Press Releases

As part of an effort to update its legacy network equipment, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, N.Y. (Guardian), one of the largest mutual life insurance companies in the U.S., has deployed an open, unified communications solution from Siemens Enterprise Communications. The OpenScape Unified Communications Server and OpenScape Voice Application  is designed to enable Guardian to deliver advanced features, centralize and streamline their network and protect their existing technology investment.

With more than 5,000 employees and 3,000 financial representatives, as well as over 80 general agencies nationwide, Guardian and its subsidiaries protect individuals, small business owners and their employees with life, disability, health, long-term care and dental insurance products. A Siemens Enterprise Communications customer for nearly 20 years, Guardian also has an extensive network of telephony systems at its various sites. Guardian had been happy with their Siemens Enterprise Communications solutions previously, so looked to them again as they examined ways to update their network without having to rip and replace everything immediately.

“We had over 70 Siemens solutions in place, and we didn’t want the expense and challenge of having to replace our entire system at once,” said Bryan Agate, AVP, Corporate Network Services for Guardian. “The OpenScape Voice Application proved to be an ideal solution, since it allows us to move to IP gradually and at our own pace, while giving us the immediate benefits of greater centralization and advanced unified communications features.”

Another key benefit for Guardian is the openness of the OpenScape Voice Application. While other solutions they’d considered locked them into proprietary solutions, the OpenScape Voice Application leverages Siemens Enterprise Communications' OpenSOA architecture and is designed to integrate easily with solutions from any vendor. Plus, since it is a SIP-based solution, Guardian has the flexibility to incorporate other SIP-based tools and applications into their environment in the future, such as SIP integration into their Genesys Call Center system for potential “agent anywhere” applications.

As part of its initial deployment, Guardian has implemented a comprehensive abbreviated dialing plan and calling party display, as well as routing internal calls over the network. This has made it easier and more efficient for employees to collaborate with one another while helping to dramatically reduce long-distance telephony charges. Guardian also monitors network traffic in order to plan network maintenance, ensure network availability and minimize disruption to employees. Guardian has seen traffic increase to over 70,000 network calls per week, which previously would have been routed as costly long distance carrier toll calls.

“Users have really embraced the ease of using the network dialing plan, which has enabled us to dramatically reduce our telephony costs,” added Bryan Agate. “The OpenScape Voice Application has fit easily into our network environment, providing immediate productivity and cost benefits, plus the flexibility to continue to expand the system to new sites and provide new applications if we desire.”

With the success of this deployment, Guardian has the ability to proceed with the gradual upgrades to IP for additional sites. Guardian is also exploring how best to leverage the centralized, license-based approach of the OpenScape Voice Application to further centralize their telephony environment to simplify adding new applications and upgrades and lower ongoing telephony and service costs.

“Guardian is taking a wise approach to the migration to IP, leveraging their existing investments as much as possible and moving forward as it makes the most business sense for them,” said Rick Puskar, Vice President of Sales for Siemens Enterprise Communications. “With a 20-year history of working together, we are excited to join Guardian on this path and deliver to them the full benefits of unified communications.”


 

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 architectures to unify communications and business applications for a seamless collaboration experience. This award-winning "Open Communications" approach enables organizations to improve productivity and reduce costs through easy-to-deploy solutions that work within existing IT environments, delivering operational efficiencies. It is the foundation for the company's OpenPath® commitment that enables customers to mitigate risk and cost-effectively adopt unified communications. Jointly owned by The Gores Group and Siemens AG, Siemens Enterprise Communications companies include Siemens Enterprise Communications, Cycos, and Enterasys Networks.

For more information about Siemens Enterprise Communications or Enterasys please visit www.siemens-enterprise.com or www.enterasys.com.

Note: Siemens Enterprise Communications & Co K.G. is a trademark licensee of Siemens AG. HiPath, OpenOffice, OpenScape and OpenStage, are registered trademarks of Siemens Enterprise Communications & Co K.G. or its affiliates. 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.