For Immediate Release: 28-March-2006
Media inquiries:
Barbara Burgess
908-953-3348
barbarab@avaya.com
Investor Relations:
Matt Booher
908-953-7500
mbooher@avaya.com
BASKING RIDGE, N.J – For the second
time this year, Internet Protocol (IP) telephony solutions
from Avaya Inc. (NYSE: AV) were rated in first place
in the industry’s most demanding IP PBX competition
by Miercom, a leading network consultancy and product
test center.
Avaya, a leading global supplier of business communications
software, systems and services, took top honors as “Best
in Test” for its IP telephony solution for small to
medium businesses (SMBs), adding to its first place
win for “high end” IP telephony systems in a January
2006 review. In the most recent competition, Miercom
cited Avaya IP telephony solutions for:
- Top performance in endpoints, performance and security
- Achievement of the only perfect scores in endpoints
and performance categories and a near-perfect score
in security; and
- Its security system, which outranked the other vendors’
solutions, and included voice-stream encryption on all
end points, including softphones.
The results of the test, which focused on systems supporting
50 to 500 users across multiple distributed sites, appear
in this month’s issue of Business Communications Review
(BCR) magazine, an industry-leading publication for
enterprise telecommunications and network managers and
information technology professionals. Miercom ranked
each company’s solutions based on architecture, endpoints,
management and administration, features, security and
performance.
The Avaya solution included the recently-announced Avaya
Communication Manager 3.1 software, which helps businesses
benefit from a more reliable, open enterprise communications
foundation. New and unique capabilities of the software
help organizations increase business continuity, improve
mobility, drive greater investment protection of multi-vendor
technologies with expanded Session Initiation Protocol
(SIP) support, and enhanced employee and customer communications.
The solution tested also included an Avaya S8300 Media
Server, an Avaya Call Controller for small and medium
businesses, and Avaya G350, G250 and G700 gateways.
The Avaya solution was measured against three competing
vendors with systems that typically support 50 to 500
users.
“Because the Avaya media server, which supports a maximum
of 450 users, runs the same core Communication Manager
control software that drives Avaya’s high-end systems,
Avaya offers many of the same capabilities in SMB systems
as in their large systems,” said Ed Mier, president
of Miercom. “That gave the Avaya solution a clear advantage.”
In the endpoint category, Miercom said Avaya’s broad
range of phones that operated with the solution, including
Avaya IP and SIP handsets, Avaya softphone application,
several models of wireless phones, and third party SIP
handsets, were key to Avaya’s top rating, Miercom said.
Voice and connection quality were rated “excellent,”
even when Miercom added impairments, such as packet
loss and delay, and easily handled Miercom’s load of
7,200 calls per hour, which was designed to represent
the “busy hour” load of a typical 500-station system.
“We know that small and medium businesses typically
need the same communication capabilities as do large
businesses, to enable them to serve customers better
and increase productivity,” said Micky Tsui, vice president
and general manager, converged systems division, Avaya.
“By winning top ratings in this intense competition
twice in a row, for solutions designed for all sizes
of enterprises, it’s clear that Avaya is focused on
empowering all companies to embed intelligent communications,
made possible by IP telephony, into their business processes.”
To view the article, visit:
http://www.miercom.com/dl.html?fid=bcr-0603a&type=print.
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/intelligence.
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
About Miercom
With hundreds of its product-comparison analyses published
over the years in such leading network trade periodicals
as Business Communications Review and Network World,
Miercom’s reputation as the leading, independent product
test center is unquestioned. Founded in 1988, the company
has pioneered the comparative assessment of networking
hardware and software, having developed methodologies
for testing products from SAN switches to VoIP gateways
and IP PBX’s. Miercom’s private test services include
competitive product analyses, as well as individual
product evaluations. Products submitted for review are
typically evaluated under the “NetWORKS As Advertised™”
program, in which networking-related products must endure
a comprehensive, independent assessment of the products’
usability and performance. Products that meet the appropriate
criteria and performance levels receive the “NetWORKS
As Advertised™” award and Miercom Labs’ testimonial
endorsement
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