NEC and Intermedia announce strategic global partnership to deliver cloud communications

Tokyo, Japan and Sunnyvale, CA – April 21, 2020 – NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701), a leading provider and integrator of advanced IT, communications, and networking solutions, today announced a global strategic partnership with Intermedia, a leading provider of cloud-based Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions. Together, NEC and Intermedia are launching NEC UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT, a fully integrated and born-in-the-cloud UCaaS solution, and NEC UNIVERGE BLUE® ENGAGE, a CCaaS solution for businesses of all sizes.

For 120 years, NEC has transformed communications and IT for business. With over 80 million business users worldwide, NEC is in the top three globally for installed unified communications seats, and ranks No. 1 for global line shipments over the past 3 quarters.1

This partnership agreement with Intermedia represents NEC's rapid global expansion into cloud-based communications and collaboration services.

With over 1,000 employees, 125,000 business customers, and 6,600 active channel partners, Intermedia develops and delivers tightly integrated, extremely reliable, highly secure, award-winning cloud communications software. Sold primarily under private label through a large network of reseller partners and major IT distributors, Intermedia's solutions drive the communications for businesses of all sizes – from SMB to mid-market to Fortune 1000.

NEC UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT and ENGAGE are built on Intermedia's innovative, proprietary technology and world-class support and will be brought to market through NEC's robust partner ecosystem. With NEC UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT and ENGAGE, NEC is bolstering its global cloud communications offerings to fully support customer organizations in their migration to the cloud.

"The global NEC Group continues to be committed to helping customers solve a wide array of both business and societal issues and challenges, not the least of which is building a sustainable and more efficient society through the digital transformation of business infrastructure. This partnership for the delivery of cloud-based communications, collaboration, and contact center solutions with Intermedia allows NEC and its global network of partners to build toward a brighter future with the utmost care for quality, cost, and customer service," said Kimihiko Fukuda, Senior Vice President, NEC Corporation and President, NEC Platforms, Ltd.

"NEC is committed to helping businesses meet the demands of today's digital workforce through our Smart Enterprise portfolio, and we recognize that enabling customer migration to the cloud is a key component," said Paul Kievit, President and Head of NEC Enterprise Solutions EMEA and Americas. "To support this rapid migration on a global scale, NEC aimed to team up with a born-in-the-cloud partner that could provide a best-in-class, fully-integrated suite of UCaaS and CCaaS solutions."

Ram Menghani, SVP of Product Development for NEC Enterprise Communications Technologies, further stated, "After a comprehensive review of the market, Intermedia was the clear winner. Intermedia's UCaaS and CCaaS solutions are elegant, intuitive, and deliver a seamless experience that allow for highly reliable and secure anytime, anywhere communications. Combining this with its unique, partner-first philosophy and impeccable support and reliability – including its 99.999% guaranteed uptime service level agreements and being the only business cloud application provider to have been certified by J.D. Power for its superior 24/7 technical support now four years in a row – made Intermedia the perfect fit for NEC."

"It's an incredible honor to enter into this relationship with NEC – not only because they are such a trusted leader and well-respected brand in the global unified communications space, but, like Intermedia, they also put partners first," said Michael Gold, CEO, Intermedia. "Partners serve as the trusted IT advisors to the business community, and I'm proud that we've built Intermedia into the leading, partner-first cloud communications software company that it is today. Our formula has been pretty simple – first, deliver highly reliable and secure, easy-to-use and manage, feature-rich cloud applications that allow users to communicate how they want, where they want, and when they want. And then, back those products with the sales, marketing, onboarding, billing, and technical support partners need so they can focus on winning more business and earning greater top-line revenue. With this focus, Intermedia has built an active partner community that is 6,600 strong and growing. By teaming with NEC, we look forward to working together to provide our UCaaS and CCaaS solutions to help drive better communications for a broader global audience."

Introducing NEC UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT and NEC UNIVERGE BLUE® ENGAGE

Today, more than ever, businesses need the ability to communicate and collaborate from anywhere at any time, both internally and externally. Businesses need tools that are easy to deploy, use, and provide users with an integrated experience. NEC UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT and ENGAGE are born in the cloud and designed specifically for business of all sizes and the channel partners that serve them.

NEC UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT is a cloud-based business communications platform that combines a full-featured cloud-based phone system, chat, video conferencing, and file sync and share, all available to users through desktop, web, and mobile applications. Built on Intermedia's born-in-the-cloud UCaaS environment, NEC UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT is intuitive, reliable, and easy to deploy, while remaining highly scalable and extremely cost-effective. NEC UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT helps improve the communications and collaboration of businesses, while being easy for partners to sell, install, and support.

NEC UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE is a cloud-based contact center designed to fit business needs from the small, single channel to the large and sophisticated omni-channel environment. A dynamic CCaaS solution, it combines robust functionality with carrier-grade reliability and world-class deployment and support services. NEC UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE helps businesses differentiate from the competition where it matters most – the customer experience.

"This is a big move for both NEC and Intermedia. When you combine NEC's global reach and relationship with their channel, and Intermedia's world-class UCaaS and CCaaS offerings, you have to take notice," said Elka Popova, Vice President, Information and Communications Technologies, Frost & Sullivan. "Now, more than ever, this gives NEC a clear path to help their customers with their cloud migration to enable much of what's needed in today's business environment, specifically remote work and meetings."