Power supplies, IP, Global: In response to increasing demand for IP-based solutions with built-in power availability capabilities, American Power Conversion (APC) has announced that the Nortel Business Communications Manager (BCM) 50 now offers an interface to APC’s USB-signalling uninterruptible power supply (UPS) products. The Intelligent APC UPS interface feature provides battery health alerting, power quality monitoring and graceful shutdown of the BCM in the event of an extended power outage.

The BCM 50 provides advanced capabilities such as telephony, voice messaging and unified messaging, IP networking, Internet access, contact centres with skills-based routing and IP telephony. It is a highly-scalable solution that enables small enterprises to benefit from convergence capabilities that were previously only available to much larger organisations, offering hundreds of features and a full suite of integrated applications.

“The market for VoIP continues to increase as companies discover that this technology can help them grow and compete more effectively,” believes Alan Morgan, district manager: East Africa at APC. “Using Nortel Network’s Business Communications Manager, companies now can adopt IP-based solutions at their own pace and gain a strategic edge by reducing operating costs, improving customer service and expanding their market reach.”

Commenting on Nortel Network’s decision to add the Intelligent APC UPS interface feature to the BCM 50, Jacek Jarmoc, Nortel BCM product manager, says, “Ensuring uninterruptible power for IP-based telephony and data resources is critical in avoiding dropped calls and lost information in the event of a power outage. More importantly, this capability ensures the communications infrastructure will be available when a steady power supply is unavailable. Of equal importance is the automatic shutdown capability, which ensures BCM 50 users will not lose data and that communications will be operational as soon as the power returns. Nortel is pleased to work with APC to support the BCM 50 solution because of APC’s leadership in the power availability industry and their reputation for quality, innovation and support.”

more info: www.apcc.com  and www.nortel.com