NEC Corporation has signed a global partnership with Intermedia for its unified communications as-a-service solutions. “This partnership agreement with Intermedia represents NEC’s rapid global expansion into cloud-based communications and collaboration services,” said NEC.
NEC competes against the likes of Cisco and Avaya in the cloud as-a-service comms space, and this deal follows the one Avaya made last year with RingCentral to bolster its own cloud technology offering for the channel. US-headquartered Intermedia develops integrated cloud communications software and it is primarily sold under a white label. NEC UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT and ENGAGE are built on Intermedia’s proprietary technology, and will be brought to market through NEC’s partner ecosystem to support customer organisations in their migration to the cloud.
The products will be brought to market exclusively through NEC’s Business Partner community, complementing their existing offerings and creating opportunities for partners to earn increased revenue through new programmes. The expanded offering will integrate with NEC on-premise-based systems.
“NEC is committed to helping businesses meet the demands of today’s digital workforce through our Smart Enterprise portfolio, and we recognise that enabling customer migration to the cloud is a key component,” said Paul Kievit, president and head of NEC Enterprise Solutions EMEA and Americas. “To support this rapid migration on a global scale, NEC aimed to team up with a born-in-the-cloud partner that could provide a best-in-class, fully-integrated suite of UCaaS and CCaaS solutions.”
Michael Gold (pictured), CEO of Intermedia, said: “By teaming with NEC we look forward to working together to provide our UCaaS and CCaaS solutions to help drive better communications for a broader global audience.”
NEC UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT is a cloud-based business communications platform that combines a full-featured cloud-based phone system, chat, video conferencing and file sync and share, all available to users through desktop, web and mobile applications. NEC UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE is a cloud-based contact centre designed to fit business needs from the small, single channel to the large and sophisticated omni-channel environment.
“This is a big move for both NEC and Intermedia. When you combine NEC’s global reach and relationship with their channel, and Intermedia’s world-class UCaaS and CCaaS offerings, you have to take notice,” said Elka Popova, vice president, information and communications technologies at analyst house Frost & Sullivan. “This gives NEC a clear path to help their customers with their cloud migration to enable much of what’s needed in today’s business environment, specifically remote work and meetings.”
