NEC Sphere Fast Facts
Official Company Name:
NEC Sphere Communications, Inc.
Founded in 1994 by Charles W. Pearson, a telecommunications visionary and serial entrepreneur
Acquired by NEC Corporation, Tokyo, Japan in October 2007
NEC Sphere is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NEC Corporation
Headquarters:
300 Tri-State International
Suite 150
Lincolnshire, Illinois 60069
847 793.9600
Product lines:
Sphericall, SphereCSE
Product category:
Developer of next-generation, software-based unified communications that integrates voice, e-mail, voice mail, presence, instant messaging, video and desktop sharing with enterprise business applications.
Officers:
Graeme Robinson
President & Chief Executive Officer
Todd Landry
Senior Vice President
Alan Weir
Chief Technology Officer
David Thome
Chief Financial Officer
John Blasko
Vice President, Engineering
Number of Customers:
More than 200 in North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Japan (2009)
Registered Trademarks:
NEC Sphere Communications, NEC Sphere, Sphere Communications, Sphere, NEC Sphericall, Univerge Sphericall, Sphericall Voice Mail, Sphericall Desktop, PhoneHub, COHub, BranchHub, MeetingHub, VG3
About NEC Sphere
Company Overview
NEC Sphere Communications, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of NEC Corporation, is the leader in Unified Communications (UC) software and the emerging category known as Service Oriented Communications (SOC).
Service Oriented Communications is based on the premise that SOA applications can use a common “communications services engine” via web services – including voice, e-mail, conferencing, video, instant messaging and more – within workflows of key business applications.NEC Sphere is the world’s first company to fully integrate human capital with business processes, business applications and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). NEC Sphere leverages the investments in SOA by integrating communications as a key application.
The award-winning NEC Sphericall has been installed by all types of enterprises throughout the world including educational institutions, government agencies and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). More importantly, NEC Sphericall has been accredited by the U.S. DoD under the Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) PBX1 Certifications and is available under the Approved Product List (APL) for purchase and deployment in defense communications. This certification is especially important for local, state and Federal government agencies and in Homeland Security applications.
NEC Sphericall is the solution to enterprise-class unified communications and runs on industry-standard servers across an existing data network. Through its unique distributed software architecture, Sphericall scales to 30,000 ports and achieves 99.999% reliability.
NEC Sphericall provides users with the greatest flexibility at the lowest possible cost of ownership. It utilizes a certification process that ensures that “NEC Sphere Certified” devices deliver specific levels of quality and dependability to support the dynamic, expanding needs of telephony users.
Founded in 1994 by telecommunications visionary and entrepreneur Charles W. Pearson, NEC Sphere has a rich history for innovative and industry-leading technology. NEC Sphere delivers enterprise telecommunications through an open, software-based IP PBX solution that integrates with business processes. Solutions offer clients the flexibility to choose the phones and other communications tools that fit within the infrastructure and workflow of each enterprise.
The company was acquired by Tokyo-based NEC Corporation in 2007. Today, the Corporation continues to invest in ongoing research and development to continuously enhance SOC core technologies. Through its standards-based, open-systems approach to enterprise communications, NEC Sphere continues to optimize its software, leveraging ongoing advancements and cost reductions of enterprise servers, gateways, IP phones and related communications end points.
NEC Sphere and its NEC Sphericall product are the recipients of many industry awards, including the 2007 Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Differentiation & Innovation and the patent for packet-based PBX systems.
NEC Sphere Communications is headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois.
About NEC Corporation
A Global Fortune 500 company with more than 150,000 employees worldwide and more than $45 billion in revenues, NEC Corporation has a history of more than 100 years of leadership and innovation in high technology.
NEC is a leader in technology solutions to meet the future needs and demands of e-commerce and other Internet-based solutions. NEC is a provider of core technologies and services required in a networked world, including advanced semiconductors and device solutions, high-speed optical and microwave radio communications, systems integration, integrated IT/network solutions and e-commerce software applications.
NEC maintains a global network of 334 consolidated subsidiaries. Its operations in the United States employ more than 3,000 people, generate revenues of approximately $2 billion, and maintain design and development centers, research facilities, and numerous marketing, sales and support operations.
