Kerio Technologies, a provider of unified communications, collaboration and security solutions for small to medium-sized businesses and organizations, announced the new version of its IP PBX (News - Alert) phone system.

Kerio Operator 1.2 allows small and midsize organizations to improve communication, reduce telephony cost, and stay connected anywhere. The new version is built on the industry-standard SIP VoIP protocol and Asterisk (News - Alert) 1.8.

"With Kerio Operator 1.2, we have found the balance between functionality and simplicity by delivering a product that offers the essential voice features that are critical for business while not overwhelming customers with an over complicated system," stated Scott Schreiman.

"Because of its integration and similarity to other Kerio products, our channel will find it easy to deploy Kerio Operator for clients who are looking for an economical way to upgrade their phone system," Schreiman adds.

Kerio Operator 1.2 also supports the Digium (News - Alert) TDM410 card with FXO modules to connect to analog phone lines. Advanced IP PBX features of Kerio Operator is also used internally.

Kerio Operator 1.2 works with the bandwidth management capabilities of Kerio Control, which is preconfigured to reserve enough bandwidth for SIP voice traffic for clear voice communication. Kerio Operator also integrates with Kerio Connect, allowing users to access, listen or delete voicemails through their email inbox.

"As a long-time provider of the Kerio Connect messaging server, moving to a Kerio voice product was a natural next step for us," commented Tom Bridge, owner, Technolutionary, a Kerio Preferred Partner in the Washington DC metro area.

"Voice and email are more aligned than people might realize, and our familiarity with Connect allows us to easily configure Kerio Operator and give our clients a powerful phone system that they may have thought was only available to enterprise type companies for a very competitive price," Bridge adds.

Kerio Operator 1.2 is available as a software appliance, with its own security-hardened operating system, a VMware virtual appliance for rapid deployment in production or evaluation environments on standard PC hardware, and in two hardware appliance configurations available in some markets.

Some new features include: call pickup, which allows users to answer an incoming call that is ringing on someone else's phone by dialing a special code; and busy lamp field (BLF) support that is useful for receptionists,  alerting the user, via an LED light, whether a particular extension is available, busy or there is a call ringing. The auto-provisioning automatic "plug-and-play" phone setup feature saves from the the hassle of configuring new phones to the network.