OneBox gets re-opened
Ericsson relaunches unified messaging product
Ericsson has relaunched its unified messaging product, OneBox. The OEM offering, supplied by Captaris, works with the Business Phone SME phone system and the enterprise-class MD110.
"We're one of the largest suppliers of OneBox in the UK," said Maurice Lee, managing director of Ericsson VAR Premises Networks. "This is likely to be a new software release, although it's already a stable product."
Ericsson has a small proportion of new sales telephony market, but it has a large installed base of MD110 systems.
Matthew Ball, an analyst at Canalys, said: "Ericsson has had plenty of success with the Sony/Ericsson mobile partnership. Perhaps it is trying to develop synergies between that and its enterprise business. It has done well with modules and add-ons for its PBXs, and it makes sense to build on its mobile history."
But Ericsson has not enjoyed success in selling new lines. It did not reach the top 10 UK telephony vendors by lines shipped in its first quarter 2004. Firms with systems of a similar age, such as Nortel, Avaya and Siemens, were in the top five.