Earlier today I posted about IBM's purchase of WebDialogs, Now I've got news abuot how they're licensing OpenScape technology from Siemens on an OEM basis. Great news for Siemens, one of my favorite companies to watch. Smart choice and direction setting news for IBM.

It's apparent that IBM has a strategy to move in the unified communications space. Reinforced by these two announcements today. When's the last time we heard news like this from a company like IBM timed in conjunction with an event like VoiceCon? Even their press release speaks directly to "Unified Telephony."

Siemens Strikes OEM Agreement to License OpenScape Technology to IBM
Deal Delivers Open Unified Communications and Collaboration to Millions of Users in Mixed PBX/VoIP Telephony Environments

BOCA RATON, Fla. — August 22, 2007 — Siemens today announced an OEM agreement that will allow IBM to license elements of Siemens’ OpenScape open unified communications capabilities to enhance the IBM Lotus “Unified Telephony” offering currently planned by IBM as part of the expanded Lotus Sametime product family. The deal combines the two companies’ strengths in providing converged voice, data and video communications as well as collaboration solutions for enterprises of all sizes around the world.

“IBM chose Siemens OpenScape technology because of its interoperability with multiple PBX systems and track record of innovation and vision in this field,” said Bruce Morse, vice president, unified communication and collaboration, IBM. “Our companies share the goal of developing extensible unified communications solutions that are based on open standards and integrate seamlessly into business processes.”

Under the agreement, IBM will license elements of OpenScape software and integrate them within IBM Lotus Sametime ”Unified Telephony” software, the recently announced addition to IBM’s industry leading unified communications and collaboration strategy. By incorporating OpenScape technology, Lotus software users will benefit from easy to use communications tools within the applications they already use regardless of their back-end telephony systems.

Another important enterprise IT benefit is that incorporating OpenScape technology into the Lotus Sametime “Unified Telephony” offering will enable Lotus customers to decouple their unified communications investments from their PBX infrastructure. This makes a single, consistent communications image across a heterogeneous telephony environment possible. As a result, IT departments will no longer need to manage a range of varied, vendor-dependent approaches to unified communications. Furthermore, they can make application integration decisions based on business needs, not PBX capabilities.

“In today’s global and fast-paced economy, companies need more responsive and smarter ways of communicating, making decisions, and eliminating delays,” said Jonathan B. Spira, CEO and chief analyst at Basex, one of the leading knowledge economy research firms. “Integrating the Siemens OpenScape technology into the Lotus Sametime Unified Telephony product will simplify the ability to build true Collaborative Business Environments and communicate in real-time across mixed PBX systems, helping increase knowledge worker productivity.”

Siemens’ OpenScape Unified Communications suite is built on Siemens OpenSOA architecture, and based on Siemens’ hallmark open communications model. This is an IT-based communications paradigm characterized by unified communications, fixed-mobile convenience, business process integration, business continuity and integrity, OpenSOA service delivery and a rich user experience. As the world’s largest provider of middleware software and IT services, IBM's decision to license elements of OpenScape and incorporate them within the Lotus Sametime ”Unified Telephony” product supports Siemens' Open Communications model and showcases how SOA-based solutions work well together.

“IBM’s decision to incorporate elements of OpenScape into the Lotus Sametime ‘Unified Telephony’ product will open a whole new realm of possibilities for enterprises to incorporate real-time communications into a much wider range of business processes and to gain greater responsiveness and a sharper competitive edge,” said Thomas Zimmermann, Chief Operating Officer, Siemens Enterprise Communications. “Given the size of its Lotus software user base worldwide, this could foster a drive across multiple industries to streamline communications, lower costs, and increase profitability.”

About Siemens
Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) is one of the largest global electronics and engineering companies with reported worldwide sales of $96 billion in fiscal 2005. Founded nearly 160 years ago, the company is a leader in the areas Medical, Power, Automation and Control, Transportation, Information and Communications, Lighting, Building Technologies, Water Technologies and Services and Home Appliances. With its U.S. corporate headquarters in New York City, Siemens in the USA has sales of $18.8 billion and employs approximately 70,000 people throughout all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Eleven of Siemens' worldwide businesses are based in the United States. With its global headquarters in Munich, Siemens AG and its subsidiaries employ 460,000 people in 190 countries. For more information on Siemens in the United States: www.usa.siemens.com

About Siemens Communications, Inc.
Siemens Communications, Inc. is an affiliate of Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG, one of the world’s leading vendors of Open Communications solutions for enterprises of all sizes, enabling business processes to be more productive, faster and more secure – with any device, network or information technology infrastructure. Siemens Communications Inc., and Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG are wholly owned subsidiaries of Siemens AG with about 15,000 employees globally and headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla. For more info, visit www.usa.siemens.com/communications

Note: Siemens, HiPath and OpenScape are registered trademarks of Siemens AG or its subsidiaries and affiliates. IBM, Lotus, and Sametime are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. All other company, brand, product and service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

This release contains forward-looking statements based on beliefs of Siemens management. The words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "forecast," "expect," "intend," "plan," "should," and "project" are used to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results to be materially different, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions, changes in currency exchange rates and interest rates, introduction of competing products, lack of acceptance of new products or services and changes in business strategy. Actual results may vary materially from those projected here. Siemens does not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
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