OnRelay, the UK-based fixed mobile convergence pioneer, and Nokia, the global world-leader in mobile technologies, join forces to bring to market MBX, the first generic solution that fully integrates a corporate voice system (PBX) and all its surrounding business support systems with employees' 3G / GSM smartphones.

"OnRelay's MBX is a pioneering solution for the enterprise voice market," commented Jaakko Olkkonen, Nokia's general manager for Enterprise Voice Solutions. "It demonstrates how companies from diverse industries and PBX installations can combine the benefits of mobility and deskphone functionalities. We are excited that together with OnRelay we can offer our customers the pleasure of a mobile telephony experience, combined with enterprise productivity benefits and improved cost control."

"Nokia is an ideal ally for OnRelay, being the clear leader in the escalating market for smart mobile devices and operating systems," says OnRelay CEO, Ivar Plahte. "In addition to an impressive range of new exciting devices, Nokia brings to our customers significant strategic value in providing a range of complementary enterprise solutions that fully enable our customers to scale OnRelay's MBX product alongside large and managed smartphone deployments."

OnRelay's MBX is a pure software solution that fully integrates a 3G / GSM smartphone with an existing corporate PBX. MBX integrates with mobile devices based on open systems such as Nokia Series 60. It works over virtually any mobile network in any country, is fully functional when roaming, and integrates into both IP and TDM PBXs from leading vendors such as Nortel, Cisco, Avaya and Siemens.

MBX adds a second phone, the office phone, to the mobile phone, allowing corporate users to place and receive calls from both their personal mobile number and their corporate office number using a single integrated mobile device. Business users can at any time choose to place a call either via their personal mobile phone or their office phone. With MBX, both outgoing and incoming business calls look to customers - and to internal IT systems - as having been placed / received on the actual desk phone. MBX also enables separate management and billing of personal and business calls, whereby for instance flexible workers can turn 'off' their office phone, while leaving the personal mobile phone turned on. Importantly for the end-user, all of this is easily managed on the mobile phone user interface itself and there is no need to configure the service from a PC. Because MBX can extend all PBX functionality to a mobile phone, MBX can also function as a complete deskphone replacement, such that the mobile phone becomes the employee's only PBX extension, without loss of function or bypass of any corporate call management capabilities.

"Enterprises are spending up to half their telecom budgets on mobility, and while telecom managers believe that fixed telecoms are under control, good value for money, and increasingly well integrated into an overall IT strategy, they don't feel the same way about mobile," comments Dr Jeremy Green, principal analyst of the Enterprise Mobility Group at Ovum. "But, they are desperate for 'rules and tools' that will help them bring together the increased availability of mobility and the discipline of their enterprise network."

Further unique features of MBX include: voice recording system integration for recording both mobile outgoing and incoming calls, true caller ID and caller name for incoming calls routed via the PBX, simple to use ad-hoc PBX conferencing and no reduction of functionality when roaming. MBX also integrates with the corporate directory (LDAP) and allows click-to-dial directory lookup on the mobile. MBX further adds presence information so you can see the status and location of your colleagues.

"The core of OnRelay's patented Telephony Internetworking Protocol (TINP) technology is to bridge full enterprise voice functionality and back-office integration to the public mobile network space, uniquely offering a complete enterprise voice solution that works anywhere in the world where you have a standard 3G, GSM or CDMA connection," comments OnRelay co-founder Marie Wold. "Also, because of its flexible telephony internetworking architecture, MBX will seamlessly integrate to dual mode phones and various WLAN solutions provided by PBX vendors and leading wireless network suppliers."