The rise of session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking for businesses—and even sometimes for individuals—out there is changing a lot of the communications market as we know it today. There are even plenty of changes within the SIP trunking market itself, and one of those was recently announced as Panasonic (News - Alert) let it be known that Broadsmart was its newest partner in the SIP Preferred plan.

Broadsmart is already well-known in the field for not only its business-class SIP/IP trunking systems, but also for its data solutions and its cloud-based unified communications (UC) options. But by joining up with Panasonic, that's going to open up a whole new slate of options. Reports suggest that the duo will be working together on a complete hosted private branch exchange (PBX (News - Alert)) system geared toward enterprise-level users. Broadsmart will be bringing in its communications services and support options, while Panasonic is set to provide SIP phone hardware for the product.

There's not a lot of advance word in terms of what will be provided in this new offering, but reports note that Broadsmart (News - Alert)'s focus is on providing not only UC, but also collaboration tools with an approach described as “always-on and always-available.” Using Panasonic as the hardware base should also offer some clues into future development.

Both sides of the equation offered up some comment around the new release, as Panasonic System Communications Company senior product manager for unified communications Kim Murtagh noted “Hosted SIP phone systems are continuing to gain traction as businesses of all sizes recognize the cost and productivity benefits they offer. With a partner such as Broadsmart, and our extensive reseller network, we’re able to offer a package of premier customer service and award-winning hardware for any hosted-SIP solution.”  Meanwhile, Broadsmart's president Tom Tharrington noted that the new connection to Panasonic would provide a kind of “one-stop-shop” option for users, while at the same time maintaining the kind of quality that users expect.

The combination of these two firms does suggest some great possibilities afoot for any firm looking to bring in SIP trunking options. Panasonic's SIP hardware options are fairly extensive and should provide plenty of options for firms looking to move in this direction, but hardware is only so valuable without software to run therein. That's why Panasonic's move to bring in Broadsmart is, indeed, a smart idea; Broadsmart has plenty of options in the UC space, as well as in collaboration, so there will be plenty of tools to use in conjunction with Panasonic's hardware line. Broadsmart has been seen working with companies like Cisco (News - Alert), Polycom and Yealink, so its own history in the market serves as an endorsement of Broadsmart's skill.

Seeing just what comes out of the partnership between Broadsmart and Panasonic should be noteworthy for several reasons, and should give businesses everywhere a new source to consider when it comes to the SIP trunking market.