2/4/2010 - Digital Signage Universe
NEC and Array Interactive Develop Digital Signage Program for Towson University
SAN JOSE, CA — Towson University enlisted the services of NEC Corporation of America and Array Interactive to implement a critically important first phase digital signage program. The partners collaborated intimately with stakeholders from IT, student services, the College of Liberal Arts, University Union, campus police, and marketing. While NEC managed the integration of hardware and software into the university’s network, Array Interactive provided strategic services prior to developing a content design framework that would enable university staff to create and publish content in two of the busiest locations on campus: the University Union and newly constructed College of Liberal Arts.

1/19/2010 - eWeek.com
NEC Announces UC Integrated with Lotus Foundations Appliance
IBM and NEC team up with a unified communications (UC) appliance that integrates with IBM’s Lotus Foundations UC solution and aimed at budget-conscious businesses.

1/18/2010 - Jamison Consulting
NEC Announces Unified Communications for SMBs that is Fully Integrated with IBM’s Lotus Foundations Appliance
At the annual IBM Lotusphere conference in Orlando, Florida, NEC Corporation of America (NEC), announced UNIVERGE® Sphericall® for IBM Lotus Foundations. This is a UC solution that is fully integrated with IBM Lotus Foundations; an appliance that extends IBM Lotus Sametime UC and collaboration (UC2) tools with the ability to connect to telephony functions.

1/18/2010 - UCStrategies.com
“No, It’s More!” - NEC UNIVERGE® Sphericall® for IBM Lotus Foundations: A different approach to Unified Communications
Today, NEC took a leap forward in Unified Communications for Small and Mid-sized Businesses (SMBs). In what may be the biggest announcement at one of the industry’s biggest shows, the annual IBM Lotusphere, NEC announced that its open, software-based Unified Communications (UC) platform, Sphericall, is fully integrated with IBM’s Lotus Foundations platform for SMB collaboration and business applications.

1/13/2010 - UCStrategies.com
Lessons in UC From the Classroom
All UC vendors today are trying to find ways to differentiate themselves from one another and to stand out from the crowd. I generally recommend that they focus on professional services and/or applications, especially vertical applications.

9/2/2009 - TMCnet
NEC Updates its Unified Communications Suite
NEC Unified Solutions announced that it has updated its unified communications suite, “UC for Enterprise,” with the introduction of “UCE Mobility,” which provides Microsoft Outlook integration for the UCE desktop client, and new integration capabilities for the UCE attendant.

8/6/2009 - SearchUnifiedCommunications.com
Eldorado Casino can’t afford to gamble on IP-PBX telephony upgrades
With telephony powered by an 18-year-old PBX on its last legs and replacement parts harder and harder to come by, the Eldorado Hotel & Casino and Silver Legacy Resort were in need of a serious communications overhaul. But with little tolerance for downtime in the frenetic world of a 24/7 casino, what is the best upgrade path to ensure continuity for customers while giving a solid path for feature growth in the future?

7/28/2009 - Hospitality Net: News
Eldorado and Silver Legacy Hotel Casinos Use NEC’s Hospitality Solutions to Enhance Employee and Guest Experiences
NEC Unified Solutions, Inc. (NEC), a leading provider and integrator of advanced communications solutions, today announced that both the Eldorado Hotel Casino and Silver Legacy Resort Casino in Reno, NV, are delivering a complete customer service experience to guests and a more efficient workplace for employees using NEC’s communications technology.

7/27/2009 - Northern Nevada Business Weekly
Telecommunications system speeds marketing data for casino-hotels
A new stream of marketing information is flowing into executives’ offices from an unlikely source — a new telecommunications system — at the Eldorado Hotel Casino and Silver Legacy Resort Casino.

6/25/2009 - Hotels Magazine
The Wit Hotel Opens With NEC Touch-Screen Tech
NEC Unified Solutions Inc. announces that theWit Hotel, the recently opened downtown Chicago boutique hotel, is using NEC communications technology to deliver unprecedented access to luxury services and amenities for its guests.

6/12/2009 - Network World
NEC launches collaboration app
NEC Unified Solutions launched UC for Enterprise Collaboration last week, offering a video, Web conferencing and collaboration application. The company also launched its Hosted Collaboration as a Web-based service with the same features and functionality yet designed for the small and midsize business market.

