OTTAWA, ONTARIO, Aug 13, 2010 (Marketwire via COMTEX News Network) — Mitel(R) (NASDAQ:MITL), a leading provider of unified communications software solutions announced today that Technology Marketing Corporation’s (TMC(R)) Customer Interaction Solutions magazine has named Mitel as the recipient of the 2010 IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Award for the suite of Mitel Contact Center Solutions.

“TMC is proud to distinguish Mitel with an IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Award. Mitel Contact Center Solutions has been designed with the needs of the contact center market in mind and the potential of IP behind it making it worthy of this prestigious honor,” said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC.

Mitel Contact Center Solutions, including Mitel Contact Center Business Edition and Mitel Contact Center Enterprise Edition enable customers to increase agent and supervisor productivity, optimize contact center operations and improve customer service levels. Businesses can tailor a solution to meet the unique needs of their contact center with a combination of robust communications platforms, automated call distribution (ACD) software and a modular suite of feature-rich, web-based applications.. Mitel Contact Center Solutions scale to meet the needs of the full spectrum of applications, from small, single-site operations, to large, multi-site, virtual contact centers, with thousands of agents.

“Mitel designs its offering to provide organizations with a reliable, sophisticated and cost-effective contact center solution,” said Stephen Beamish, vice-president of marketing and business development, Mitel. “This award is further validation that our ongoing investment in customer interaction solutions is delivering real value for our customers.”

Mitel Contact Center Solutions deliver tangible business value in the following ways:

– Supporting first-time issue resolution, personalized service and improved customer retention. — Facilitating easy access to the right skills, at the right time wherever and whenever they are needed.

– Allowing organizations to leverage a distributed workforce to deliver superior customer service from anywhere.

“Using the Mitel Contact Center Solution, we are able to maximize call volume, enhance agent performance, monitor queue times, and load balance all call centers as one,” says Ken Moore, telecom CRM development, ShoesForCrews LLC. “With enhanced agent alerts our supervisors are able to monitor agents and detect unauthorized breaks by using contact center client pre set alerts.”

For more information about Mitel Contact Center Solutions, please visit http://www.mitel.com/DocController?documentId=22085

About Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine

Since 1982, Customer Interaction Solutions (CIS) magazine has been the voice of the call/contact center, CRM and teleservices industries. CIS magazine has helped the industry germinate, grow, mature and prosper, and has served as the leading publication in helping these industries that have had such a positive impact on the world economy to continue to thrive. Through a combination of outstanding and cutting-edge original editorial, industry voices, in-depth lab reviews and the recognition of the innovative leaders in management and technology through our highly valued awards, Customer Interaction Solutions strives to continue to be the publication that holds the quality bar high for the industry. Please visit www.cismag.com for more information.

Mitel’s smart unified communications solutions and applications are on the move, and they’re bringing them right to your doorstep!  They’ve equipped a 40-foot tour bus with working demos of the latest Mitel innovations so you can experience Mitel’s “better than live” communications solutions first-hand.  Mitel’s and AmeriTel’s knowledgeable communications specialists will be onboard to guide you through the hands-on demos, and answer all of your questions to help you break down the barriers to more effective business communication.

Contact AmeriTel to reserve your space on the bus today, and learn how Mitel is making Simply Communicating®… simple.

I.  What is Section 179?
II.  How to Use it to Your Advantage
III.  Example
IV.  One Step Further

WHAT IS SECTION 179?

We’ve all heard of it. Chances are people have tried to explain it multiple times in different ways. We know it is somehow related to a business’ tax liability. But do we really know what Section 179 means and how it can benefit you as a business trying to keep up with technology in these tough times?

First, let’s start with a very clean and clear definition of what the term “Section 179” is referring to. Tax benefits, including the Section 179 provision that aided businesses in acquiring new equipment in 2008 were extended to 2009 when President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) on February 17th, 2009.

Under Internal Revenue Code Section 179, businesses are allowed to expense up to $250,000 on most equipment or software placed in service during the tax year 2009. Additionally, you are able to expense up to 50% of the remaining figure under the depreciation bonus provision.

According to the Monitor Daily (www.monitordaily.com), the Associated Equipment Distributors has sponsored a website that explains the provisions in more detail and provides a tax calculator (www.depreciationbonus.org) to illustrate examples of deductions.

