Torbjörn Lundmark, director for Portfolio Management at Ericsson, says with EMS users no longer have to look up all of an individual's contact details and numbers to reach them. "All you need to do is search for the person you want to contact and then the system will find the best way to communicate with them - whether that is through voice, e-mail, SMS or instant message," Lundmark says. "So, for instance if I'm on my mobile, I might get an SMS message from my colleague's PC."

The server also provides least-cost routing solutions, which means EMS will choose the communication method that incurs the least cost when you are out traveling. "Many companies spend a lot of money equipping their employees with mobile phones and this is a way for them to keep costs down," Lundmark says.

The Enterprise Multimedia Server is setting new standards in terms of quick installation times and minimal manageability effort as a result of its auto-provisioning capabilities. This means companies do not need to have extensive knowledge of EMS to carry out the installation.

Stefan Vekeman, strategic product manager for EMS at Ericsson, says the process has been optimized, reducing set up time considerably. "The only thing a service engineer will have to do is type the IP address of our solution into his computer," Vekeman says. "From there, it'll be a matter of following the installation wizards."

Ericsson has also simplified the process of importing user-specific information. "For instance, we are offering various options to upload employee information into the system. This could either be done by inputting information from a simple Excel file or by getting information from a company's Active Directory or lightweight directory access protocol LDAP environment," Vekeman says.

EMS, which comes with a complete set of enterprise applications, can be scaled from 40 to 500 users, making it particularly suitable for small to medium-sized businesses.

"All you have to do is buy a software license for each new employee," Vekeman says, adding that this is much more flexible than traditional PBX solutions which require companies to invest in specific hardware to connect new user extensions. "This is a big advantage from a flexibility and price perspective."

As EMS is based on the open SIP (session initiation protocol) standard it can be easily integrated with third-party applications, third-party SIP gateways and SIP phones. "With EMS, we offer enterprises a complete multimedia server solution that can be integrated into operators' IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) infrastructure and future IMS-based services," Vekeman says.

The Enterprise Multimedia Server also offers multiple implementation scenarios. For instance, it supports a multi-tenant environment making it suitable for shared-office environments.