6/10/2009 - TMCnet
Philadelphia Residents Get Help with IVR Application from NEC
IVR applications have increased in popularity for their ability to improve customer services levels and agent productivity as well as streamline operations.

5/21/2009 - Campus Technology
U New Mexico Moves Forward in NEC IP Migration
The University of New Mexico (UNM) will be migrating to NEC Unified Solutions’ Univerge SV8500 communications servers as it moves to a complete IP-based network over the next several years.

5/20/2009 - Speech Technology
The Social Rules of Speech Recognition
"100,000 years ago, humans started to speak so they could free up their hands. Is it going to happen again? I’d love to get rid of my keyboard…"

4/16/2009 - TMCnet
NEC Unified Solutions Intros UNIVERGE Sphericall for Hospitality
NEC Unified Solutions has introduced a new IP-based unified communications system designed for the hospitality industry.

4/15/2009 - Telecommunications Online
Attention broadband stimulus proponents: make students a priority
You can’t go anywhere these days without hearing something about the new economic stimulus’ US$7.2 billion broadband provision.

4/13/2009 - FierceVoIP.com
Clouding up unified communications
Everyone who is anyone is talking up the potential for moving hosted unified communications (UC) applications to a cloud computing framework. There are benefits and trade-offs to contemplate, because there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

4/6/2009 - No Jitter
VoiceCon Themes
Another VoiceCon has come and gone – with lots of news around unified communications--of course. Several themes became apparent at VoiceCon--here are a few that I believe are of most interest (to me, anyway).

4/3/2009 - SpeechTechMag.com
NEC Introduces Scalable, Software-Based Communications Solution for Hospitality
NEC Unified Solutions (NEC) this week launched an affordable, purely software-based IP communications solution designed to provide hotels with basic and advanced communication solutions that support hotel staff efficiency and productivity while enabling self-service voice applications to the guests they serve.

4/2/2009 - FierceVoIP.com
VoiceCon 2009: BoT (Best of Twitter)
BoT (Best of Twitter) from the FierceVoIP feed

3/16/2009 - Network World
How to solve the enterprise mobility puzzle
Virtualization, SOA, security, management and network access must be part of a comprehensive mobility strategy

2/19/2009 - Healthcare IT News
New York hospital keeps it cool
St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center, a non-profit, 431-bed hospital in western New York, has deployed wireless technology to keep tabs on refrigerated healthcare items, such as vaccines, medication and blood bags.

2/13/2009 - No Jitter
NEC Unified Announces Hosted UC Offering for SMBs
The floodgates have opened and another enterprise communications player has announced a hosted UC solution for web collaboration services. NEC Unified Solutions, Inc. (NEC), not one of the current competitors with a high market recognition factor--despite a rapidly growing portfolio of basic and enhanced UC solutions--will be co-marketing a new "hosted" web collaboration service from its Univerge Solutions Partner XL Meeting. The browser-based application works across Windows, Mac OS and Linux Operating systems and provides video and web collaboration.

2/9/2009 - Network World
NEC hits mobile worker sweet spot
Univerge package leverages NEC’s telephony roots; delivers slick, unified view of all communications out to mobile clients

1/22/2009 - RFID Journal
RFID Helps St. Joseph’s Keep an Eye on Cold Storage
The N.Y. hospital is using an AeroScout solution to track the temperatures inside its refrigerators, thereby reducing labor costs and improving the safety of the blood, vaccines and other items stored within.

12/12/2008 - TMCnet
NEC Unified Solutions President Discusses IP Communications
NEC Unified Solutions serves as the North American communications integration arm of global giant NEC Corporation for Fortune 1000, as well as small to mid-sized businesses in vertical markets such as hospitality, education, government, and healthcare.

12/8/2008 - Campus Technology
Stanford Launches ‘Clean Slate’ Internet Lab with Deutsche Telekom and NEC
Stanford University’s Clean Slate Internet Design Program, a "nothing-is-sacred" research effort launched in 2007 to rethink the global communications infrastructure, announced formation of the Clean Slate Lab, in which professors, students, research staff, and engineers will deploy prototypes of program ideas in research and operational networks. Stanford created the lab with Deutsche Telekom in Germany and NEC in Japan as the founding sponsors.