HOW TO USE IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

So what does this mean to your business? As many of us are experiencing today, a good number of you are sitting on the fence and “waiting to see what happens” before you make a buying decision.

Unfortunately, during the economic times we’re in when your business is not moving or expanding and you’re trying to hold off on buying new equipment, companies like AmeriTel are left trying to find something else to spur movement on behalf of yous. We recognize the impact our technology can have on your business, perhaps more so now than ever, but unless we can find a compelling reason for you to make a purchasse, we are out of the game.

This is where Section 179 can come in to play. Your business has limited time to take advantage of this benefit. In order to use Section 179, the equipment must be purchased and installed during the 2009 tax year. This gives us an “impending event” on which to encourage movement by yous, but which in the end benefits both you as you and us as a value added technology implementation company. So just how compelling is the proposition to you as a customer to implement our technology now in order to reap the benefits of Section 179? Let’s use an example to illustrate just how beneficial this can be for you.

EXAMPLE: YOU PUCHASE A NEW TELEPHONE SYSTEM FOR $50,000

If you purchase and deploy this technology during tax year 2009, you can write off the entire amount of the phone system as long as you have not already exceeded the $250,000 limit of total equipment. Assuming your business is in the 35% tax bracket, you will generate $17,500 in tax savings this year ($50,000 x 35%). In other words, your net investment in our telephone system will only be $32,500 ($50,000 cost – $17,500 tax savings) if you implement it now!

On the other hand, if you put off the purchase and the Section 179 benefit expires, this same scenario would yield you only a $3,500 tax savings ($50,000 x 20% MACRS depreciation = $10,000 deduction x 35% tax bracket).

Now let’s assume you plan to implement $350,000 worth of equipment this year, including our $50,000 telephone system. In this case, under normal circumstances your business could take advantage of the standard 20% MACRS depreciation, giving you a $70,000 deduction ($350,000 x 20%) resulting in a savings of $24,500 ($70,000 x 35%) assuming a 35% tax bracket.

However, by implementing this equipment in the 2009 tax year, your savings soar. Section 179 allows you to write off $250,000 up front, leaving the you with a depreciable basis of $100,000 ($350,000 – $250,000). A 50% bonus depreciation means you can depreciate another $50,000 this year ($100,000 x 50%), leaving you with a depreciable basis of $50,000 ($100,000 – $50,000). Finally the standard MACRS depreciation means your business can deduct an additional $10,000 this tax year ($50,000 x 20%). All together, this means you now have a total deduction for 2009 of $310,000 ($250,000 + $50,000 + $10,000), as opposed to $70,000 using just the standard MACRS depreciation. The end result, again assuming a 35% tax bracket, is a $108,500 tax saving to you ($310,000 x 35%). Now, instead of a typical ‘after-tax’ cost of $325,500, your business sees an ‘after-tax’ cost of $241,500!

So by educating you on the Section 179 benefits and encouraging you to implement our technology this year as opposed to pushing off the purchase, your business has essentially saved nearly $20,000 on our $50,000 phone system! What business in today’s market would knowingly turn down that kind of impact on your bottom line?  Would you?

ONE STEP FURTHER

Now that we have shown you just how much you stand to benefit from Section 179 if you implement our technology now, we have the opportunity to take things one step further and truly enter the realm of becoming a trusted advisor to you. We can do this by combining the tools at our disposal.

Let’s revisit our example of you wishing to purchase a new $50,000 telephone system from us. Remember, we have shown you that you stand to save $17,500 if you purchase the system this year, meaning your net investment is only $32,500. One thing we may often hear from businesses like yours in this position is that, while the prospect of saving nearly $20,000 is certainly attractive, it is difficult to get past putting out the initial capital to acquire the equipment. One important question for you to ask yourself is if you plan to buy the equipment at any point over the next few years. If the answer is ‘yes’, then it only makes sense to take advantage of the Section 179 savings. But how can we make our proposition even more compelling to encourage some actual movement on your part?

This is where leasing can become a strong addition to the solution. Instead of proposing that you outlay the initial $50,000 today, youcan purchase the equipment using a dollar out lease, which compounds the impacts to your bottom line for the 2009 tax year. By utilizing leasing, you can still benefit from the savings, but you don’t have the worry of outlaying significant capital, which may be more precious now than ever.

