Unify

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Unify Software & Solutions GmbH & Co. KG

logo
legal form GmbH & Co. KG
founding October 1, 2008
( Berlin , Germany)
Seat Munich, Germany
management Jon Pritchard ( CEO )
Website www.unify.com/de/

Unify (full company name: Unify Software & Solutions GmbH & Co. KG ) is an Atos SE company . Unify is headquartered in Munich , Germany, and has offices in over 100 countries. The company sells software-based Unified Communications (UC) solutions for companies. These include voice communication, web collaboration, video conferencing, contact centers and much more, as well as network solutions and global services.

The joint venture (initially under the name Siemens Enterprise Communications ) between the US financial investor The Gores Group and the German industrial group Siemens AG was announced on July 19, 2008 and came into force on October 1, 2008. The Gores Group took over 51% of the company, Siemens AG 49%. Unify's CEO is Dean Douglas. Hamid Akhavan , the former CEO of Unify, is now on the company's board of directors. In October 2013 the company was then renamed Unify (completely: Unify GmbH & Co. KG).

In November 2015, Siemens and Gores announced that they were selling Unify to the French IT service provider Atos for 590 million euros . The sales agreements also include an obligation by Siemens to be an even larger IT customer of Atos and also to keep its 12 percent stake in Atos at least until 2020. The investment came about when Siemens sold its IT services division Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS) in exchange for the equity stake in 2011 . The takeover was completed at the end of January 2016.

history

Background: origin (1847-2006)

Unify has its roots in the Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske , which Werner von Siemens founded on October 12, 1847. Werner von Siemens' first invention was the pointer telegraph . In the second half of the 19th century, the company built long-distance telegraph lines in Germany and Russia as part of large projects, as well as the important Indo-European telegraph line that stretched 11,000 km from London to Calcutta . In 1897 Siemens & Halske was converted into a stock corporation.

In the first half of the 20th century, a series of mergers and spin-offs resulted in three separate companies. The original company Siemens & Halske then concentrated on communication technology. Siemens-Schuckertwerke GmbH, which was founded in 1903, focused on the area of ​​heavy current technology. And the Siemens-Reiniger-Werke , founded in 1932, finally specialized in medical technology. In 1966, after extensive restructuring, these three companies were combined in Siemens AG .

In the late 1970s, Siemens AG set itself the goal of becoming one of the most important players in the field of information and communication technology. "Siemens Communication Systems" was founded in 1978, which in 1985 was divided into two areas: "Siemens Communication Systems" for public network products and "Siemens Information Systems" for telephone systems and computer-aided products. In the course of globalization in the 1990s, these two divisions took over several large companies. In 1989, the telephone systems division began with the gradual takeover of ROLM from IBM and renamed it ROLM Systems. The purchase process was completed in 1992 and from that point on the company was called Siemens-ROLM Communications. In the same year the company took over 40% of the shares in GEC-Plessey Telecommunications (GPT). This is how the UK business of the current company emerged. In 1991 the Stromberg-Carlson operator network division was purchased from The Plessey Company plc. In 1996, the company also acquired the telephone systems division of Mercury Communications Ltd, a subsidiary of UK-based Cable & Wireless. At the end of 1998, Siemens AG underwent another extensive restructuring, from which four main divisions emerged: power generation, industry, rail systems and information and communication (ICN). Siemens Information and Communication Networks (SICN) - part of the ICN division and later commonly known as Siemens Communications (Siemens COM) - became the largest corporate unit of Siemens AG. Its strategic focus was on the consolidation and expansion of Internet-based network technologies, since it was already foreseeable that the volume of global data traffic would exceed that of voice telephony by the beginning of the 21st century. The US market also played a major role for Siemens COM, which at the time was dominated by Nortel Networks , Lucent Technologies, and the emerging Cisco Systems . For this reason, the company took over the two US companies Castle Networks Inc. and Argon Networks Inc. in 1999.

In March 2002, Siemens Communications was split into two large corporate units: One for public cellular networks and landlines, the other for corporate networks.

Siemens Enterprise Communications (2006-2013)

The company's logo at the time as Siemens Enterprise Communications

The history of today's company began in June 2006 when Siemens AG divided the Siemens COM division into two areas in order to enable a better strategic direction. On June 19, 2006, the operator network division merged with the Nokia Network Business Group to form a new joint venture -  Nokia Siemens Networks (now Nokia Solutions and Networks ). On October 1, 2006, Siemens Enterprise Communications was finally founded as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Siemens AG. Since that day, the company's focus has been on standardized communication solutions and corresponding services. At the end of July 2008, Siemens announced a joint venture with the US financial investor The Gores Group (headed by Alec Gores), which will integrate two business units of the Gores Group, Enterasys and SER Solutions, Inc. (Dulles, Virginia) should be. From then on, Enterasys operated as a subsidiary of Siemens Enterprise Communications. On September 12, 2013 Extreme Networks, Inc. announced that it had entered into a binding purchase agreement for the issued shares of Enterasys for a total price of approximately $ 180 million. The completion of this transaction was announced on November 1, 2013.

Unify (2013 to present)

In October 2013, Siemens Enterprise Communications changed its name to Unify. The new name should stand for the company's vision of harmonizing communication systems, company processes and people. Unify has around 5,600 employees with a turnover of 1.2 billion euros (as of 2015). In November 2015, the two individual shareholders Siemens and Gores announced the sale of the company to the French IT service provider Atos SE .

