For Immediate Release: 6-March-2006
BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Avaya Inc. (NYSE:AV)
today launched new versions of its industry-leading
IP telephony, messaging and contact center software.
The software helps businesses benefit from a more reliable,
open enterprise communications foundation supporting
enhanced employee and customer communications. New and
unique capabilities of the software can help organizations
increase business continuity with advanced call preservation,
improve mobility with new virtual workspace features,
and drive greater investment protection of multivendor
technologies with expanded Session Initiation Protocol
(SIP) support.
New capabilities of the software releases – part of
Avaya’s suite of IP-based MultiVantage™ Communications
Applications – include:
• Enhanced Survivability: Greater business continuity
of IP communications extends to large remote locations
of up to 2,400 people. Also, during network failures,
IP calls can remain preserved with full functionality,
and call center data can be retained and accurately
reported.
• Expanded SIP Support: Avaya’s IP telephony
and messaging software gain new SIP enhancements, such
as expanded multi-vendor interoperability, including
full SIP support of Cisco IP phones. Also, Avaya’s IP
software now includes SIP without additional fees, and
doubles the number of SIP sessions supported.
• “Hot Desking” Enterprise Mobility: Workers
can easily move their personal office phone capabilities
to another phone anywhere in a business for instant
set up of a virtual workspace.
• Greater Security for Applications: Broadened
encryption and authenticated call control of Application
Enablement Services help developers create more secure,
reliable Web services-based applications.
Included in today’s updates is the new version of Avaya’s
flagship IP telephony software, Avaya Communication
Manager, which delivers solutions for improving survivability
of large remote offices in the most cost-effective way.
Working with Communication Manager, the Avaya S8500
Media Server can now act as a local survivable processor
(LSP), ensuring business locations of up to 2,400 people
have continuous IP communications if a network is disrupted
or fails. This is an increase from 450-person support.
Another new capability, IP Media Resource Duplication,
advances survivability by ensuring IP phone calls remain
working with full functionality (i.e., transfer, conferencing)
during network or hardware failures. Additional survivability
benefits include a unique capability for contact centers
so that during network outages, customer data will continue
to be collected, and can be reconsolidated after recovery
to maintain accurate customer reporting.
Communication Manager also introduces a new enterprise
mobility enhancement for “Hot Desking,” a capability
that lets workers move all of their personal phone capabilities
to another phone in the business and on another system
in the network. The feature lets employees set up a
virtual workspace in any business location, such as
a remote office in another state, simply by logging
into any desktop phone. Upon logging in, the phone will
upload the user’s profile and speed dial contacts, and
make it appear as if they are at their usual desk.
"As IP telephony matures, the solutions most beneficial
to businesses are those that deliver value-adding features
available through a communications system based on a
highly survivable and reliable architecture design,”
said Allan Sulkin, president, TEQConsult Group. “Avaya’s
new MultiVantage solutions demonstrate its long term
and consistent leadership in this market space by placing
a priority on business needs, while offering flexible
pathways to integration of future technologies, such
as SIP.”
Avaya’s SIP and SOA Capabilities Tap the Full
Potential of Open Communications
The Avaya Converged Communications Server includes Avaya
SIP Enablement Services that let businesses integrate
open, presence-based SIP functionality for real-time
communications. The Converged Communications Server
also includes Avaya Application Enablement Services,
which delivers Communication Manager application protocol
interfaces (APIs) and Web services to help developers
design new applications for a service-oriented architecture
(SOA).
Avaya SIP Enablement Services are now available to Communication
Manager users without additional licensing fees, allowing
businesses to easily and cost-efficiently integrate
SIP applications with more devices. To help businesses
save money through investment protection, Avaya’s SIP
solutions can support a broader range of multi-vendor
SIP end points. Avaya now provides full support of Cisco
IP phones, which can be integrated with Communication
Manager to deliver Avaya telephony features to these
phones using SIP. Additionally, Avaya doubles the number
of SIP sessions supported by Communication Manager,
letting companies deploy more SIP phones and take greater
advantage of SIP-based connectivity to public networks
of service providers.
Avaya Application Enablement Services increase security
and survivability to give application developers a more
reliable and survivable environment for developing Web
services-based applications. Improvements include broader
application security and enhanced encryption, as well
as an increase in transport link resiliency so applications
can remain preserved and uninterrupted during network
outages of up to 30 seconds.
