Cloud-based delivery of communication services improves efficiency and reduces capital expenses for small and medium-sized businesses

DES MOINES, IA, December 14, 2009 – LightEdge Solutions, a leading provider of communications, networking and IT services for small and medium-sized businesses today announced that it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the “Visionaries” quadrant of the first Unified Communication as a Service North American report.  This report analyzes Hosted Unified Communications providers based on many levels of competency and execution including: maturity of service, company viability, sales/marketing distribution, market understanding, go-to-market strategy and innovation.

“It is gratifying to see that the industry experts understand and appreciate the attention to detail that we have built into our suite of hosted communication products,” remarked Jeff Springborn, COO and president of LightEdge.  “Our goal has been, and continues to be, the creation and refinement of a communication system that enhances business efficiency, is easy to use, blends into the existing business processes and is affordable for our small and medium-sized business target market.”

In traditional business communication models, all communication hardware and software is owned and maintained by the end-user with any “unification” coming though custom development.  With Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), all communications are delivered through unified enterprise-grade platforms within a service provider’s network cloud.  Because UCaaS is utilized through a subscription model, businesses are able to reap the benefits of a truly unified communications package and save money by paying only for what they use rather than paying substantial capital expenses for hardware and software that must periodically be maintained and upgraded.

Gartner applies the same six broad communications areas for Unified Communications as a Service as it does for its annual Unified Communications report:

• Voice and telephony – fixed, mobile and soft telephony (a phone as an application on a PC)
• Conferencing – voice, video and web conferencing
• Messaging – e-mail and voice mail
• Presence and Instant Messaging (IM) – presence/status awareness and Instant Messaging
• Clients – applications with access to communication functions from a consistent interface
• Communication Applications/Communication-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) – consolidated administration tools, contact center applications and notification applications

LightEdge’s unified communication suite, known as LightEdge Connected Office, is a completely hosted solution based on industry leading systems: BroadSoft’s Voice-over-IP softswitch and Microsoft’s Hosting Message and Collaboration (HMC) framework.  The suite includes: Hosted Voice-over-IP Telephony, Hosted Microsoft Exchange, Hosted Microsoft OCS (presence and IM) and Voice/Web Conferencing.

“The compelling thing for a small to medium-sized business is that services can be added one at a time as they are needed.” said Jim Masterson, CEO of LightEdge. “This gives incredible flexibility knowing that as other communication services are added, they will combine with a company’s existing services to create a unified communications suite.”

For details on LightEdge’s Hosted Unified Communications services, please contact Michael Branton at 515-471-1270 or visit www.lightedge.com.

About LightEdge Solutions
LightEdge Solutions is the only hosted services partner fully dedicated to providing the breadth of communications and IT services to small and medium-sized businesses looking for a better way to focus on their core business, not the technology that supports it.  For more information, visit www.lightedge.com.

LightEdge Solutions®, the LightEdge Solutions logo and Scale-on-Demand™ are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of LightEdge Solutions, Inc.

About the Magic Quadrant
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2009 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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