IBM Sametime Unified Telephony

IBM Sametime® Unified Telephony software integrates telecommunications into your existing unified communications (UC) and collaboration environment. Sametime Unified Telephony software gives users one unified number to reach them at any device. The software turns the Sametime Connect client into a softphone, which allows users to make and receive calls from their computer from virtually anywhere. Incoming call management, telephony presence, click-to-call and click-to-conference are all provided within a consistent communications experience.

This IBM software also masks the complexity of back-end integration with a middleware layer that provides connectivity to multiple telephone systems—both IP private branch exchange (PBX) and legacy time-division multiplexing (TDM) systems—independent of the enterprise’s telephony infrastructure or migration to IP telephony.

As a result an enterprise can provide cost-effective communications services that reduce telephony and travel expenses while enabling teams to assemble, regardless of location, and make nimble, better-informed decisions

Note: IBM also offers the new IBM Sametime Unified Telephony Lite Client which turns the Sametime Connect client into a standards-based SIP softphone, allowing users to place and receive calls to external phone numbers, video conferencing systems or video conferencing endpoints from their desktop. If your enterprise is looking for an entry point to step into unified communications and to boost the ROI from existing tele-presence systems, please see the Sametime Unified Telephony Lite Client features page.

Benefits of Sametime Unified Telephony software

• Supports a more nimble social business.The core set of real-time communication services are designed to help make your social business actionable–helping teams organize and respond quickly to customer demands and changing market conditions.

• Provides users a simple, consistent user communications experience including telephony presence, incoming call management and call control, click to call and softphones. Within a single client, users have the same functions and user experience independent of the phone system to which they are connected. Users can see if colleagues are available and then reach them more reliably and effectively without having to look up their numbers-wherever they are. Even if they are on the move.

• Helps get your workforce out of the office. Apple iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Google Android device users now have access to Sametime Unified Telephony functions, creating more device endpoints capable of receiving and transmitting calls from your one unified phone number (both over a cellular or wi-fi network)which—further reducing international long distance and roaming charges including international roaming charges.

• Fosters communication and collaboration within applications to help speed business processes for users. Sametime and Sametime Unified Telephony software allow communication and collaboration in a meaningful context that accommodates work-style preferences. Users can access and manage their communications from a Sametime or IBM Lotus Notes® client; a Microsoft® Outlook, Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Office application; or an enterprise application.

• Helps optimize the value from existing enterprise applications and telephony systems - independent of the enterprise’s telephony infrastructure or migration to IP telephony. The software integrates both IP PBX and legacy TDM systems.

• Helps reduce calling costs with Voice over IP (VoIP), call management and aggregated presence awareness. By leveraging Voice over IP (VoIP), Sametime Unified Telephony can eliminate the need for desk phone expenditures and home office lines and reduce long distance charges. For travelling users, VoIP can reduce cellular long distance and roaming charges, including international charges. Call management capabilities direct calls to a user’s preferred device so that colleagues do not have to call a variety of numbers to reach the user. Presence information helps colleagues avoid making unnecessary calls or calls that cannot be accepted now. The click-to-conference feature can reduce the cost of expensive audio conferencing services for ad hoc conferences.

Features:

Presence awareness - including telephony status
With Sametime Unified Telephony software people can see at a glance telephone status (e.g., on the phone, off the phone) along with online presence status (e.g., available, away, in a meeting, do not disturb), making it easy to know whether it is appropriate to initiate a realtime conversation via an IM or a phone/conference call.a glance, users can see a colleague's telephone status (e.g., on the phone, off the phone) along with online presence status (e.g., available, away, in a meeting, do not disturb), making it easy to know whether it is appropriate to initiate a real-time conversation via an IM or a phone or /conference call.

Telephony and voice
The front-end user capabilities in Sametime Unified Telephony software are designed to be intuitive and ease users’ access to telephony functionality from within the Sametime client.