11/21/2008 - No Jitter
Communications-Enabled Business Needs Better Interfaces
Last week I was in Japan at NEC’s iExpo, and a few of the demonstrations that were shown there made me think about the way we interface with today’s systems. These demos weren’t the typical lame demos that many vendors show at conferences, like simply demonstrating when you pick up the phone the presence status on the user changes to "on phone."

11/20/2008 - UCStrategies.com
My Observations at VoiceCon: The State of the Economy Paints a Not-So-Pretty Picture
At VoiceCon last week, it was clear that the economy had hit the show. Attendance was light, booths were even lighter, and the word was that most enterprises were holding off on big IT projects until Q1-09. From a vendor perspective, they felt VoiceCon Spring was a more important show. This is definitely a sign that vendors are being cautious about where they put their marketing dollars.

11/18/2008 - Healthcare-Informatics.com
NEC, Premier Partner on IP Telephony
Irving, Texas-based NEC Unified Solutions, Inc. is teaming up with Premier Purchasing Partners, L.P., the group purchasing unit of Premier Inc. (Charlotte, N.C.), to offer NEC’s complete IP telephony line under the Univerge 360 framework to Premier’s hospital and healthcare provider members.

11/17/2008 - Greg Galitzine’s VoIP Authority Blog
NEC, Premier Purchasing to Serve Healthcare Market
NEC Unified Solutions has announced an agreement with Premier Purchasing Partners whereby Premier will offer NEC’s UNIVERGE 360 IP telephony solutions to more than 2,000 hospitals and over 50,000 healthcare provider members of the Premier healthcare alliance.

11/17/2008 - TelecomTactics
NEC Begins Shipping UNIVERGE SV8500
NEC Unified Solutions, Inc. continues to roll out new products within its UNIVERGE360 vision around the enterprise communications market and its shift toward roles-based solutions. By identifying the roles people play in an organization, NEC has been unveiling solutions in 2008 that unify technology, vertical-specific applications and business processes, making employees’ functions more efficient and effective.

11/13/2008 - eWeek.com
Is Unified Communications Still a Hot Channel Product?
Vendors and distributors alike have bet heavily on unified communications as one of the big technologies that SMB companies will look to deploy. But the global financial crisis may have stalled the market. NEC Unified Solutions is opening its customer database to channel partners in an effort to jump-start sales.

11/12/2008 - TMCnet
NEC Unified and Microsoft’s Tellme Team on Hosted Call Center Voice Services Solution
Customer-facing organizations, more than any other type of business, require reliable communications infrastructure. Often, delivering this infrastructure, in support of mission-critical functions, proves to be complex and expensive for enterprises. It need not be, though.

11/11/2008 - No Jitter
Microsoft Subsidiary, TellMe, Reinforces Two Market Trends with Partner Focus and SaaS Model
TellMe, a division of Microsoft that dishes up customer self-service applications that combine the web and speech technologies, announced a follow up to their partner program introduced four months ago. On an analyst call with a new partner, NEC Unified Solutions, TellMe announced that they had signed up four other reseller partners including Aspect Software, Dimension Data, Quilogy, and SpeechCycle; and five professional services partners including Gold Systems, Mackraz Design, Pivot Systems, Servion, and VoxMedia, since the program began.

10/30/2008 - Campus Technology
U of Maryland Eastern Shore Talks Up NEC Univerge Unified Communications
The University of Maryland Eastern Shore has begun deploying a voice over IP-based unified communications platform from NEC Unified Solutions. The installation includes the Univerge SV8500 communications server, which provides call routing capabilities and productivity applications, such as presence recognition, instant messaging, unified messaging, conferencing, click-to-call, and single number reach. The university has also simultaneously installed the MA4000 application, a Web-based management tool that simplifies deployment, phone moves, adds, and changes and provides users with a simple means to configure their own phones.

10/24/2008 - PHONE+
Case Study: Medical Group ‘Doctors’ Communications Systems With NEC
Founded in 1946, Mount Kisco Medical Group, PC (MKMG) is comprised of more than 170 physicians including experts in more than 40 specialties and subspecialties. The practice makes it easy for patients to access a broad range of comprehensive services with a highly coordinated approach to patient care. All physicians are board certified, ensuring the quality of care for which MKMG is renowned.

