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Critical Links (News - Alert), a provider of unified voice, data and IT solutions for small and medium business (SMBs), has announced that it has achieved partner status in the Polycom (News - Alert) VoIP interoperability partner (VIP) program.

 

Through this partnership with Polycom, Critical Links and its channel partners can now offer customers edgeBOX bundled with preconfigured Polycom phones. Company officials said this enables plug-and-play provisioning and set-up.

 

In addition, it also enables a single point of contact for support of their voice over Internet protocol (VoIP)/IP-private branch exchange (PBX (News - Alert)) infrastructure. The edgeBOX offers a full-fledged IP telephony system, and is integrated with email, contact database, calendars, security, VPN, file sharing, and more.

 

edgeBOX is available on a range of scalable platforms for companies from 10 to 300 users, and  can be fully managed remotely via a browser. To achieve the partnership status, it was tested against a defined feature set with Polycom SoundPoint IP desktop and SoundStation IP conference phones and SIP software.

 

Officials said that the integration of Critical Links’ edgeBOX multi-service business gateway (MSBG) with Polycom IP phones and end points will “simplify” VoIP deployment.

 

Abdul Kasim (News - Alert), vice president of global marketing and business development at Critical Links, said that the VoIP is rapidly gaining traction among SMB customers, and through the certification with Polycom, Critical Links is able to provide this growing customer segment with a “best-of-breed” VoIP and IP-PBX solution.

 

He also said in a statement that the Polycom certification is further validation of edgeBOX as an industry-leading call control platform.

 

 “Through our VIP program, Polycom works to ensure that customers can easily integrate our phones with the VoIP equipment of their choice,” said Chalan Aras, vice president of marketing for voice communications solutions division at Polycom.

 

He also said that as multi-service business gateways gain momentum as VoIP/IP-PBX platforms in the SMB market, the edgeBOX and his company’s IP phones together enable a complete solution to serve the needs of SMB customers.

 

Last month, Critical Links announced the availability of new entry-level platforms and bundled configurations for its edgeBOX MSBG. The availability enables SMB customers to purchase the edgeBOX for as few as 10 users at a low entry cost.