“More businesses are implementing an IP-based intelligent
communications environment in which open technologies
supporting SIP and service oriented architectures will
help companies sharpen their competitive edge,” said
Michael Thurk, Avaya’s senior vice president and president,
Global Communications Solutions. “To help organizations
reach their goals, Avaya provides a survivable, scalable
and open environment for IP communications today, along
with a rock-solid, SIP-enhanced foundation that evolves
as a business grows.”
WFI Uses New Avaya Solutions to Improve Business
Continuity, Investment Protection with SIP
An Avaya customer using the new version of Avaya Communication
Manager is WFI, an independent provider of network engineering
and deployment services for large wireless carriers.
Using the new software, WFI can turn its Avaya S8500
Media Server into a local survivable processor, helping
to maintain WFI’s IP voice communications when the network
goes down. This will keep WFI’s employees, including
construction managers, executives and network engineers,
in continuous communications even under the most demanding
disaster recovery scenarios, enabling WFI to better
serve the 24/7 needs of their customers.
Avaya’s SIP solutions also help WFI users to more easily
and cost-effectively integrate advanced SIP communications
using their existing infrastructure in a multi-vendor
environment.
“We are a company that has grown through acquisition
in recent years,” said John Jensen, director, Corporate
Telecommunications, WFI. “We’ve inherited a number of
disparate systems and Avaya lets us use SIP to bridge
together all of the acquired systems so that they work
together in the most cost-effective manner. Avaya’s
SIP solutions enable us to use our existing phones with
newer advanced solutions in order to protect our investments,
while evolving to a more intelligent communications
environment with enhanced user experiences.”
More Avaya Upgrades: Modular Messaging 3.0
Gains SIP, Call Center 3.1 Enhances Routing
Avaya also updated its messaging and contact center
software today. They are:
Avaya Modular Messaging 3.0, the company’s industry-leading
messaging platform providing unified access to voicemails,
emails and fax messages via phone or PC, now integrates
with SIP networking. SIP integration enables direct
connectivity between Modular Messaging and SIP phones,
reducing system resources, lowering implementation costs
and increasing the number of messaging sessions supported
per server. Modular Messaging 3.0 also provides an easier,
more convenient way to configure and manage mailbox
options via PC – such as new greeting creation, personal
distribution lists, and mobility options – by now giving
users the ability to do this via Web browser. Additionally,
Avaya includes new support for the OCTEL® SERENADE®
telephone user interface, completing Avaya’s support
of the leading interfaces to provide consistent interoperability
and a flexible migration path across messaging platforms.
Other key advancements include centralized management
across 75 time zones and increased support of simultaneous
email sessions on a single server.
Avaya Call Center 3.1, from the company’s award-winning
Customer Interaction Suite, serves customer sales and
service needs through automatic call distribution technology.
Significant Avaya Call Center enhancements include improvements
to its privacy capabilities. The company offers more
classes of restriction (up from 99 to 999) and improved
routing capabilities, doubling the number of separate
routing rules to 2,000 vectors. This provides better
management of customer inquiries by directly routing
them to the most effective agent, in the fastest manner,
especially across highly-distributed virtual IP contact
centers.
To learn more about how more than 100 forward-thinking
companies from all over the world are already working
with Avaya to use Intelligent Communications to gain
a distinct competitive advantage, visit our world of
possibilities at Inside Intelligence, www.avaya.com.au/Campaigns/MarchLaunch06/.
Avaya solutions will be on display at Avaya Booth #601
at VoiceCon 2006 in Kissimmee, FL, March 6 - 9. For
all information on Avaya's strategy, product and services
announcements at the show, look at our virtual press
kit at www.avaya.com/media.
About Avaya
Avaya Inc. designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than 1 million
businesses worldwide, including over 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®. Focused on businesses
large to small, Avaya is a world leader in secure and reliable Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony
systems and communications software applications and services.
Driving the convergence of voice and data communications with business applications - and
distinguished by comprehensive worldwide services -Avaya helps customers leverage existing
and new networks to achieve superior business results. For more information visit the Avaya
website: www.avaya.com.au
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