LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 17 -Smoothstone IP Communications, a leading nationwide provider of Enterprise Internet Protocol Communications Solutions, today announced SmoothstoneCONNECT, a new IP trunking service designed specifically for the Cisco Unified Communications System. This service is available to new and existing Smoothstone customers.
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SmoothstoneCONNECT takes VoIP from a company's local area network, through its firewall, across Smoothstone's highly secure, nationwide and private IP wide area network, and to the local PSTN or to other Cisco Unified Communications System enabled handsets at the company's other locations across the country. Thus, SmoothstoneCONNECT offers multi-site Cisco Unified Communications System customers a truly end-to-end IP trunking solution. The announcement of SmoothstoneCONNECT further positions Smoothstone as a leading, enterprise-class, IP trunking services provider for VoIP.
SmoothstoneCONNECT uses industry-leading Cisco integrated service routers (ISRs) to interconnect premise based Cisco Unified Communication networks. Cisco ISRs are also designed to allow customers to migrate from TDM to IP interconnects at their pace, allowing them to maximize their previous capital and training-related investments.
"Innovative, customer-focused providers like Smoothstone are driving rapid growth of managed voice services by extending the functionality of Cisco solutions to meet the specific needs of their customers," said Kirt Jorgenson, director of the Cisco Powered Network Program. "We look forward to building on our relationship with Smoothstone to enhance its and its customers' productivity."
"The days of a T1 supporting only 24 simultaneous calls are over," said Jeff Wellemeyer, CTO and chairman of Smoothstone. "The world of infinitely scaleable, packet-based carrier networks is now truly here. Convergence on a corporate LAN alone can only add limited value. Allowing convergence to the carrier is where the benefits are."
The benefits of SmoothstoneCONNECT are many:
- Painless Scalability. SmoothstoneCONNECT's IP connection is a clear
channel -- not a traditional, channelized T1 or PRI. It enables the
dynamic delivery and immediate scalability of 'no-busy tone' voice
services.
- Improved Business Continuity. SmoothstoneCONNECT significantly
increases phone service survivability and reliability, by allowing
instantaneous rerouting of calls and geography-agnostic failovers. This
includes the ability to re-route inbound calls to any PSTN or IP
destination, accept voicemail messages and forward them to any email
address, and allow users to update call routing rules, via a secure Web
portal.
- A Lower Total Cost of Ownership. SmoothstoneCONNECT delivers voice
carrier services, as well as data and video, over one converged
network. It eliminates the need for separate media gateways, local
voice access circuits, Internet access connections and data WANs,
saving all of these additional costs and maximizing bandwidth
efficiency.
SmoothstoneCONNECT's unique capabilities include:
- Direct inbound and outbound calling, using the Cisco Unified
Communications System, via IP, available in over 5800 rate centers
nationwide. (Local DIDs and phone numbers available everywhere.)
- Geography agnostic phone numbers (e.g., local Atlanta numbers in other
cities, nationwide).
- Inbound toll-free calling.
Advanced SmoothstoneCONNECT allows:
- All of SmoothstoneCONNECT's standard features, plus additional, unique
features:
- Softphone Termination - on any PC with an Internet connection
- Call Recording - calls can be recorded and delivered as e-mail
attachments
- DirecFax(TM) - personal fax number for every user, with faxes
delivered as email attachments
- 'In The Cloud' Queuing - advanced call queuing
- 'Database DIP' Call Routing - calls routed based on queries to client
databases
- Automated Call Distribution/Queuing - complete call center
operations, including queuing and reporting
Smoothstone delivers all of the services described above with the 24/7 management, QoS guarantees and outstanding customer service for which the company is well known. Clients also get access to NetStalk(TM) (Smoothstone's WAN management Web portal) and VoiceStalk(TM) (Smoothstone's call reporting Web portal).
To learn more about SmoothstoneCONNECT for the Cisco Unified Communications System, visit http://www.smoothstone.com.
About Smoothstone IP Communications
Smoothstone is the leading, nationwide IP communications provider for medium-sized enterprises. Its unique platform provides centrally managed, solutions, including VoIP, over a private, nationwide network, with local dial tone available in over 5,800 local calling areas. Smoothstone is a Cisco Powered Network member and is the oldest managed VoIP company in the U.S. For more information, visit http://www.smoothstone.com or call 800-773-3037.
