Dartmouth-based ABM Integrated Solutions, one of Atlantic Canada’s largest IT and communications service providers, has signed an agreement with global telecom technology company Alcatel-Lucent to offer unified communications solutions to clients.

The two companies issued a press release this week saying that ABM has become one of the Paris-based company’s Enterprise Portfolio Partners.

What this means is that the ABM will now be able to offer clients a range of Alcatel Lucent services in the field of unified communications. Now a $20 billion-plus business, unified communications brings together a range of ICT products – such as wireless, landline, internet, video, cable and internet-based services – offered by different providers and integrates them into a single package.

“For large organization or service providers with a lot of services, there is the ability to unify these and bring them into an integrated package,” Bob Huggard, ABM’s Vice President, Strategy and Marketing, said in an interview.

“We think we have an advantage here in that we can work with these clients to help design a seamless communications package …  which should be more efficient and cost effective.”

ABM President Dennis Young said in the statement that the partnership represents the next step in ABM’s 30-year history. The company now has clients across North America and more than 160 employees, offering such services as cloud hosting, managed services, share point collaboration, and MicroSoft Office 365.

 “ABM has been delivering high quality communications solutions to customers for a long time,” said David Parker, Vice President, North American Channel Sales at Alcatel-Lucent. “They have a large client base in the region and the kind of reputation that is essential for building a successful unified communications practice.”