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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Mitel pitches its tech solutions to small businesses

By: Martin Cash

Posted: 04/13/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

WAYNE.GLOWACKI@FREEPRESS.MB.CA Mitel�s Ben Morris (left) and David Guberman, president of Telexperts, outside the Mitel �Simply Communicating� bus.

IN an effort to show off the latest in digital telephony for small business, Mitel Networks is bringing its technology to the streets.

Dubbed the Mitel Simply Communication Tour, the Ottawa technology company brought its tricked-out bus to Winnipeg on Monday full of the latest Internet protocol (IP) telephone technology as part of a 50-city tour.

Its stop at Telexperts, the largest private telephone vendor in the province and a longtime Mitel dealer, was to show off its telephony solutions that are scaled and marketed to small businesses -- like call centre solutions and the flexibility of linking email, cellphones and desk phones -- that previously were available only to the largest companies.

One of the key features of its newest wave of offerings is what Mitel calls virtual solutions.

Ben Morris, a senior vice-president from the company's head office, said, "Only a few years ago, if we had a bus fitted out like this one, we'd also have to be pulling a tractor trailer full of servers to run all the applications."

Mitel's solutions have embraced the cloud computing format which allows users to dramatically reduce the number of servers running their systems and lowers the costs of energy and space to run them.

Andy Alguire, vice-president information technology at Steinbach Credit Union, runs Mitel solutions purchased through Telexperts.

Now that the largest Manitoba credit union is about to open its third location, Alguire said the next step is to look at teleconferencing technology.

The Mitel bus features its latest teleconferencing solution that comes in at a price point of about $75,000, much less than its competitors and which requires less bandwidth to operate.

"Now that we have three branches (its new branch on Lagimodiere Boulevard north of Regent Avenue is to open in early May) we want to minimize travel between the three," he said. Alguire said there's a clear return on investment for SCU if it purchases Mitel's Tele-Collaboration Solution, even though it would be used to reduce travel just between three regional locations.

Morris said the Mitel tour is selective about where it stops.

The Winnipeg business scene is all about the small and medium sized enterprises and the Telexperts/Mitel combination has proven to be a successful one for both.

Telexperts, with 2,000-plus customers, is Mitel's largest dealer in any city of less than one million.

"Small business owners see that they can buy the same solutions as Great-West Life and they like that," said Telexperts president David Guberman. "There is also the comfort of buying from a Tier-1 provider as opposed to buying from engineers who are coming up with the flavour of the month in their basements. You can't dabble in this kind of technology. It doesn't work."

Morris said the company decided to invest heavily in the travelling technology show -- instead of an annual dealers' trade show -- because it has been guilty of not doing enough marketing directly to its end users.

It might also be partly timed to coincide with an initial public offering Mitel is in the midst of, to raise more than $200 million.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 13, 2010 B3

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