Hilversum, The Netherlands, January 23, 2007 - The Danish University of Education, DPU Denmark, has commissioned NEC Philips Unified Solutions (NEC Philips) to provide them with a solution that integrates real-time communication and collaboration via Microsoft’s Office Communicator clients with calendar, Outlook and extensive PBX-integration.

The solution will provide rich presence information, secure IM and dialling from Microsoft Outlook contacts to all users across the organization through a single communicator client. On site training and support are also part of the project.

CIO of DPU, Per Lindblad Johansen commented: “We are impressed with NEC Philips’ clear commitment and expertise in deploying Unified Communications solutions, and are convinced they are one of the leaders in our market. We were seeking a supplier who could deploy a turnkey Unified Communications solution with extensive voice enhancements and associated services. This is what we found in NEC Philips.”

“We are extremely pleased with DPU’s clear recognition of our vision and dedication to this field and to the added value we bring. We specialise in Unified Communications and real-time collaboration with a strong Microsoft focus”, says Edwin Diender, responsible for the partnership with Microsoft at NEC Philips. “As Microsoft’s EMEA partner for deploying UC solutions, we rely on in-depth knowledge and the flexibility of Microsoft’s open architecture. We are able to provide remote call control as well as full SIP connectivity together with a range of added-value extensions to Microsoft Office Communicator (desktop) clients, such as contact center and operator functionality, message routing and mobility enhancements”, says Diender.

According to Dag Cummings, Business Development Manager for Microsoft’s Unified Communications Group EMEA, Enterprise-grade real-time communications and collaboration solutions are playing an increasingly important role in helping information workers to stay in touch with critical business contacts and make better decisions, faster. "Working with industry leaders like NEC Philips Unified Solutions will only extend and enhance this experience. It completes our vision on unified communications, which aims to unify communications across PCs, phones and mobile devices so people can communicate and collaborate more effectively and efficiently, anywhere, anytime”, says Cummings.

With approximately 200 researchers and a total of 400 permanent staff, the Danish University of Education is the largest university in Europe in its field. It is one of the biggest and most productive research environments in the fields of didactics and pedagogy and conducts almost half of all educational research in Denmark.

Approximately 4,000 students are enrolled in the university’s programmes. Most research and study activities are located at the campus in Emdrup in the northern part of the capital of Copenhagen. The campus covers 31.800 square meters. Other teaching activities take part in Denmark's second largest city Århus.