OTTAWA, May 16, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mitel (Nasdaq:MITL), a leading provider of unified communications and collaboration (UCC) software solutions, today announced that Canadian Blood Services has selected a Mitel solution based on the Mitel Freedom architecture to connect mobile employees and help manage organizational growth and efficiencies. The first phase of the deployment will include Virtual Mitel Communications Director (Virtual MCD), Mitel Unified Communicator® Advanced (UC Advanced), and Mitel Applications Suite (MAS). For more details on the Canadian Blood Services deployment view the video at: http://www.mitel.tv/videos/Canadian_Blood_Services_NA.
Canadian Blood Services is a not-for-profit, charitable organization that supplies about a million units of blood to over 700 hospitals throughout Canada. They have 4,700 employees and about 17,000 volunteers that work daily to supply blood and blood products to Canadians.
The ability to virtualize voice was a driving reason why Canadian Blood Services selected a Mitel solution. Virtual MCD leverages VMware vSphere 4 to allow Canadian Blood Services to consolidate Mitel's voice applications alongside non-voice business applications in their datacenter.
"Canadian Blood Services has two strategic directions. One is managing growth and the other one is managing efficiencies. And as a result, virtualization becomes extremely important to help us enable both of those," said Terry Cairns, chief information officer for Canadian Blood Services. "Through the Mitel Freedom architecture Mitel allows us to bring voice into our virtualized environment. The Mitel Freedom architecture also gives us the opportunity to use some of our existing technology and makes it easier for us to manage within our infrastructure."
With a workforce that travels each day, the ability to stay connected with staff in the office and at other locations plays a key role in staying efficient. This is accomplished with Mitel UC Advanced which provides desktop and mobile users a single interface to access all of their Mitel communications capabilities, including voice, video, presence, instant messaging, and conferencing, – extending their in office experience anywhere.
"Our company philosophy is to give our employees the tools to connect anytime, anywhere. We believe that Mitel UC Advanced will completely transform the way our employees communicate with each other," said Ivo Mokros, director infrastructure management and architecture for Canadian Blood Services. "For instance, an employee could start a chat with a colleague, escalate that to a voice call, and then to a video call and at the same time they are able to bring in other employees to collaborate on the project. This helps increase productivity and encourages collaboration."
Maplesoft Group, a national systems integrator headquartered in Ottawa Ontario, designed and implemented the solution at Canadian Blood Services.
"We believe Mitel, as a UCC provider, is leading the market with the Mitel Freedom architecture. This allows us to work with the customer to design an architectural solution that fits their environment," said Jack Gulas, chief technology officer for Maplesoft Group. "With this particular project, we were able to work with Canadian Blood Services to seamlessly address the communications needs of its mobile employees and fit into the organizations virtualization strategy. We are very excited to continue working with Canadian Blood Services to further enhance and build their UCC strategy."
About Canadian Blood Services
Canadian Blood Services is a national, not-for-profit charitable organization that manages the supply of blood and blood products in all provinces and territories outside of Quebec. Canadian Blood Services also oversees the OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network, and provides national leadership for organ and tissue donation and transplantation. Canadian Blood Services operates 43 permanent collection sites, serves over 700 hospitals and runs more than 20,000 donor clinics annually. The provincial and territorial Ministries of Health provide operational funding to Canadian Blood Services. The federal government, through Health Canada, is responsible for regulating the blood system. For more information, please visit our website, www.blood.ca.
About Maplesoft Group:
Maplesoft Group™ is a global systems integrator specializing in technology enabled solutions and services for today's business World. Celebrating 15 year in business, Maplesoft Group has grown as a trusted advisor to our customers, successfully addressing some of their most complex business challenges. Through the strategic planning, development, implementation and integration of highly innovative, flexible and customizable solutions and services that integrate business processes and IT, they combine consulting services with vertical technology partnerships to produce complete integrated systems. For more information, visit www.maplesoftgroup.com">www.maplesoftgroup.com
About Mitel
Mitel (Nasdaq:MITL) is a global provider of business communications and collaboration software and services. Mitel's Freedom architecture provides the flexibility and simplicity organizations need to support today's dynamic work environment. Through a single cloud-ready software stream, Mitel delivers a powerful suite of advanced communications and collaboration capabilities that provides freedom from walled garden architectures and enables organizations to implement best-of-breed solutions on any network; extends the "in-office" experience anywhere, on any device; and offers choice of commercial options to fit business needs. For more information visit: http://www.mitel.com
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