BT partners with OnRelay for Enterprise FMC trials

BT Global Services has entered into a customer trial agreement with OnRelay. Under the agreement, BT Global will begin on-site trials of OnRelay's MBX software with "a number of UK-based and multinational customers" as a part of BT's unified communications offering.

This is a big deal for both BT and OnRelay. BT has been all over next-generation networking and FMC solutions, so embracing an all-cellular solution means it can offer large enterprise customers an IP-based FMC solution without desktop handsets or Wi-Fi LAN re-engineering or dual-mode phones. OnRelay has been preaching the virtues of dumping the desktop phone for years, and now it gets one of the world's largest global phone companies as a (public) supporter. As OnRelay said in its press release, "Upon completion of these trials, it is expected that the OnRelay solution will join the successful BT Corporate Fusion portfolio."

The OnRelay Mobile PBX (MBX) software uses patented technology to deliver a virtual PBX solution for mobile phones, regardless of the mobile network said phones are on. For multinational companies wanting to go all IP, MBX provides the option to do so directly to individual's mobile phones, avoiding the headache and capex of fixed-line IP telephony. Admittedly, it's not a solution for everyone (conference calls, videoconferencing, media phones), but it might be the one that fits 80 percent of the bill quite easily.

Marie Wold, President and CFO of OnRelay, said there were a "multitude of companies" working with OnRelay, including at least two Fortune 100 companies. One of the Fortune 100 companies is moving into a "huge" IP telephony project and intends to be "desk phone free" in Europe.

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