Two years ago, Siemens Business Services, SAP ( News - Alert) and Intel Corporation teamed up to develop a joint RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) package for first-time users. Now, Siemens ( News - Alert) Communications and Intel ( News - Alert) are reuniting to form a brand-new technology relationship.
The two industry behemoths have agreed to work collaboratively to create open unified communications solutions based on VoIP. The partnership includes an agreement to jointly fund and cooperatively conduct research focused on secure wireless networks and real-time open unified communications in the short term as well as work together longer term to create comprehensive vertical industry collaboration solutions to drive business process optimization for key market segments such as telecommunications service providers, financial services and digital healthcare.
Additional components of the agreement call for the two companies to establish joint market development efforts focused on the enterprise and service provider sectors. The overall goal of the joint effort is to demonstrate real time communications solutions for business process optimization using Intel architecture such as Intel dual-core technology and carrier class Rack Mounted Servers (RMS) from Intel and the HiPath 8000 and OpenScape from Siemens. The first step is to demonstrate the OpenScape platform running applications such as Personal Portal, Unified Communications, Video and Voice Conferencing and Mobile Clients. Intel and Siemens expect to present findings and display the first wave of technology solutions developed at the Intel lab to selected customers by the fourth quarter of 2006.
According to Gordon Graylish, vice president of the sales and marketing group and general manager of Europe, Middle-East and Africa (EMEA), "As a result of this collaboration, enterprise customers will be able to avail themselves of unified communications based on the industry's highest performance and most cost effective architecture."
The partnership arrives on the heels of Intel’s announcement to restructure the company. As a result of the restructuring, the company expects to generate savings in costs and operating expenses of approximately $2 billion in 2007. In 2008, Intel expects savings from this restructuring to grow to approximately $3 billion annually.
The savings are a combination of non-workforce related steps and a significant reduction in Intel's workforce. The company's employee population will decline to approximately 95,000 by the end of this year, resulting from workforce reductions, attrition and previously announced actions. The workforce will decline to approximately 92,000 by the middle of 2007 – 10,500 fewer than the company's employee population at the end of the second quarter of 2006.
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Cindy Waxer is a Toronto-based freelance journalist specializing in business and technology. She has written for publications including TIME, Fortune Small Business, Business 2.0, Computerworld, Canadian Business, and Workforce Management. To see more of her articles, please visit Cindy Waxer’s columnist page. |
