Aspect talks Dell team-up, Microsoft UC solutions

Customer contact provider Aspect Software recently announced a new strategic partnership with Dell Services that will help enterprise customers acquire end-to-end unified communications (UC) solutions based around Microsoft products.

The global deal was originally signed in the US in February, with the local team completing the final paperwork over the past few months.

The joint relationship will provide a turnkey solution from hardware to infrastructure and managed services and includes access to Microsoft Lync, Microsoft Dynamics and Dell servers. Customers will be able to tailor their communication systems and contact centre solutions at the bespoke level.  

Aspect A/NZ country manager Lee Alexander said the partnership would provide customers with "a seamless telephony roadmap" that is able to utilise existing investments with telephony applications running on top.

"We're really seeing a lot of organisations looking at telephony install across their enterprise and working out what the roadmap for their existing technology is," Alexander told CRN. "Organisations are looking to derive more benefits and drive higher-value relationships from their customers.

"Traditional PBX telephony platforms don't lend themselves to that added value. That's where a partnership like Aspect and Dell can play very well in that market."

Alexander said partners with global UC practices like Dell had been showing a renewed interest in being able to fill the gaps in their go-to-market offerings.

"When you start to talk telephony on an enterprise scale, the conversation around contacts often include very specific requirements outside of the usual UC offering," Alexander said. "As an infrastructure provider, Dell had all of the pieces in place and already has a number of UC partners.

"But part of the portfolio that was missing for them was that contacts entity. We're able to provide contacts centre and consulting services around UC. That's really what drove the Dell partnership forward. "   

Alexander said the local UC market was steadily gaining traction in the enterprise as organisations moved on from traditional PBX telephony platforms.

"We're really seeing a lot of organisations looking at telephony install across their enterprise and working out what the roadmap for their existing technology is," Alexander said. "Traditional PBXs have been kind of left wanting for some time as organisations look to derive more benefits from their customers and drive higher-value relationships. 

In 2008 Aspect signed a global strategic alliance with Microsoft which included the development and implementation of UC applications.

"We closely developed our products suite and portfolio around Microsoft's offerings and embedded their capabilities and solutions," explained Alexander. "Over time, this has really changed the landscape of the partners that we use to go to market. 

"The tight integration with [Microsoft's] product suite really has developed new relationships for us; specifically around unified communications and collaborations."

Alexander said the partnership enabled budget conscious enterprise customers to feel secure in their investment.

"I think that's where both Dell and Aspect provide a lot of kudos: we have a lot of enterprise and blue-chip customers here and around the globe." 

Alexander said Aspect was yet to sign any new local customers to the joint solution, but said it was in discussions with a number of organisations. 

"We [Dell and Aspect] share an alwful lot of customers already, so we have a number of opportunties we are working on together and are hoping to go to press with in the near future," Alexander said.

Global customers include Open Universities and Golfbreaks.com.