Avaya Updates ACE Platform with Deeper Aura Integration
Continuing its quest to make good on its commitment to integrate technology it acquired with its Nortel enterprise buy, Avaya has updated the Agile Communications Environment (ACE) to work seamlessly with its Aura communications platform, the company says.
ACE was Nortel’s software-based technology that extends unified communications to business applications, allowing features such as click-to-call, web calling, location and presence to be embedded into or included with business processes or applications – also known as communications-enabled business processes.
When Avaya acquired Nortel earlier in 2010, the company promised tight integration between the two company’s technologies, including ACE and Aura, Avaya’s flagship communications technology. Version 2.3 accomplishes that, the company asserts.
“ACE and Aura provide a complementary fit,” said Sajeel Hussain, director, unified communications for Avaya ACE. “Aura provides a point of integration at the PBX level, while ACE provides a unified view at the application level. By definition these guys are complementary.”
The latest version offers richer integration with Aura through packaged applications and Web services, Hussain said. “All the packaged apps on ACE now have been extended to the Aura infrastructure. These packaged apps make a lot of sense because they are easy to code, easy to price and easy to integrate – all good things for resellers and systems integrators.”
Version 2.3 also includes a client-side add-in for Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 R2 that allows employees to click-to-call from their on-screen OCS clients but take the call on their desktop phones. The features can be accessed in both on-premise and cloud versions of OCS 2007, and can be integrated under the Microsoft Office Communications Server standard client access license.
“We have had existing methods of integration but now we can provide the integration in a way that doesn’t require customers to pay the voice license from Microsoft,” Hussain noted. “They can use the standard Microsoft client application license and leverage the voice client from Aura.”
The company has also updated its integration with IBM’s collaboration technologies to embed Avaya voice services. Now users of Lotus and Sametime can click-to-call and have telephony presence capabilities within the applications.
Finally, Version 2.3 also includes a web application toolkit that developers can use to create custom applications that react according to certain calling events, such as automatic alerts to affected parties when an alarm is tripped at the corporate headquarters, for example. Both Aura and ACE apps are developed in XML, making the process to customize according business processes and events fairly straightforward.
Solution providers that have been around the communications block a few times will recognize ACE’s capabilities as matured CTI (computer telephony integration) technology. Its promise 10-plus years ago to simplify and streamline business processes was fulfilled in certain customer-centric, communications-heavy verticals such as call centers and legal firms. Now, with its extension into Avaya Aura and the unified communications features it promises, ACE could very well be a key bet for solution providers.
Sign up for The VAR Guy’s Weekly Newsletter, Webcasts and Resource Center. Follow The VAR Guy via RSS, Facebook and Twitter. Follow experts at VARtweet. Read The VAR Guy’s editorial disclosures here.
