PBXs and its award-winning Covergence Session Manager (CSM).

About Covergence

Covergence is the leading provider of next generation Session Border Control solutions and the leader in scaling, securing and controlling VoIP and other real-time services. The award-winning Covergence Session Manager combines traditional session-border-control functionality with comprehensive security features and management tools. The Covergence Session Manager is purpose-built to securely and reliably connect users to VoIP and multi-media services while giving organizations the complete control and visibility they require.

For more information, please visit their website: http://www.covergence.com

About Mtel

Mtel, a leading Dutch hosted contact center services provider, has over 20 years of experience in the area of inbound telephony and self-service solutions, handling over 60 million customer contacts at hundreds of organizations each year through an ASP model — no investments in hardware are required. The extensive portfolio includes Contact Center, IVR, Self-service, SMS (text) and Speech Recognition
services that can be easily connected to existing telephony systems. Mtel provides online tools that give valuable insight into the contact behavior of customers and enable companies to quickly respond to changing circumstances. Using the Mtel Web-tool and Phone-tool, companies can easily manage the configuration of their service, without large costs or lead-times.

For more information, please visit their website: http://www.mtel.nl