Instead, you can make monthly payments that are a fraction of your savings, and an even smaller fraction of what you would have had to expend to purchase the equipment and take advantage of Section 179! If your business purchased a $50,000 phone system this month, you would likely make less than $2,500 in payments this year and still realize around $17,500 in tax savings. In other words, your 2009 tax savings actually outsize your cost! As a matter of fact, you could use your 2009 tax savings to cover your monthly payments, meaning you can get the new technology you need and want today and essentially spend none of your own capital for the next 18 months!

Finally, what about those who see the need to purchase the technology this year, but are still reluctant to even make the small monthly payments to obtain the tax savings? This may be an opportunity to help you with deferred payments. In other words, the potential is there for you to obtain the technology you need today, realize the significant tax savings resulting from Section 179 and make no payments this year! We will help improve your business communications, help you generate significant tax savings on that investment and not require any capital expenditures to get those things…

NOTE: All figures used above are merely examples and are based on assumptions that may not apply to your business or to your lease. This is not tax advice. Please consult your tax advisor to be certain as to how Section 179 will apply to your specific situation.  Please contact your AmeriTel representative to see about how Section 179 can benefit your specific needs for a new phone system today.

Find out how to perform at the speed of business.  Click below to register for an overview presentation of Mitel’s new “SeriesX” presented by Mitel’s own VP of Business Development and Solutions, Stephen Beamish on September 23rd, 2009.

http://www.mitel.com/seriesx

The speech dialing software, developed by Esna Technologies (Esnatech), is capable of searching through thousands of contact entries instantaneously. If more than one number exists for any given contact, users are prompted to select the desired number from the saved entries (cell, work, home, etc.).  “Tracking down elusive contact numbers is something that everyone has experienced.”  said Michael Marchioni, IVN Vice President of Product Management. “With the Speech Access feature, it doesn’t matter if the number is in a corporate contact list or a personal contact list, all you have to remember is the person’s name.” The Speech Access feature can also be combined with a Bluetooth headset connected to an Iwatsu ICON phone, providing a unique hands-free dialing option. Users press the offhook button on their Bluetooth headset and say the name of the person they are trying to reach. The call is placed leaving the desk phone untouched.

Contact an AmeriTel representative for more information about this exciting new feature available on Iwatsu and Mitel platforms.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBD6QvJcUDo

Features of the 5360 IP Phone include:

- 7″ inch high resolution color, touch display screen
-- 48 programmable self-labeling keys
-- 6 intuitive call state sensitive softkeys
-- Embedded Gigabit Ethernet
-- Superior sound quality
-- Built-in HTML toolkit for applications development
-- Gadget Sidebar for one-touch access to embedded or internet-based content and applications
-- Support for the Mitel 5310 IP Conference Unit, Mitel Cordless (DECT) Handset and Headset, Mitel Line Interface Module and Mitel Wireless LAN Stand

…..and much more!

The 5360 IP Phone will be supported on the Mitel Communications Director (MCD) Release 4.0 SP1.

General Availability (GA) date at this time is October 26, 2009, but is subject to change.

Here’s a quick demo video of the Mitel 5360 IP Phone!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=doH3eqvznq8

Enriches the End-User Experience

The 5360 IP Phone is Mitel’s latest state-of-the-art IP phone, which includes a large color, touch-sensitive, graphical display screen for easy access to communications information, timesaving applications, and extensive features. It provides professionals with an intuitive color interface for easier viewing and navigation of phone functions and productivity-enhancing applications. The color 5360 IP Phone with Web capabilities is poised to deliver a whole series of HTML-based applications. The phone boasts a 7-inch touch-screen display, which grants access to the applications. The device also features wideband audio, embedded Gigabit Ethernet, and a built-in HTML toolkit for applications development. And whether deployed on premises or remotely as a Teleworker, the 5360 IP Phone delivers the extensive set of the Mitel Communication Director (MCD) features directly to the desktop.

Delivers Rich, Intuitive, Visually-Pleasing Telephony Functions and Applications

The 5360 IP Phone provides a full-color user interface to deliver a significantly augmented and visually pleasing user experience when running productivity-enhancing applications. It combines a rich color display with superior acoustic sound to offer our customers a visually pleasing user interface, an incredible sounding voice experience and a future-proof platform with embedded Gigabit Ethernet.

Call or chat with us online now about this awesome new phone and to get a quote.