Global Crossing VoIP Service Enables Enhanced Unified Communications

FLORHAM PARK, N.J., May 11. Global Crossing, a leading global IP solutions provider, today announced it is providing its suite of Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) Trunking services to Clarity Consulting, a software development consulting firm and independent software vendor, for its hosted contact center management product.

Global Crossing's SIP Trunking services enable Clarity Consulting and its partners to deliver a new customer service center software solution that enhances the call control functions of Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 Release 2 (R2) for enterprises worldwide. Global Crossing was one of the first SIP trunking service providers qualified with Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

"By using Global Crossing's SIP Trunking solution in conjunction with Microsoft's unified communications technologies, we are enabling Clarity Consulting to deliver an innovative VoIP software solution to its global enterprise customers," said Debra Swann, vice president of marketing with Global Crossing. "This winning combination of our joined leading-edge technology helps Clarity exceed its customers' needs for cost-effective, efficient communications tools."

Clarity Consulting is using Global Crossing's SIP Trunking solution to deliver its hosted contact center solution called Clarity Connect, a new software and services solution based on the Microsoft unified communications platform. Clarity Connect allows businesses with small to medium sized contact centers differentiate their brand from larger, more sophisticated customer service centers by enabling them to deliver feature-rich customer service experiences at a fraction of the cost and complexity of traditional offerings.

"SIP Trunking was a key technology enabler for the Clarity Connect platform," said Jon Rauschenberger, chief technology officer of Clarity Consulting. "One of our key goals with Clarity Connect is to change the economics of delivering a world-class contact center solution and that simply isn't possible with traditional TDM voice delivery solutions."With Global Crossing's SIP Trunking solution, Clarity Consulting routes calls from customers to agents using the native support for Federation in OCS. Calls are delivered to the Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 client on the agent's desktop over MPLS circuits provided by Global Crossing. Agents can then perform sophisticated call control actions using the Clarity Connect Agent Console, a Microsoft Silverlight powered application that is embedded within Office Communicator 2007 R2 when a call is received.

Through Global Crossing's SIP Trunking and Office Communications R2 solutions, Clarity Consulting can offer a hosted customer interaction management platform for its customers, such as Emerson Ecologics, a nutritional supplements company.

"The Clarity Connect service has delivered a contact center solution with features and functionality that, if we got them from other vendors, would cost three to four times as much," said Ethan Williams, Director of Customer Contact Centers for Emerson Ecologics.

SIP Trunking is the interconnection standard for VoIP calling applications, serving as an alternative to circuit-based fixed lines on the public switched telephone network. SIP Trunking can offer enterprise customers significant cost-savings from the elimination of gateways, costly ISDN facilities, and the maximization of bandwidth utilization in a converged IP environment.

Global Crossing's SIP Trunking suite of VoIP services supporting Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 include:  --  Global Crossing VoIP On-Net Plus
  --  Global Crossing VoIP Outbound(which processes traditional long
      distance and international long distance);
  --  Global Crossing VoIP Toll-Free;
  --  Global Crossing VoIP Local Service; and
  --  Global Crossing VoIP Consulting(an offering that is a combination
      of advanced interoperability testing and customized VoIP engineering
      consulting services).
      
Global Crossing defines Unified Communications as the integration of collaboration and IP telephony services, delivered via a converged audio, data and video IP network. Through this fully-meshed MPLS-based global network, Global Crossing delivers customers the ability to deploy enhanced communications tools that enable the effective exchange of information while raising user productivity levels.