NEW ORLEANS, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Teo (http://www.teotech.com), an innovative telecommunications company formerly known as Tone Commander, today announced that it is developing a made-in-the-USA, Microsoft-based Unified Communications (UC) platform. Through a partnership with AltiGen Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATGN) (http://www.altigen.com), which will provide the solution's software, Teo will fully integrate its line of telecommunications products with Microsoft Exchange, providing organizations with government-grade unified communications capabilities and 50 percent more features at a 30 percent cost savings over other solutions currently on the market. The platform is currently in beta testing and will be widely available in late 2009.

"With this solution, we've leveraged several decades of experience providing secure communications solutions for government agencies to design a solution that will help our customers, both in the public and private sectors, significantly increase functionality and ease of use all while reducing cost," said Steve Hill, president of Teo. "And unlike other platforms on the market today that are complex, fragmented and expensive to manage, ours is a truly unified solution, both from users' perspectives and in terms of integration and implementation."

The solution's intuitive interface allows administrators to centralize controls to a single screen and eliminates the need for additional IT specialists and technicians. From an end-user perspective, the entire solution is accessible and customizable from Microsoft Outlook, and enhanced mobility functionality enables workers to achieve complete on-premise communications capabilities while working remotely. In addition, the solution includes a software development kit (SDK) that allows developers to reduce the cost of ownership and build custom applications on top of the platform that enhance functionality without adding additional external hardware.

Teo will provide the phones, servers, gateways and system integration, as well as marketing and sales support for the new solution. The integrated communications platform--which consolidates voice, voicemail, email, messaging, audio conferencing, fax, speech recognition and mobile integration into a single integrated system--will be compatible with all Teo IP phones.

"Unified Communications is becoming more important to organizations today as they realize that it's exponentially more cost effective to manage a unified solution than it is to manage several different silos," said Michael Osterman, president and founder of Osterman Research. "By leveraging Microsoft and AltiGen systems, Teo is providing a truly simple user experience as well as streamlined administration features - both of which will be extremely valuable to users."

The open-architected solution, which can be added to an organization's existing data network, is feature rich, easy to install and significantly less disruptive than other Unified Communications platforms. In addition, Teo's integrated solution greatly improves productivity, allowing employees to manage and consolidate all communications through one channel and to stay connected from anywhere. The platform also provides significant cost savings through built-in features such as audio conferencing.

"Teo's breadth and depth of experience creating telecommunications solutions for government agencies and enterprises made them an ideal partner for us," said Jeremiah Fleming, AltiGen's president and chief operating officer. "By combining Teo's capabilities with AltiGen's experience providing Microsoft-based VoIP solutions for businesses, we're able to provide a best-of-breed communications solution that will enable users to become faster and more nimble and productive than ever before."

With the new release, Teo has reaffirmed its 35-year commitment to supporting the national economy by creating its solutions within the United States. As a U.S.-manufactured solution, Teo's UC platform meets guidelines outlined in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) stating that federal funds received must be spent on materials manufactured within the United States.

The new VoIP system adds to Teo's strong heritage of providing cutting-edge communications tools to some of the nation's top organizations and government agencies, including the Pentagon, Harvard University and the Department of Defense. In addition to the new Unified Communications platform, the company's product suite includes a series of ISDN and VoIP telephones, NT1 ISDN Network Terminations, ISDN Centrex Attendant Consoles and Enhanced 9-1-1 (E911) Emergency Awareness Solutions.

Pricing and availability

Teo's integrated software-based Unified Communications solution will be available in late 2009. For more information, please call 800.524.0024.

About Teo

Teo is an innovative telecommunications company specializing in telephone and network solutions for Fortune 1,000 companies, government agencies, educational institutions and small and large businesses around the world. The company, located in Mukilteo, Wash., offers several made-in-the-USA products including, most recently, a Microsoft-based unified communications platform. Teo's product suite also includes U.S.-manufactured ISDN and VoIP telephones, NT1 ISDN Network Terminations, ISDN Centrex Attendant Consoles and Enhanced 9-1-1 (E911) Emergency Awareness Solutions. For more information about Teo, please visitwww.teotech.com.

About AltiGen Communications

AltiGen Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATGN) is a leading provider of 100 percent Microsoft-based VoIP business phone systems and Unified Communications solutions. Having more than 10,000 customers around the world, AltiGen solutions are designed for high reliability, ease of use, seamless integration to Microsoft infrastructure technologies, and are built on a scalable, open standards platform. AltiGen's worldwide headquarters is in Silicon Valley, California, with international operations based in Shanghai, China. Local sales, service and support are provided by AltiGen's worldwide network of over 300 certified partners. For more information, call 1-888-ALTIGEN or visit www.altigen.com.

SOURCE Teo

Website: http://www.teotech.com
Website: http://www.altigen.com