Siemens’ FastViewer Buy Extends OpenScape Portfolio

In a move designed to strengthen the ingrown multimedia capabilities of its OpenScape UC communications platform, Siemens Enterprise Communications is acquiring FastViewer GmbH & Co., which offers web-based conferencing and collaboration. The acquisition is important to note because of its impact on Siemens’ portfolio. Here’s some perspective:

FastViewer was formed in 2006 and gained a following for its software-based web conferencing, desktop sharing and e-collaboration technology. It’s well-regarded as an easy to use solution that can install on a Windows-based server in about an hour, and allows users to collaborate instantly through a simple mouse click.

Siemens’ OpenScape UC family is also well-regarded in the market as a solid – if not slightly underbaked – unified communications solution. The company has done a good job building individual components that fit together to create a more comprehensive offering – most notably its OpenScape UC Application, OpenScape Mobility and OpenScape Video applications – but until now relied on third-party applications to add a web-based collaboration component. The FastViewer buy changes that.

“We wanted to capture a more integrated solution and bring it to market ourselves to capitalize on a mainstream opportunity in web conferencing and mobility, and do something different than what’s out there today,” said Ross Sedgewick, senior director of marketing for Large Enterprise Solutions at Siemens Enterprise Communications. “Our motivation was to capture the characteristics of a consumer point solution with enterprise-grade security and bring to our clients.”

Siemens will be marketing the FastViewer technology under the name OpenScape Web Collaboration, which is part of a new bundled OpenScape offering. OpenScape UC Suite 2011 incorporates all of the OpenScape components – Platform, Video, Mobility, Web Collaboration and a new PhoneApps development application.

For solution providers in the UC space, OpenScape UC Suite 2011 presents perhaps the closest thing to an end-to-end unified communications offering available. At the very least, with the FastViewer technology added to its lineup, Siemens is inching ever closer in its quest to provide a truly unified solution.

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