“Today’s traders work within a multimedia communications hub where they are constantly receiving information in various forms including voice, news, market data and instant messages. As electronic forms of communication continue to proliferate, it will become critical to blend the communications silos together,” said Stephen Bruel, analyst, TowerGroup.
Mitel’s new addition to its productivity solution bonds its trader phones, including a lite Turret, with the PC to provide traders with seamless access to a full range of applications. Traders, who rely on the instant access provided through traditional turrets, can now expect the same rapid access for all of their communications needs through a new breed of trading solution. “Computer Telephony Integration solutions have been discussed for years, but Mitel’s newest suite of productivity applications are a better fit for the trading community because they provide real time presence information, while helping traders save time by providing instant one click access for any application,” said Sandy Janes, director of vertical marketing solutions, Mitel.
Access to voice mail or email is done at the touch of a button, while conference calls can be set up on-the-fly using drag-and-drop commands. “We have seen a lot of excitement over our ‘ad hoc’ conferencing capabilities which allow users to set up conference calls instantly from any location, at any time, without operator assistance. Users simply dial into a conference bridge to join or initiate a conference call. Some of our users now prefer to select their own conference ID for even faster access. Communications can be escalated from voice to a full video and or data collaboration with a single click at any point during the call,” said Janes.
Increasingly complex transactions will require new forms of collaboration. Video can help facilitate these transactions, as well as provide more personalized services to clients. “Video conferencing has great potential on the trading floor if a trader can initiate a video conference call as easily as a voice conference call,” according to Bruel.
Traders will also be provided with a full range of call handling options for incoming calls, displayed on a pop-up toolbar. The innovative telephony toolbar approach eliminates the need for a separate pop-up window, a common annoyance for users.
In a recently published report TD Newcrest technology analyst Chris Umiastowski indicated that Mitel has earned “top spot in our minds, for three main reasons.” The report goes on to highlight how Mitel’s equipment is “extremely well integrated with Microsoft technology, has a very strong feature set, has demonstrated all of the expected unified communications features including full mobility support and the most innovative hardware solutions that we’ve seen in the IP space, from any PBX vendor."
The solutions provide traders with presence availability information for corporate or personal contacts on the phone’s display. Users will be able to find contacts using the familiar keypad search that traders are accustomed to on their cell phones and handheld devices.
“Presence-enabled applications are the way of the future. People are increasingly relying on knowing the status of the people they want to reach. Mitel is proud to be among the first to offer a presence-everywhere environment that links availability to all of our solutions,” concluded Janes.