Avaya Deepens UC Portfolio
Avaya Inc. has extended its unified communications initiative with a new product family aimed at unifying diverse networks, applications and users. The company also announced the acquisition of enterprise mobility company Traverse Networks.
The new portfolio, available through the vendors VAR channel, consists of four software editions:
* Unified Communications, Essential Edition: for office-based users who need advanced IP telephony and messaging support, and basic conferencing functionality.
* Unified Communications, Standard Edition: for mainstream users who benefit from advanced mobility tools, including unified office and mobile communications.
* Unified Communications, Advanced Edition: for users who gain a competitive advantage by collaborating with large teams using integrated voice and whiteboard sessions.
* Unified Communications, Professional Edition: for strategic communicators who take advantage of video communications and speech recognition, including high-definition video conferences and voice-driven access to messages and other personal applications.
While todays business communications systems are diverse, global and fragmented, Avaya intends to use open industry standards and cross-platform protocols to integrate communications tools across disparate networks, applications, devices and user segments.
Avayas unified communications strategy has consistently emphasized streamlined integration of our solutions with existing networks and applications, said Eileen Rudden, vice president and general manager of Avayas recently formed unified communications division. For instance, our flagship telephony messaging and conferencing products provide integration of communications with Microsoft Exchange and Outlook, as well as IBM Lotus Domino, Notes and Sametime, the most popular desktop interfaces. We will ship Microsoft Office Communicator integration next quarter. Likewise, we have partnered with industry leaders including Nokia and RIM Blackberry to extend mobile enterprise communications to these familiar personal productivity devices.
To further address the latter, Avaya also announced the acquisition of Traverse Networks, a privately held developer of enterprise mobility solutions for unified communications. Traverses server software and mobile handset interface deliver professional call handling applications and voice mail management to mobile devices. Users can see and hear office voice mail through an e-mail-like inbox on their mobile devices that displays office voice mail messages with information about whom the message is from, when it was sent, and message duration. Users can select one or more messages, press play, and listen to them in any order. There is no need to dial a number for access, no PIN and no awkward touchtone menus.
The Traverse solution also extends the capabilities of enterprise communications from the desktop, allowing users to control office calls and manage voice mail from a mobile device. Users can select, listen and manage messages through a menu-driven interface with no need to dial a central number. It also gives the ability to send office calls to any phone, block nonessential calls, receive calls on both office and mobile phones simultaneously, and synchronize call logs. Workers can securely access office voice mail, corporate phone directories, enterprise call management functions and caller ID, using a broad range of devices, including RIM Blackberry, Palm handhelds and J2ME-enabled mobile phones.
From a strategic perspective, Avaya said its latest unified communications push is advancing its vision for intelligent communications embedding communications applications within business processes. The four new editions in the Avaya Unified Communications product family will be available in the first half of 2007, and pricing will vary based on deployment and license terms.
Avaya Inc. www.avaya.com
