Avaya has unveiled Avaya IP Office, a communications solution for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that features unified communications (UC) capabilities that include advanced collaboration tools using voice, instant messaging, presence and video.
Avaya IP Office is now easier and more affordable for businesses with less than 20 employees to install and use. This enables the smallest of companies to cost-effectively implement the advanced communications and customer service functions of larger systems. With this new release, Avaya makes unified communications up to 40% more affordable for small businesses.
“With Avaya IP Office 6.0 in place, small businesses don't have to sacrifice easy, intuitive operation to get the enhanced communications features of large enterprises,” said Anthony Bartolo, general manager, Small and Medium Enterprise Communications. “Our latest version provides SMEs with all the next-generation collaboration tools necessary for competing more effectively today against peers and larger competitors - and for thriving as the economy recovers.”
Improved collaboration tools, strengthened resiliency address SME challenges
Trends show that SMEs are optimistic about the future, yet seek new paths to business success. While most SMEs expect revenue growth in 2010, more than three out of four state that coming out of the recession, the old way of doing business won't work and they need to find new ways of taking advantage of market opportunities.
Avaya addresses this with advancements to its user-based SME solutions designed for teleworkers, mobile workers and office workers, including enhancements to its one-X Portal - a desktop communications tool easily accessible via Web - and new video collaboration capabilities.
One-X Portal lets users manage communications from a business office, home office or while on the road via an easy-to-use Web browser-based interface (using a VPN and a PC/phone combination). The new release adds fully integrated instant messaging with embedded voice calling capabilities, as well as presence to show availability via status icons. This boosts both the speed and responsiveness of inter-office communications among co-workers.
Additionally, the audio conferencing feature - which allows up to 64 parties on a single call - now provides the ability to view, add, drop and mute attendees, as well as record conference calls.
According to IDC, an international provider of market intelligence for information technology, companies with less than 20 employees account for more than 90% of small businesses worldwide. Avaya IP Office is now affordably available to this segment through a new 'combination card' - providing just a single card for what used to require several cards to support digital, analogue and IP devices. This, paired with a new line of phones for businesses with less than 20 employees, reduces costs without sacrificing capability.
“Now, the smallest businesses can gain access to the rich capabilities that were previously only available to larger companies,” said Paul Blundell, general manager of iQual, an Avaya Partner in the UK. “The savings in money and time are formidable. For example, the 90% price reduction in voicemail, combined with the new combination card, can make a real difference for companies with less than 20 employees. And we estimate that the programming, set-up and training time provided to this segment will now be cut by 50% - to just half a day. This and other benefits will make it much easier for business partners to deploy.”
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