• Softphone
  Users can initiate and manage phone calls through their through their Sametime Client embedded softphone using the computer's built-in microphone and speakers, a USB speakerphone, or a headset. Sametime Unified Telephony software turns the Sametime Connect client into a feature-rich telephony client, including a softphone which makes it easy to make and receive calls to phone numbers, video endpoints, or conferencing systems from virtually wherever you are, without international or roaming fees.

• Click to call, click to conference
  Users can initiate a call or audio conference through a PBX telephone system by selecting one or multiple names from the contact list. In addition, users who are collaborating through an instant message may decide to escalate from instant messaging to a call or audio conference by using the click-to-call, click-to-conference capability, including new intelligent name and number recognition inside the text chat window or chat history.

• Unified phone number and incoming call management
  With Sametime Unified Telephony software users have a single unified phone number that allows callers reach them regardless of their current location. They can easily set rules and preferences to route their calls—such as redirecting a call to a mobile phone. The software can also automatically set the preferred contact device based on a user’s availability and location status. Sametime Unified Telephony will also route the call to an alternative device if the first device is not answered.

• Call control
  The software includes call control capabilities for participants and moderators.

  • Participant call controls: click-to-call, click to conference; accept, reject or redirect - incoming call; transfer/forward call; raise/lower volume; mute/unmute; move call to another device; call merge; hold/resume; disconnect.
  • Moderator call controls: mute one or all participants; lock call; invite others; end call for everyone.

• A simple, consistent user communications experience on the desktop client
  Sametime Unified Telephony software provides the same set of functionality and user experiences to supported users, independent of the phone system to which they are connected. And it provides these capabilities from within a single client. This is in contrast to other offerings that provide a softphone that only works with a specific vendor’s PBX and that require a full migration to IP telephony before delivering a common set of unified communications and collaboration capabilities to users.

• Sametime Unified Telephony dialer on Apple iOS and Google Android devices.
  The Sametime Instant Messaging client and Sametime Unified dialer for Apple iPhone and iPad and Android devices include presence and instant messaging, background notifications, text to speech, and the ability to initiate voice calls with your Sametime Unified Telephony number, as well as control call routing preferences and device selection on the fly.

Platform for unified communications and collaboration

• The back-end middleware layer of Sametime Unified Telephony software masks the complexity of back-end integration by providing connectivity to multiple telephone systems. The software connects via Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to SIP-compliant PBXs from multiple vendors using SIP, and it connects to legacy TDM phone systems via SIP gateways. IT and telecommunications managers can therefore leverage and extend their existing telephone systems—rather than ripping and replacing them—to provide the same set of unified communications functionality to supported users regardless of the phone systems they access. The middleware approach can help enterprises deliver the value of unified communications to virtually all users—even if they have not yet completed a migration to VoIP telephony.

• Sametime Unified Telephony software is designed for reliability and scalability from hundreds of users to hundreds of thousands. The call control elements are designed to provide very high availability, helping to assure that calls can be completed. Other elements of the system support redundancy, clustering and load balancing to help optimize performance and continue to provide service to users in the event of component failure. The included IBM Tivoli® System Automation for Multiplatforms software provides advanced policy-based automation for applications and services across heterogeneous environments to help provide high levels of availability and reduce the frequency and duration of service disruptions.

• Sametime Unified Telephony software provides tools for configuring, monitoring and managing your deployment. A browser-based configuration interface aids the configuration of the telephony control, application and Media servers, as well as the definition of business groups, number plans and feature profiles. Administration consoles can be used to check server status; to monitor call volume, user call activity and license usage; and to view and edit SIP proxy properties.

• Virtualization support for Sametime Unified Telephony Servers
  Virtualization of IBM Sametime Unified Telephony for both the TAS and TCS servers is supported in Sametime Unified Telephony 8.5.2 IFR 1 so that companies to take advantage of consolidated IT infrastructure and hosted environments.

• See systems requirements for details on supported client platforms for Sametime Unified Telephony 8.5.2 and earlier releases.