Products and Services

Unify is a global provider of integrated communication solutions that offers standardized communication solutions, network infrastructure and security solutions as well as comprehensive managed and professional services for large companies, but also for SMEs . The distribution takes place directly or through partner companies. Unify's main product brands are OpenScape (UC applications) and HiPath (converged solutions for corporate communications). The company launched the first version of OpenScape in 2003 with Microsoft . Unify is committed to using and supporting open interfaces and standards such as SIP and SOA, and OpenScape was the first UC solution specifically designed for these protocols. OpenScape Fusion plug-ins enable communication functions to be integrated into existing applications such as G Suite , Microsoft Outlook , SharePoint , Skype for Business , IBM Notes , etc. The company's global service portfolio includes managed services , professional services, and maintenance and support services from. OpenScape made the Leaders Quadrant for both Voice and UC in Gartner Inc.'s Magic Quadrant surveys . OpenScape UC received top ratings in the Enterprise Connect bidding competition in 2012 and 2013.

Products

  • Unified Communications

Cloud and location-based solutions for mobility, web collaboration, video, messaging and plug-in integrations Voice solutions Cloud- and location-based voice solutions and PBX networks from various providers

  • Contact center

Cloud and location-based solutions for large companies as well as small and medium-sized businesses, including outbound campaign management and workforce optimization

  • Small and medium-sized businesses

A comprehensive suite of UC, voice and contact center solutions for SMEs

  • End devices and clients

Services

  • Managed Services

Outtasking or full outsourcing

  • Professional Services

Design and integration services, consulting and business services

Market strategy

Unify sells its solutions through a combination of direct sales and partner companies. In 2008, the company began expanding its go-to-market strategy from being a pure direct sales model to a model that leverages both direct sales channels and partners. Today Unify has a partner channel with over 2,700 registered resellers covering all major markets. Many countries are served exclusively through partners, while in others a combination of direct sales and partners is used. Global Alliance partners such as BT , AT&T , IBM , Verizon , Telefónica and Deutsche Telekom serve various markets together with Unify and usually focus on large companies and selected global customers. Unify's global reseller partners, on the other hand, focus on SME customers. The company has a progressive advertising strategy with several successive campaigns.

  • Lifeworks (2001). The company's vision was to meet the fragmented communications landscape with a uniform, seamless user experience that was to take place through the integration of communications across different protocols, networks and devices, regardless of the location. Lifeworks received the 2001 Wall Street Journal Europe's European Innovation Award.
  • Open Communications (2006). With the tagline "Communications for the Open Minded", this strategy focused on the added value of an open and standards-based software approach as well as the integration into existing company applications.
  • amplifyTEAMS (2012). With the tagline “Intensify teamwork. Maximize performance. ”Unify presented the concept“ amplifyTEAMS ”. This should not primarily focus the industry on technology, but increasingly on the performance and productivity of teams.
  • Harmonize your Enterprise (2013). After changing its name to Unify, the company started the “Harmonize your Enterprise” initiative with the tagline “Centralizing and simplifying communications in a hyper-connected world”. (Centralization and simplification of communication in our highly networked world). This was developed in response to the change in traditional ways of working. The "Harmonize your Enterprise" initiative aims to counter this change with a simplified and centralized communication system that supports social media and enables more flexibility.

Circuit (formerly Project Ansible)

A secure communication platform that brings together and manages the daily flow of communication, regardless of end device, channel and location. This platform, which brings together language, video, social communications, search functions, corporate applications and other channels, was developed in collaboration with Frog Design Inc. under the name Project Ansible and was officially presented on July 16, 2013. The product has been called Circuit since its market launch and represents a core component of Unify's solution portfolio. The cooperation with RingCentral has replaced Circuit with the RingCentral desktop app.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Atos completes the acquisition of Unify from Gores Group and Siemens. In: atos.net. Retrieved April 23, 2016 .
  2. ↑ unify.com
  3. ↑ Siemens Enterprise Communications goes into joint venture. In: CRN.de. Weka Fachmedien GmbH, July 29, 2008, accessed on January 13, 2017 .
  4. ↑ unify.com executive management team
  5. ^ A b Stefan Riedl: Background: Siemens Enterprise Communications becomes Unify. In: it-business.de. IT-Business, October 16, 2013, accessed January 13, 2017 .
  6. ↑ http://www.computerwoche.de/a/atos-kauf-unify-zweckehe-oder-liebesheirat,3218637
  7. ↑ Atos wants to take over Unify from Gores and Siemens (press release of November 3, 2015)
  8. ^ Beginnings and initial expansion (1847–1865) . Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  9. ^ Siemens history . Retrieved June 29, 2012.
  10. ^ Company History - Siemens Ltd. . Retrieved July 10, 2012.
  11. ↑ Funding universe - Siemens AG History . Retrieved July 10, 2012.
  12. ^ A b Siemens Stromberg-Carlson Changes Name to Siemens Telecom Networks . Retrieved July 10, 2012.
  13. ^ Siemens history . Retrieved July 10, 2012.
  14. ^ Siemens AG: From Small Workshop To Global Company . Retrieved July 10, 2012.
  15. ^ Siemens AG - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on Siemens . Retrieved July 10, 2012.
  16. ↑ ebiber.net - Siemens Information and Communication Networks History . Archived from the original on September 6, 2013. Retrieved July 10, 2012.
  17. ↑ Jim Duffy: Siemens Enterasys . In: Network World , July 29, 2008. Archived from the original on June 14, 2011. Retrieved July 5, 2011. 
  18. ^ Extreme Networks Completes Acquisition of Enterasys Networks . Retrieved November 1, 2013.
  19. ^ Russell Bennett: Solution Review: Siemens Enterprise Communications OpenScape Session Border Controller Archived from the original on March 28, 2013. In: Unified Communications Strategies . 13. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  20. ↑ Enterprise Connect UC RFP . Siemens Enterprise Communications. October 2013. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  21. ↑ Circuit . Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  22. ^ Project Ansible . Retrieved October 15, 2013.