Avaya IP, SIP-powered solutions accelerate enterprise evolution to intelligent, open communications

Avaya Inc today launched new versions of its industry-leading IP telephony, messaging and contact centre software. The software helps businesses benefit from a more reliable, open enterprise communications foundation supporting enhanced employee and customer communications.

New and unique capabilities of the software can help organisations increase business continuity with advanced call preservation, improve mobility with new virtual workspace features, and drive greater investment protection of multivendor technologies with expanded Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) support.

New capabilities of the software releases - part of Avaya`s suite of IP-based MultiVantage Communications Applications - include:

* Enhanced survivability: Greater business continuity of IP communications extends to large remote locations of up to 2 400 people. Also, during network failures, IP calls can remain preserved with full functionality, and call centre data can be retained and accurately reported.

* Expanded SIP support: Avaya`s IP telephony and messaging software gain new SIP enhancements, such as expanded multi-vendor interoperability, including full SIP support of Cisco IP phones. Also, Avaya`s IP software now includes SIP without additional fees, and doubles the number of SIP sessions supported.

* "Hot desking" enterprise mobility: Workers can easily move their personal office phone capabilities to another phone anywhere in a business for instant set up of a virtual workspace.

* Greater security for applications: Broadened encryption and authenticated call control of application enablement services help developers create more secure, reliable Web services-based applications.

Included in the updates is the new version of Avaya`s flagship IP telephony software, Avaya Communication Manager, which delivers solutions for improving survivability of large remote offices in the most cost-effective way. Working with Communication Manager, the Avaya S8500 Media Server can now act as a local survivable processor (LSP), ensuring business locations of up to 2 400 people have continuous IP communications if a network is disrupted or fails. This is an increase from 450-person support. Another new capability, IP Media Resource Duplication, advances survivability by ensuring IP phone calls remain working with full functionality (ie, transfer, conferencing) during network or hardware failures. Additional survivability benefits include a unique capability for contact centres so that during network outages, customer data will continue to be collected, and can be reconsolidated after recovery to maintain accurate customer reporting.

Communication Manager also introduces a new enterprise mobility enhancement for "hot desking", a capability that lets workers move all of their personal phone capabilities to another phone in the business and on another system in the network. The feature lets employees set up a virtual workspace in any business location, such as a remote office in another state, simply by logging into any desktop phone. Upon logging in, the phone will upload the user`s profile and speed dial contacts, and make it appear as if they at their usual desk.

"As IP telephony matures, the solutions most beneficial to businesses are those that deliver value-adding features available through a communications system based on a highly survivable and reliable architecture design," said Allan Sulkin, president, TEQConsult Group. "Avaya`s new MultiVantage solutions demonstrate its long-term and consistent leadership in this market space by placing a priority on business needs, while offering flexible pathways to integration of future technologies, such as SIP."

The Avaya Converged Communications Server includes Avaya SIP Enablement Services that let businesses integrate open, presence-based SIP functionality for real-time communications. The Converged Communications Server also includes Avaya Application Enablement Services, which delivers Communication Manager application protocol interfaces (APIs) and Web services to help developers design new applications for a service-oriented architecture (SOA).

Avaya SIP Enablement Services are now available to Communication Manager users without additional licensing fees, allowing businesses to easily and cost-efficiently integrate SIP applications with more devices. To help businesses save money through investment protection, Avaya`s SIP solutions can support a broader range of multi-vendor SIP end points.

Avaya now provides full support for Cisco IP phones, which can be integrated with Communication Manager to deliver Avaya telephony features to these phones using SIP. Additionally, Avaya doubles the number of SIP sessions supported by Communication Manager, letting companies deploy more SIP phones and take greater advantage of SIP-based connectivity to public networks of service providers.

Avaya Application Enablement Services increase security and survivability to give application developers a more reliable and survivable environment for developing Web services-based applications. Improvements include broader application security and enhanced encryption, as well as an increase in transport link resiliency so applications can remain preserved and uninterrupted during network outages of up to 30 seconds.

"More businesses are implementing an IP-based intelligent communications environment in which open technologies supporting SIP and service-oriented architectures will help companies sharpen their competitive-edge," said Michael Thurk, Avaya`s senior vice-president and president, Global Communications Solutions. "To help organisations reach their goals, Avaya provides a survivable, scalable and open environment for IP communications today, along with a rock-solid, SIP-enhanced foundation that evolves as a business grows."

Recently, Atlantis Communications, a leading Russian system integrator and Avaya Business Partner, successfully migrated its own communication network to Avaya to improve business continuity and protect investment. Recently, the company implemented an S8400 Media Server powered by Communication Manager 3.1 IP telephony software with SIP using existing IP hard phones 4620, 4610SW and 4612. Using the new software, Atlantis Communications can turn its Avaya S8400 Media Server into a local survivable processor, helping to maintain its IP voice communication should the network go down. This will keep Atlantis Communications employees, including sales, pre-sales and network engineers, in continuous communication even under the most demanding disaster recovery scenarios, enabling the company to better serve the 24/7 needs of its customers.

Also, Avaya`s SIP solutions help Atlantis Communications users to more easily and cost-effectively integrate advanced SIP communication using their existing infrastructure in a multi-vendor environment.

Eugene Melnik, President, Atlantis Communications, commented: "Our new converged communication network based on Avaya Communication Manager 3.1 has already brought significant benefits to our business. In particular, it has delivered easier, centralised system management, as well as improved survivability and applications. The new Russian localisation support will be key in helping our many key government organisation customers for whom investment protection is extremely important. In particular, Avaya`s extended SIP support will enable us and our customers to use existing phones with new, advanced solutions to protect investment while evolving to a more intelligent communication environment with enhanced user experiences."

Avaya also updated its messaging and contact centre software today. They are:

Avaya Modular Messaging 3.0, the company`s industry-leading messaging platform providing unified access to voicemails, e-mails and fax messages via phone or PC, now integrates with SIP networking. SIP integration enables direct connectivity between Modular Messaging and SIP phones, reducing system resources, lowering implementation costs and increasing the number of messaging sessions supported per server.

Modular Messaging 3.0 also provides an easier, more convenient way to configure and manage mailbox options via PC - such as new greeting creation, personal distribution lists, and mobility options - by now giving users the ability to do this via Web browser.

Additionally, Avaya includes new support for the OCTEL SERENADE telephone user interface, completing Avaya`s support of the leading interfaces to provide consistent interoperability and a flexible migration path across messaging platforms. Other key advancements include centralised management across 75 time zones and increased support of simultaneous e-mail sessions on a single server.

Avaya Call Centre 3.1, from the company`s award-winning Customer Interaction Suite, serves customer sales and service needs through automatic call distribution technology. Significant Avaya Call Centre enhancements include improvements to its privacy capabilities. The company offers more classes of restriction (up from 99 to 999) and improved routing capabilities, doubling the number of separate routing rules to 2 000 vectors. This provides better management of customer inquiries by directly routing them to the most effective agent, in the fastest manner, especially across highly-distributed virtual IP contact centres.