10/20/2008 - No Jitter
Reviewing Gartner’s Missed Opportunity on UC
According to an old (August 2006) report from Bob Hafner of Gartner Research, "companies could waste upwards of $26 billion on useless IP screen phones during the next five years (2005-2011)."

10/8/2008 - CampusTechnology.com
Voorhees College Enhances VoIP with Sphericall Tools
Voorhees College in Denmark, SC has deployed NEC Unified Solutions’ Sphericall to provide users with software-based voice and desktop communications tools as part of its voice over IP system. Sphericall provides a means for faculty and staff to interact between departments and connect with students using IP voice or desktop communication tools across the college, which has five locations in South Carolina.

8/21/2008 - SearchUnifiedCommunications.com
Software-based unified communications help flower wholesaler blossom
Four years ago, FlorExpo, a West Coast wholesaler of fresh-cut flowers, replaced its aging phone system with a software-based IP PBX system. The company immediately took advantage of some core unified communications (UC) capabilities, such as instant messaging, unified messaging and presence.

8/5/2008 - No Jitter
NEC Defines Hospitality
An article in the print version of Telecom Reseller (couldn’t find it online) caught my attention, on NEC’s reported 64% growth in hospitality sales. Kevin Ruhman is NEC’s Director of Hospitality Market and he was kind enough to speak to me about NEC’s success in the hospitality market.

8/1/2008 - TMCnet
NEC Visit -- Dallas, TX
While I was down in the Dallas metropolitan area this week, I had the opportunity to meet with a number of companies including Irving-based NEC.

My colleagues and I were treated to a wonderful tour of the NEC Executive Briefing Center, which features many of NEC's offerings that are available to enterprises today.

7/4/2008 - The Dallas Morning News
Dallas Museum of Art enters electronic sign age
New exhibits. New events. New concessions. The Dallas Museum of Art changes constantly.
Now it can keep patrons up to speed.

7/1/2008 - ChannelWeb
Art Comes Alive With Converged Network
Museums typically showcase the old. Classic pieces of art and sculpture to take visitors back in time. But with a little help from NEC, the Dallas Museum of Art (pictured) is taking a modern approach. With LCDs and digital signage solutions from NEC, along with its Univerge solutions, the museum is bringing exhibits back to life.

6/25/2008 - Healthcare IT News
UNM Hospital employs technology to help move 900 phones
ALBUQUERQUE, NM - The University of New Mexico Hospital is reaping the benefits of a new browser-based management system for its servers since the move last year to a new facility. Mark Reynolds, associate director of IT services communications for UNM, says the new system proved its worth even over the move.

4/9/2008 - IT Business
Making the case for network security without mentioning ROI
How do you better sell security projects to C-level execs? Focusing on return on investment may not be the best approach.

3/31/2008 - VoIP Blog - Rich Tehrani
NEC’s New Vision
Recently I had a chance to sit down with NEC Unified Solution’s new president Jeffrey Kane and talk shop. Kane has an extensive background in systems integration having worked at firms like Perot Systems and EDS. Most importantly, he has a passion for success I haven’t seen in my NEC telecom contacts over the past fifteen plus years.

3/27/2008 - SearchUnifiedCommunications.com
NEC demonstrates UC for Business at VoiceCon 2008
While at VoiceCon Orlando 2008, SearchUnifiedCommunications.com asked Doug Hutchinson of NEC to demonstrate NEC’s UC for Business application.

3/27/2008 - SearchUnifiedCommunications.com
NEC demonstrates fixed-mobile convergence at VoiceCon Orlando 2008
While exploring VoiceCon Orlando 2008, SearchUnifiedCommunications.com asked NEC Product Line Manager Ed Ashley to demonstrate NEC’s fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) product.

3/25/2008 - Campus Technology
University of New Mexico Pilots Unified Communications System
The University of New Mexico (UNM) will be piloting an IP-based communications network with the installation of a suite of applications called Univerge from NEC Unified Solutions. In 2006, the campus began implementing its IP communications network, which will eventually support 22,000 voice terminals (IP, TDM and analog), connecting administration, faculty and students, as well as the UNM Hospital campus and Health Science Center.

