Siemens Enterprise Communications Partners with Digium(R) to Deliver Integrated, Open IP Communications Solution for German Insurance Group

Siemens Enterprise Communications Partners with Digium(R) to Deliver
Integrated, Open IP Communications Solution for German Insurance Group
LVM Extends SEN Group Enterprise Solution with Enterasys and 10,000 SIP-based
OpenStage Phones While Integrating Asterisk(R) to Meet Agents' Needs

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. and MUNICH, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Digium®, creator and
primary developer of Asterisk®, the most widely adopted and flexible open
source telephony platform, and Siemens Enterprise Communications Group (SEN
Group), a premier provider of enterprise communications solutions, today
announced that the two companies have entered into a partnership agreement
that will allow organizations to tightly integrate enterprise needs with the
SMB flexibility of open source in one communications ecosystem. This will give
organizations the benefits of Asterisk along with SEN Group's Open
Communications approach and award-winning product portfolio which includes
Enterasys networking, OpenScape Voice and unified communications (UC), and
OpenStage Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones.

The two companies partnered to create a tailored solution for LVM
Landwirtschaftlicher Versicherungsverein Munster a.G. (LVM), a large German
insurance group that wanted to give its agents, local SMBs, a solution that
could fit their unique needs, while tightly integrating with the company's
corporate SEN Group telephony system. LVM is one of Germany's largest direct
insurance groups with over three million customers across the country serviced
by a network of 2,100 local agents. The company understands that it is the
local presence that allows them to provide great service. LVM constantly looks
for ways to leverage advanced technologies and to give its agents the tools
they need to provide an optimal service experience. As an open source pioneer
with considerable application integration experience, the company looked at
systems and devices that could support open communication. The LVM project is
being deployed through Datus AG, a Digium Select Partner with nearly four
decades of experience designing and implementing communications networks in
Germany.

"We understand the value of IT and that your IP phone system is not just
another application running on the network, it is the backbone of your
business," said Werner Schmidt, CIO of LVM. "We are also an organization that
has been using open source for almost ten years and have a lot of internal
expertise in developing applications on open platforms, which is why we looked
for a system and devices that could support a tailored open source solution,
connecting our agents from the phone to the datacenter."

LVM ultimately decided to extend its existing SEN Group system with the open
architecture of the Enterasys network infrastructure, including N-Series and
C-Series switches, as well as the Network Management Suite (NMS), ensuring
that voice traffic is prioritized and secure. Then, working with Datus AG and
Digium, LVM decided to combine Asterisk onto the Datus indali appliance with
Digium telephony interface cards and connected it with the SEN Group's
OpenStage 60 phones for the agent offices.

Said Danny Windham, CEO of Digium, "Organizations worldwide are benefiting
from the flexibility, low cost and extensibility of open source telephony.
We're fortunate to be partnering with SEN Group and working with integration
partners such as Datus to bring advanced communication technologies to market
and we're pleased that LVM saw the value in this type of solution."

True to its name, the OpenStage family of phones is open, based on industry
standards that allow them to be integrated with third-party business
applications via technologies such as XML. They can be integrated with
corporate LDAP directories, custom phone books, and even provide web access to
public phone books. In addition, the phones offer BlueTooth technology that
can synchronize phone books with mobile phones. For organizations that want to
create their own custom applications, software developer kits (SDKs) are
available to further tailor the phone to business needs. The OpenStage family
of phones from the SEN Group offers sleek designs, superior sound quality with
High Definition (HD) voice and audio conferencing and intuitive, user-friendly
menus that provide easy access to the most used features on the phone such as
push-to-conference, desktop call management, and presence-based calling.

SEN Group and Digium share a commitment to providing customers with standards-
and software-based business communications solutions. This premise can provide
companies with a way to expand their options while mitigating risk and
maintaining a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), when deploying UC. They
also allow organizations like LVM to integrate the desktop device with their
chosen IP ecosystem, connecting corporate with their network of agents. In
addition, the partnership provides Asterisk dealers and developers with access
to the OpenStage product lines which offer a wide variety of new SIP and DECT
SIP telephones to meet customer needs.

