Alcatel-Lucent introduced its new smart desk phone, 'OmniTouch 8082 My IC Phone,' to its partners in the Middle East region during a major channel event in Fujairah.

The OmniTouch 8082 combines the experience of a smart phone with the reliability of a desk phone while leveraging the power of an open applications platform, said a top official.

'The new phone brings together multimedia communications capabilities and web applications to create personalized mashups or industry-tailored applications, remarked David Buckley, VP Integrated Communications Systems for Alcatel-Lucent, after unveiling the new phone before the partners at The Alcatel-Lucent Partner Rendezvous being held at the Fujairah Rotana Resort & Spa.

'It has a large touch screen which leverages new and existing applications and capabilities, such as instant messaging, presence, contextual applications, integrated e-mail, and MP3 music which can be brought together on the desktop,' Buckley explained.

'It will serve as an application pod featuring an open API developer platform similar to the approach taken in the applications explosion in the mobile space, and will be integrated with the next generation Unified Communication services from Alcatel-Lucent,' he added.

Buckley, a special guest at the event, will also deliver a speech on the 'Future of Large Enterprise Communication solutions and the New Communication Paradigm.'

The Alcatel-Lucent Partner Rendezvous, which concludes on Wednesday, will see over 150 sales and presales professionals from Alcatel-Lucent’s channel partner community in the Middle East take part.

Alcatel-Lucent said it has invited its channels community from the entire region to join the three-day training event that will be built around Voice and Data training for both sales and presales teams.

The objective is to provide Alcatel-Lucent business partners with the latest updates on Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise solutions and services. The event also offers the opportunity to the vendor’s channel community to network and exchange throughout the different trainings and workshops and gala dinners, it added.

The event will be centered on the theme of 'dynamic customer engagement,' that leverages the entire enterprise, optimizes customer service processes, and provides visibility into business performance.

The key is to implement communications solutions that connect the available knowledge in the organization.

The event began with a plenary session addressing strategy and directions of Alcatel-Lucent’s Enterprise business in the Middle East. The keynote speeches will be given by Philippe Cros, head of Channel Sales for Alcatel-Lucent in the Middle East.

This is the second event for the Alcatel-Lucent business partner community this year in the Middle East. It was preceded by the Alcatel-Lucent Leadership Club which took place on March 22 to 24 and was tailored to the CEOs of the vendor’s channel community.-TradeArabia News Service