Peoples Natural Gas (PNG) has selected Siemens Enterprise (News - Alert) Communications for communications infrastructure overhaul.

PNG, which currently provides energy to more than 359,000 homes in Western Pennsylvania,  plans to upgrade to a robust communications, contact center, and unified communications (UC) environment.  

"We decided to partner with Siemens Enterprise Communications (News - Alert) for our communications platform based on three key reasons," said Nagy Nagiub, manager, voice and data networks at PNG, in a statement.

"First, we had personal experience in working with them in the past and knew their technology was proven. The second reason was the robustness of their offering, which included voice, UC, IVR, contact center, disaster recovery, UM and the experience and ability to integrate with SAP (News - Alert),” said Nagiub.

He said that PNG knew they could install, integrate and provide training for the entire system. The other vendors could not meet all of PNG's requirements. And lastly, the price was very competitive, he added.  

"PNG needed a complete communications solution that would help the company serve its customers better today, as well as allow for easy scalability as the company grows," said Chris Hummel, CMO and president, North America for Siemens Enterprise Communications.

Hummel said that the OpenScape Contact Center solution provides immediate impact with its array of capabilities.  

“As, it is built on the OpenScape UC Server, an open, standards-based solution, it offers the flexibility and scalability the company needs to be poised for growth in the coming years”, said Hummel.

Siemens Enterprise Communications is a premier provider of end-to-end enterprise communications, including voice, network infrastructure and security solutions that use open, standards-based unified communications and business applications for a seamless collaboration experience.

Earlier in July, Siemens Enterprise Communications had introduced the OpenStage 5 SIP phone, a cost-effective entry level phone that provides key business features, enterprise security and AudioPresence(TM) HD, for superior high definition voice quality. The OpenStage 5 is an ideal solution for organizations needing a simple yet high quality phone.

The OpenStage 5 provides superior voice quality at an affordable price and supports advanced OpenScape Voice features, including group features such as call pick-up groups and hunt groups. Plus, it can be used as a unified communications audio front-end in combination with third party CTI (News - Alert) applications, making it an excellent choice for customers looking for an affordable basic phone that can still deliver advanced functionality.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.