Telstra acquires NSC for unified comms, contact centre
Telstra has announced the acquisition of North Shore Connections (NSC) Group, a unified communications solutions and contact centre provider that services customers throughout the Asia Pacific.
Announced on Thursday, the acquisition will bolster Telstra's Network Applications and Services (NAS) division, which supplies managed network services for enterprise and business customers, encompassing security, communications, and cloud services.
According to the head of NAS, David Burns, as a result of the acquisition of NSC, Telstra will become the primary cloud, security, and managed network services provider in Australia, and will gain greater contact centre resources.
"Contact centre solutions are highly valued by our customers, and NSC's technical skills, integration capability and reputation for speed to market make this an important and exciting addition to our NAS portfolio," Burns said in a statement.
"Similarly, unified communications can transform an organisation by integrating communication and collaboration applications such as voice, video, messaging, email, and social media. Adding NSC's capability to Telstra's own unified communications and network-based services including cloud, managed networks, and security will help us create ... solutions for our customers that can increase productivity, promote frequent collaboration, and, ultimately, improve their own customers' satisfaction."
Craig Neil, chairman of NSC Group, said the acquisition will provide benefit to NSC's 600 customers, who will now be able to access Telstra's other NAS products and services.
Telstra's NAS portfolio's revenue increased by 17.7 per cent for the year ended June 30, 2013, aided by the AU$1.1 billion deal it closed with the Australian Department of Defence in April, a new contract in the same month to provide budget Qantas-owned airline Jetstar with communications, and its recent cloud push into Asia.
In March, Telstra also announced a unified communications as a service partnership with network vendor Cisco to provide for its voice, video, telepresence, and mobile applications.
Telstra's most recent acquisition attempt, a proposed takeover of internet service provider Adam Internet, fell through last month, with rival telco iiNet picking it up for AU$60 million earlier this month.
The financial details of the NSC acquisition were not disclosed.