Vertical Improves Business Communications as Trends Change

By Ed Silverstein
TMCnet Contributor

Vertical Communications (News - Alert), for a decade, has helped businesses communicate more effectively. It now provides Unified Communications (UC), enterprise mobility and IP telephony software and solutions.

Earlier this year, Vertical Communications announced a merger with Fulton Communications, a national systems integrator of data, video and voice communications technology.

The new company provides businesses vendor-direct communications tech solutions. That includes cloud and premises-based enterprise telephony, UC and vertical-market voice applications. There are also direct sales, support and professional services.

Fulton will operate under its brand during a period of time, and Vertical will sell Fulton’s multiple-vendor product portfolio, according to a company statement released in June.

“We have always focused on retail – on the direct side,” Steven De Korne, vice president of marketing at Vertical, told TMC’s Erik Linask (News - Alert) during an interview at ITEXPO Las Vegas. He further explained that Vertical wanted to go into the direct world.

“It was a perfect fit for us,” De Korne added. “They were our number one reseller.”

When it comes to direct sales, the company has found it has been a “lot more successful” when it was doing it direct, De Korne said. An added plus was there was neither a lot of overlap nor a lot of channel conflicts as a result of the merger.

In another recent move, the company released the Vertical Summit solution, which provides full UC capability to the under-50 user market. It is well suited to businesses all the way down to five users. Vertical Summit provides small businesses affordable, mobile device integration and many features, as well as voice and bring your own device (BYOD).

“It’s a great price point,” De Korne added about the solution. “It brings mobility, particularly, into play, into that environment.”

Edited by Maurice Nagle