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, news, filings) 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.”
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements may be identified by their use of terms and phrases such as “believe,” “will” and other similar terms and phrases and include, among others, statements regarding the benefits to service providers’ enterprise customers of hosted mobile communications. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated by these forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to the financial and other benefits to BroadSoft of adoption of hosted mobile communications, as well as those factors contained in the “Risk Factors” section of BroadSoft’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2011 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, on February 29, 2012, and in BroadSoft’s other filings with the SEC. All information in this press release is as of March 13, 2012. Except as required by law, Gen-i and BroadSoft undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement made herein for any reason to conform the statement to actual results or changes in its expectations.
About BroadSoft
BroadSoft provides software that enables mobile, fixed-line and cable service providers to deliver voice and multimedia services over their IP-based networks. The Company’s software, 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.
About Gen-i
Gen-i is at the forefront of helping customers take advantage of the convergence of technology and telecommunications, and the new opportunities this makes possible. Gen-i works alongside its 3,300 corporate, government and business customers to deliver seamless hosted and integrated ICT solutions. A member of the Telecom New Zealand Group, Gen-i achieves this with the support of 3,000 highly skilled people in 19 locations across New Zealand and Australia. For more information on Gen-i, visit www.gen-i.co.nz.
BroadSoft and BroadWorks are registered trademarks of BroadSoft, Inc. All other names are trademarks of their respective owners.
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