Avaya Inc, a leading global provider of communications networks and services for businesses, today announced that it maintained its position as the leading enterprise converged telephony provider in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) in the first quarter of 2004, according to a recent report by industry analyst firm Synergy.
Avaya increased its market share by more than 7% to nearly 50% in the three months from January to March, placing it nearly 30 percentage points ahead of the nearest competitor. This number one position was measured in terms of ports shipped. A converged telephony system supports both internet protocol (IP) and traditional lines and phones, while providing call control through IP. This enables organisations to migrate incrementally to an IP infrastructure while maintaining their existing investments.
During the quarter, Avaya also held on to its number one position in the overall EMEA enterprise IP telephony market, also measured by ports shipped, increasing its share to more than a quarter of the market. In total, Avaya shipped nearly 170 000 IP telephony ports in the quarter, an increase of 19% over the previous quarter.
In a separate report, Synergy forecasts that the customer trend towards buying converged telephony solutions will continue in EMEA, with revenues predicted to increase from nearly $350 million in 2004 to more than $700 million by 2008, a compound annual growth rate of nearly 20%.
"Converged telephony solutions give customers the choice to deploy IP where they will gain the most benefits, while maintaining their existing TDM investments where it makes sense for their organisation," said Brooks Borcherding, Avaya Vice-President for Convergence Systems Solutions, EMEA.
"They can then migrate their traditional systems to IP at a path and pace that fits their individual business needs."
"Synergy expects sales of converged telephony solutions to continue to grow strongly driven by the varied telephony requirements of European organisations," said Jeremy Duke, President and CEO, Synergy Research Group. "By focusing on migration and investment protection, Avaya is positioning itself well to address capital investment concerns that lie at the heart of a PBX migration decision."
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Avaya South Africa is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Avaya EMEA Sales Ltd. The company designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than one million businesses worldwide, included among which are 90% 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 http://www.avaya.com.