3/20/2008 - Convergencia Digital
NEC Presents New Unified Communication Strategy

3/20/2008 - European Contact Centre blog
VoiceCon 2008 – IBM, Microsoft & Aspect
I was interested to hear a number of the announcements at Voice Con 2008. I’m not in Orlando this year but a number of friends were at the announcement and I was interested to compare their comments with the press announcements.

3/19/2008 - TMCnet
University of New Mexico Upgrades to NEC’s UC for Enterprise Suite
The University of New Mexico (UNM) is reportedly upgrading its campus-wide communications network with NEC’s (News - Alert) UC for Enterprise suite of advanced unified communications (UC) applications, as well as NEC’s revolutionary modular IP terminals.

3/19/2008 - TMCnet
NEC Partners with IPcelerate to Combine NIPA Framework with NEC’s IP Terminals
NEC Unified Solutions Inc., a provider of enterprise business communications, has announced a partnership with IPcelerate (News - Alert) Inc., a provider of advanced VoIP products and technologies.

3/18/2008 - DMasia.com
NEC Unified, IPcelerate Sing Partnership Deal
NEC Unified Solutions, a player in enterprise business communications, has announced a partnership with IPcelerate, a provider of advanced VoIP products and technologies.

3/18/2008 - No Jitter
VoiceCon Daily Update—Monday, March 17, 2008
As usual, I spent my first morning here at VoiceCon doing podcast interviews (they’ll be posted on the VoiceCon website shortly). I got some interesting perspectives on presence from Paul Lopez of NEC (details at this No Jitter blog post), and I also got some more data on contact center attitudes from Tom Chamberlain of Aspect (info about their announcement is here here and here).

3/18/2008 - Telecompaper
NEC Launches Host of Enterprise Offerings

3/17/2008 - Calibre Macro*World
NEC Rolls Out UNIVERGE360
NEC Unified Solutions is launching a new set of solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB) built around NEC’s Univerge360 approach.

3/17/2008 - Inc.com
NEC Unveils SMB Tools
NEC Unified Solutions, an NEC (NASDAQ:NIPNY) company, has introduced a new set of solutions for small and midsize businesses built on its UNIVERGE360 role-based approach to business communications. The new solutions provide enterprise-class unified communications and VoIP features.

3/17/2008 - Network World
NEC Releases Role-Based Unified Communications Platform
NEC Unified Solutions (NEC) unveiled a portfolio of IP-based equipment and software last week that is based on its Univerge360 strategy the company announced last month. The Univerge360 approaches communications from a people perspective, based not only on the nature of their organization’s business but on the individual roles people have within the organization.

3/17/2008 - No Jitter
How Present Does Presence Need to Be?
Here’s an interesting issue that came up in a podcast interview I did this morning with Paul Lopez, who’s GM, Marketing at NEC Unified Solutions. NEC recently made its Univerge 360 announcement around Unified Communications, and in the course of a UC-focused conversation, Paul and I eventually got around to the topic of presence.

3/15/2008 - TelecomWeb
NEC Launches New SMB Solutions
NEC Unified Solutions, Inc. will showcase new small- and mid-size business (SMB) solutions at VoiceCon Orlando 2008, forging ahead with its UNIVERGE360 vision that the enterprise communications market is shifting toward roles-based solutions. By identifying the roles people play in an organization, NEC plans...

3/14/2008 - Computer Business Review
NEC Unveils Unified Communications Systems for SMBs
Enterprise business communications company NEC Unified Solutions has unveiled a set of applications for small- and medium-sized businesses built around its UNIVERGE360 approach.

3/14/2008 - Datamonitor ComputerWire
NEC Unified Solutions Introduces New IP Platform
Enterprise business communications software provider NEC Unified Solutions has introduced the UX5000, a new IP platform with enhanced features and functionality.

3/13/2008 - InternetNews.com
Yet Another UC Tool Hits The Enterprise: NEC Joins What’s Becoming a Crowded Unified Communications
NEC Unified Solutions is rolling several communications tools for its month-old UNIVERGE360 platform, offering user-customization options and a module that promises to make system management easier.

