Alcatel has claimed unified communications will be the next big opportunity for the channel, as it unveiled its new conferencing and collaboration platform.

My Teamwork, launched at the firm's partner conference in Paris earlier this month, is a knowledge-sharing workgroup collaboration system. Alcatel claimed its user interface will encourage users to use the full range of voice, data and videoconferencing options.

My Teamwork is included in the OmniTouch unified comms suite, which is integrated into OmniPCX IP comms platforms.

The offering is based on the workgroup conferencing and collaboration technology Alcatel acquired when it bought French software company eDial last year.

Alcatel has said applications such as instant communications and multimedia collaboration are fully integrated with its switches, enabling enterprises to improve productivity by reducing the time wastage caused by email spam and telephone tag-inducing voice messaging systems.

"This is the next big advance in our software and applications strategy," said Jean-Christophe Giroux, president of Alcatel Enterprise. "These new offerings will help increase the speed and efficiency of doing business."

Bern Elliot, vice-president at analyst Gartner, said Alcatel's is one of a number of emerging systems that could improve individual and group productivity.

However, one Alcatel channel partner challenged the company to do more to create the right environment in the channel.

"Alcatel has had a good story on the applications side for a long time now," said Manoo Parmar, managing director of applications integrator ProtocallOne, which works alongside telephony dealers to make the applications work around the telephony hardware they install.

"It's nearly five years since [Alcatel] bought Genesys, but it hasn't got dealers to appreciate the value-add opportunities."

crn@vnu.co.uk