Written by Doug | Mar 14, 2012 4:00:00 AM
Mobile hosted unified communications service helps impacted businesses communicate through multiple earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks during past 12 months
GAITHERSBURG, MD, March 13, 2012 – BroadSoft, Inc. (NASDAQ: BSFT) today announced that Gen-i, a division of Telecom New Zealand Limited, is leveraging a
BroadWorks mobile PBX solution to deliver the call control capabilities and features of an office phone to a mobile device allowing employees to communicate with customers and prospects at any time, from any location. This solution enables business customers impacted by the massive earthquakes that struck the Christchurch region in February and December 2011 - as well as thousands of subsequent aftershocks - to communicate in a disaster environment where fixed-line infrastructure became unreliable and employees were unable to access office phones. The central business district of Christchurch, New Zealand has been severely impacted by the earthquake and aftershocks (which average more than 20 per day), devastating much of the region's physical and IT infrastructure. As a result of initial and recurring damage caused by the 6.3 magnitude earthquake in February 2011 and a pair of 5.8 and 6.0 magnitude earthquakes in December 2011 to the commercial section of the city, residents have faced months of restricted access to their offices and have been forced to work out of their homes or in makeshift locations. Gen-i started offering a BroadWorks-enabled mobile hosted communications solution in early 2011 - just weeks before the February 2011 earthquake struck. Gen-i Mobile Office does not require a fixed line phone system, but instead leverages the flexibility of the mobile network to deliver call control capabilities and features traditionally available with premises-based PBX's to businesses of all sizes. As a result, employees of Gen-i's business clients can use their mobile device as a fully functional office phone to communicate with customers and prospects at any time, from any location. "Overnight, many of our business clients were jolted from having all their employees at a single office to having all their staff scattered throughout the region," said Jamie Brock, Head of Product Marketing, Gen-i. "With telecom infrastructure damaged and offices inaccessible, being able to rely solely on mobile devices and a powerful mobile network for business operations continues to be vital." Gen-i turned to BroadSoft
®, the leading global provider of software that enables mobile, fixed-line and cable service providers to deliver real-time communications over their IP networks, for the Gen-i Mobile Office. BroadWorks had served as a proven, reliable platform for other TNZ market offerings over the past several years. Gen-i Mobile Office features utilized by New Zealand businesses to preserve continuity include:
- Single number service across multiple devices, including a user's mobile phone and PC soft phone
- Extension dialling between employees' mobile devices
- Inbound call transfer from a receptionist or operator to employees' mobile phones
- Ability of receptionist to view and route calls from a mobile phone or tablet device to anyone.
"Cost and productivity are the immediate and on-going benefits our service providers' enterprise customers experience when shifting from legacy PBX infrastructure to hosted mobile communications," said Leslie Ferry, vice president marketing, BroadSoft. "But in this case, Gen-i was able to provide business continuity by assisting dislocated and impacted businesses that might otherwise have had to cease operations for an indefinite period of time when it mattered most."
BroadWorks®, enables service providers to provide enterprises and consumers with a range of cloud-based, or hosted, IP multimedia communications, such as hosted IP private branch exchanges, video calling, unified communications, collaboration and converged mobile and fixed-line services.