3/12/2008 - bMighty.com
NEC Unveils SMB-Oriented Unified Communications Systems
NEC’s Univerge360 is described by the company as "an approach that puts people, and their role, in the center of communications. Once users’ roles are identified, NEC can build a communications solution that best meets the needs of the company." The new products, which are aimed at businesses of all sizes, are based on a "unified infrastructure" composed of communications servers and IP and digital terminals (i.e., phone sets).

3/12/2008 - ChannelWeb
NEC Unveils UC Portfolio for Enterprise, SMB
Last month, NEC Unified Solutions President Jeffrey Kane promised some drastic changes to the Irving, Texas-based vendor’s lineup of communications offerings.

3/12/2008 - EuroInvestor.co.uk
New IP Platform from NEC Unified Solutions Delivers Affordable Next-Generation Features
NEC Unified Solutions, Inc. (NEC), a global leader in enterprise business communications, today announces a new IP platform that provides enhanced features, functionality and scalability in a cost-effective manner for customers. The new UX5000 will be showcased at VoiceCon Orlando 2008, March 17-20 in NEC’s booth #1001.

3/12/2008 - eWeek Midmarket
NEC Rolls Out Simple, Low-TCO UC Tools
Easy to operate and simple to manage, NEC’s new PBXes and new UC for Business application work in single-appliance mode and promise lower TCO.

3/12/2008 - eWeek.com
NEC Joins Growing Band of UC Vendors
NEC’s wide-ranging UC launch emphasizes a move to hardware and open standards.

3/12/2008 - eWeek.com
NEC Communications Tools Target SMBs
Easy to operate and simple to manage, NEC’s new PBXes and new UC for Business application work in single-appliance mode and promise lower TCO.

3/12/2008 - TMCnet
NEC Expands UNIVERGE360 UC Initiative with New Enterprise and SMB Solutions
Unified communications (UC) is hot. It seems like almost every day another company in the communications space announces a new or revised UC strategy. Case-in-point:NEC ( News - Alert) Unified Solutions, which recently introduced UNIVERGE360, a UC solution that enables businesses to integrate the tasks employees perform with automated business processes.

3/12/2008 - VoIP News
New On the Scene: NEC UX5000
A new IP platform, the UX5000, from NEC Unified Solutions, Inc. offers enhanced features, functionality and scalability that’s cost-effective for businessses.

3/10/2008 - VoiceCon
VoiceCon Orlando 2008 to Showcase New Product Launches and Major Announcements
VoiceCon (R), produced by TechWeb (formerly CMP), today previews big product and market announcements that will be made at the upcoming VoiceCon Orlando 2008. The conference content and exhibitor announcements reflect a significant market transition, as enterprise communications expands beyond voice/telephony to Unified Communications and Software-based architectures. VoiceCon Orlando 2008 will be held March 17-20 at the Gaylord Palms Hotel in Orlando, FL. Registration for the event is now open at http://www.voicecon.com/orlando.

2/25/2008 - PHONE+
The University of Arizona Taps NEC for Large WLAN, VoIP Deployment
Founded in 1885, The University of Arizona (UA), with about 37,000 students, is considered by academic experts to be among the foremost student-centered institutions in the United States. It also is ranked among the nation’s top 20 public research institutions. With a dedicated, world-class faculty in fields as diverse as astronomy, plant science, biomedical science, business, law, music and dance, UA offers a rewarding educational experience to all who strive for excellence.

2/11/2008 - No Jitter
Interview with NEC Unified President Jeff Kane
Pretty much every formerly-PBX vendor is now calling itself, at least some of the time, an "integration company." NEC Unified is doing that too, but the difference is that their President actually used to be a systems integrator.

2/8/2008 - InfoWorld
Web 2.0 will create a new kind of "infrastructure application"
There’s a new term starting to make itself known in high tech that says a lot about where technology is moving.

2/7/2008 - No Jitter
The Importance of Roles in UC
When I read Nancy Jamison’s writeup on the new NEC Univerge announcement, I wanted to know more about this concept of roles; it definitely sounded like a useful concept for Unified Communications.

2/7/2008 - No Jitter
NEC’s Univerge 360 – A Different Approach on Business/Unified Communications
When companies use the word unique, I jump. I always want to say: prove it. This week, when NEC’s Unified Solutions group announced that they had a unique communication model for helping companies unify business communications, based on a user’s role, that is what I asked them to do. I also asked them how they determined that it was a unique approach.