Mitel (Nasdaq: MITL), a trusted provider of unified communications software solutions, has announced that it has joined the BlackBerry Alliance Program as an Elite Member and announced plans to add BlackBerry Mobile Voice System 5 (BlackBerry MVS 5) to its feature-rich unified communications solutions. The combined solution will enable fixed and mobile voice communications, and help to increase corporate efficiencies and promote employee responsiveness and productivity while reaping mobility benefits.

The newly announced Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry MVS 5 enables voice over Wi-Fi, and is part of Mitel's plan to extend access to Mitel's business communications applications on BlackBerry smartphones. The solution will combine the advanced telephony features of Mitel Communications Director (MCD) with the mobility features of BlackBerry MVS 5 across corporate networks. Additionally, Mitel's Dynamic Extension solution allows for the seamless call hand off between devices meaning employees can answer a customer call at their desk, continue it on their BlackBerry smartphone, and complete the call on a home phone line.

"Mobilising voice systems is a priority for enterprises as they continue to look for new ways to empower their workforce,” said Jeff McDowell, senior vice president enterprise marketing and alliances, Research In Motion. “We're pleased to be working with Mitel through their membership in the BlackBerry Alliance program as they evolve their solution for BlackBerry smartphones to offer even greater benefits to organisations.

“As companies look to extend their enterprise mobility to users, voice and voice feature integration is a natural progression and another area that can provide sizable cost-savings. Vendor solutions like Mitel Mobility Solutions with the BlackBerry Mobile Voice System allow organisations to extend their in-office capabilities anywhere, anytime and from mobile devices. This will be crucial to increasing productivity and responding to customers in every business,” said Mike Sapien, Ovum, global research - advisory firm.

Mitel currently offers feature-rich unified communications applications for BlackBerry smartphones, providing the same user experience as on a Mitel desk phone, including the ability to:

•  Access unified communications and collaboration information, including corporate contacts and voicemails, using Mitel Unified Communicator® (UC) Advanced Mobile Portal.
• Automatically update Mitel's Dynamic Status using Mitel UC Advanced Dynamic Location, a recently announced BlackBerry smartphone application which uses GPS and other location-based services from the BlackBerry smartphone.

These Mitel solutions not only simplify the user's call experience, they enable IT managers to consolidate and simplify datacenter management. Mitel's voice virtualisation strategy allows multiple business applications to be combined into a single virtual environment, eliminating the gap between IT and voice support.

“We continuously hear from customers about the importance of mobility in their companies. BlackBerry smartphones continue to lead in messaging. With Mitel's pedigree in voice applications, we are offering our customers best-of-breed solutions to suit their business communications and mobility needs,” said Paul Butcher, president and COO at Mitel. “Mitel is in a unique position to deliver integrated software-based solutions in a flexible manner to new and existing customers.

About Mitel

Mitel Networks offers a comprehensive portfolio of IP-based communications solutions, which consists of IP telephony platforms, unified communications and collaboration applications and managed and network services. By integrating voice, video and data communications with business applications, Mitel enables businesses to improve their performance. Mitel is a leader in the market evolution to unified communications and collaboration, enabling customers to move beyond basic fixed telephony and disparate communications tools toward integrated multi-media communications and collaboration between users, wherever they may be located. Mitel's U.S. headquarters are in Phoenix, Arizona. Global headquarters are in Ottawa, Canada, with offices, partners, and resellers worldwide.

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