"Our work with Digium and LVM is a true testament to our Open Communications
approach, allowing us to integrate our products into any environment,
including open source," said Eve Aretakis, executive vice president voice
solutions and applications at SEN Group. "Not only are OpenStage phones
designed to help organizations improve productivity and streamline workflows,
they can integrate popular open source software solutions, such as those based
on Asterisk into the most-used office tool, the telephone itself. From data to
the device, working with Digium, we have ensured that LVM has the security and
flexibility to unify their chosen ecosystem."

About LVM
Insurance consultancy with focus on each individual's needs - that's the
principle of LVM Versicherungen, situated in Muenster, Germany. The personal
support close-by bases on the company's more than 112-year-long tradition. All
developments cater the customers' requirements and demands.

With 3 million customers, LVM obtained about 2.3 billion Euro contribution in
2008. Its 11.6 billion Euro capital investments represent the solid and
trustworthy corporate management. 2,850 employees work at the headquarters in
Muenster. Its dense network of more than 2,150 self-employed sales
representatives makes the LVM visible throughout Germany. Today, LVM perceives
itself as a modern financial service provider. The company belongs to the 20
biggest insurance companies in Germany. Recurring awards of acknowledged
rating agencies (ASSEKURATA, Stiftung Warentest et. al) underline that LVM is
a traditional, service- and customer-oriented company with a bright future
ahead.

About Digium
Digium®, Inc., the Asterisk® Company, created, owns and is the innovative
force behind Asterisk, the most widely used open source telephony software.
Since its founding in 1999, Digium has become the open source alternative to
proprietary communication providers, with offerings that cost as much as 80
percent less. Digium offers Asterisk software free to the open source
community and offers Asterisk Business Edition and Switchvox IP PBX software
to power a broad family of products for small, medium and large businesses.
The company's product line includes a wide range of hardware and software to
enable resellers and customers to implement turnkey VoIP systems or to design
their own custom telephony solutions. More information is available at
http://www.digium.com.

About Siemens Enterprise Communications Group (SEN Group)
The SEN Group is a premier provider of end-to-end enterprise communications,
including voice, network infrastructure and security solutions that use open,
standards-based architectures to unify communications and business
applications for a seamless collaboration experience. This award-winning "Open
Communications" approach enables organizations to improve productivity and
reduce costs through easy-to-deploy solutions that work within existing IT
environments, delivering operational efficiencies. It is the foundation for
the company's OpenPath® commitment that enables customers to mitigate risk and
cost-effectively adopt unified communications. Jointly owned by The Gores
Group and Siemens AG, SEN Group companies include Siemens Enterprise
Communications, Cycos, and Enterasys Networks.

For more information about the SEN Group or Enterasys please visit
www.siemens-enterprise.com or www.enterasys.com

Note: Siemens Enterprise Communications & Co K.G. is a trademark licensee of
Siemens AG. HiPath, OpenOffice, OpenScape and OpenStage, are registered
trademarks of Siemens Enterprise Communications & Co K.G. or its affiliates.
All other company, brand, product and service names are trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective holders.

This release contains forward-looking statements based on beliefs of Siemens'
management. The words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "forecast,"
"expect," "intend," "plan," "should," and "project" are used to identify
forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the company's current
views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and
uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results to be materially
different, including, among others, changes in general economic and business
conditions, changes in currency exchange rates and interest rates,
introduction of competing products, lack of acceptance of new products or
services and changes in business strategy. Actual results may vary materially
from those projected here. Siemens does not intend or assume any obligation to
update these forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Siemens Enterprise Communications Group

Julie Webb of Digium, Inc, +1-256-428-6203, jwebb@digium.com; or Media
Relations, Silvie Casanova, Corporate Communications of Siemens Enterprise
Communications Group, +1-978-848-4617, silvie.casanova@siemens-enterprise.com