Avaya is ramping up the capabilities of
its Avaya IP Office portfolio of communications and collaboration technologies
for SMBs.
At a May 17 event in New York for
analysts, journalists and partners, Avaya officials unveiled Avaya IP Office
7.0 and introduced a number of smaller businesses that are taking advantage of
the capabilities in the enhanced offering.
Avaya IP Office 7.0 also completes the integration of the Nortel Enterprise Solutions
technologies and digital phones into the IP Office platform, according to
Avaya. The company bought Nortel’s business unit in December 2009 for
$915 million, a move that enabled Avaya to acquire Nortel’s UC (unified
communications) products and made it a significant larger player in the
enterprise telephony field.
Through the deal, Avaya also acquired
Nortel’s VOIP (voice over IP) products, switches and routers.
Incorporating Nortel’s UC and VOIP offerings
into Avaya’s platform will enable the company to offer a wider range of
collaboration capabilities in an easier and more cost-effective manner,
according to Isabelle Guis, general manager of Avaya’s Small and Medium
Enterprise Division.
“As the economy shifts into a higher
gear, today’s small and medium businesses need the best tools available to
collaborate and compete effectively,” Guis said in a statement. “Avaya IP
Office 7.0 represents the pinnacle of advanced communications in this market, providing
vast unified communications capabilities with a focus on simplicity and
savings.”
By completing the integration of the
Nortel technologies into the Avaya platform, the 14 million or so users of
Nortel’s enterprise products now have access to Avaya’s IP Office. That
capability will save Nortel users 40 to 60 percent on the cost of incorporating
Avaya IP Office into their businesses by enabling them to keep their existing
Nortel phones when upgrading to the Avaya platform, according to company officials.
Avaya also is offering a new Data
Migration Tool that enables partners to transfer a customer’s existing data,
such as voice mails and phone extensions, to their new systems.
Along with the completed integration of
Nortel, Avaya’s IP Office 7.0 also includes new collaboration devices,
including new color touch-screen desktop phones and new conference room phones
that offer wide-band audio, call recording through an SD card and fast USB
connectivity to a laptop.
During the New York event, Avaya
officials also talked about upcoming capabilities in IP Office designed to
bring enterprise-class collaboration capabilities into the SMB space. Included
in this will be the Avaya Flare Experience for smaller businesses. Avaya
introduced the Avaya Flare Experience in September 2010, rolling
out a collaboration platform that is designed to give users easier and quicker
access to everything from desktop voice and video to social media, instant
messaging and conferencing. Avaya reportedly will bring its Flare Experience to
such mobile devices as Apple’s iPad tablet and various Google Android-based
smartphones.
Avaya also demonstrated a wide range of
capabilities, including multiparty video conferencing through different devices
and desktop sharing technologies. Officials also showed how businesses can
upgrade from a Nortel device to Avaya IP Office by using the Data Migration
Tool.
In addition, Avaya officials outlined
what they said was a hybrid cloud approach for SMBs, which includes Avaya IP
Office on premises, but with some applications—like call center or mobile
software—available via the cloud through such Avaya partners as Verizon, BT and
Bell Canada.
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