Avaya Mobile Collaboration Optimizes Team Performance For Small and Mid-Size Businesses

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Avaya, a global provider of business communications and collaboration systems and services, today unveiled Avaya IP Office 8.0 — the new version of the company's unified communications (UC) solution for small and mid-size enterprises (SME). The new version introduces a range of advancements for improving collaboration, including a comprehensive set of mobile capabilities that drive better team performance and keep mobile workers connected to their colleagues and customers wherever they go.  
 
Full-Featured Business Mobility 
The new mobility application for Avaya IP Office 8.0 — called one-X® Mobile Preferred for IP Office — enables users to access a comprehensive set of unified communications capabilities on Android-compatible devices now, and on iPhone devices in early 2012. Key features of Avaya one-X Mobile Preferred for IP Office include:

• Full multi-party conference management via mobile device offers the ability to invite, view, mute and drop participants during a conference call. Users can set up voice conferences by selecting the participants and then, with one touch, initiate the group conference.
• Integrated presence enables users to display availability status to co-workers via mobile device (e.g. available, do not disturb), and show specific times of availability based on a user’s Microsoft® Outlook calendar. Unavailable workers can let colleagues follow them and receive an alert when availability resumes.
• Instant Messaging lets workers easily find business colleagues via an integrated corporate directory and begin a text chat with multiple co-workers simultaneously.
• 'Geopresence' displays one's location anywhere in the world, and is ideal for teams in places such as hospitals, hotels or companies where employees need to quickly identify a co-worker's physical location.
• Visual Voicemail lets users see all of their business voicemails on their mobile device with date/time information. Users can hear voicemail messages as they are being left in real-time and access a call in progress to converse.

 
Avaya's new one-X Mobile Preferred for IP Office application builds on the previously-available Essential Mobility solution for IP Office, a solution that extends voice capabilities such as one number access and call control. Essential Mobility is currently supported on Symbian, Windows Mobile and iPhone devices (support for Android and Blackberry devices available in first quarter of 2012). 
 
SMEs Gain Cost-Saving, Productivity BenefitsAvaya IP Office 8.0 also offers new "serverless" collaboration capabilities delivered through an integrated unified communications module, called the Avaya C110 Unified Communications module.¹ This can eliminate the need for an external server in IP Office implementations, helping to simplify deployment for partners, reduce installation times and decrease equipment costs.
 
Additionally, new desktop IP Office plug-ins embed communications into popular business productivity applications, providing a more convenient way for workers to communicate via their preferred application. This enables users to:

• Use federated presence to bring Google Talk and IP Office contacts into Avaya one-X® Portal for IP Office—the company's 'all-in-one' communications portal for SMEs.
• Make and receive phone calls from a Salesforce.com® page.
• View directory contacts for Google Talk and IP Office in one location, with click-to-call and conference capabilities.
• Use visual voicemail within an employee's Microsoft® Outlook e-mail window.

 
Quotes:
Jeff Stark, technology director, Duluth Entertainment Convention Center (DECC), a 500 employee (full- and part-time) mid-size organization"In our business running a large convention center, you have to be two steps ahead of what is happening to meet client needs. One day we are serving a rock concert, the next a hockey game, so we need the best communications to meet all kinds of customer expectations. The mobility advancements in Avaya IP Office 8.0 are the most comprehensive we've seen, and will be essential in helping us run a location as large as the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, where you never know where anyone is.  
 
"We'll now have the ability to see who's available, where they are, and keep them connected into the team. Fast collaboration is essential for the 150-plus people we have dedicated to running a day's event at DECC, and we couldn't do it this effectively without Avaya IP Office.
 
"In terms of savings, Avaya IP Office makes it much more cost-effective for us to set up anything from a temporary office to a call center for clients at the DECC. We can estimate savings of up to fifty percent just by bringing in Avaya IP Office, not to mention the flexibility and ease-of-setup the system delivers."
(Note: Avaya Business Partner TelcoLogix helped implement IP Office for DECC.)
 
Justin Jaffe, research manager, SMB and Home Office Markets, IDC "Many general business and IT investment priorities cited by small and medium-sized businesses are associated with improving productivity by leveraging mobile communications and collaboration capabilities. Solutions like Avaya IP Office that are comprehensive, easy to integrate with existing infrastructure, and designed specifically for mobile SMB workers will be particularly attractive."
 
Other Facts: 
--More than 60 percent of medium-sized firms in an online survey indicated that they provide smartphones to employees. Specific company percentages by country surveyed were: 
United States 69 %; UK 70 %; Germany 79 %; China 64 %; Brazil 64 %. Source: IDC report²  
--Small and mid-size business interest in adding UC technologies is considerable with more than 55% of midsize firms and more than 30% of small firms citing plans to buy UC components in the next 12 months. Source: IDC report³
 
For an online media kit on Avaya IP Office 8.0, visit www.avaya.com/news and click on Media Kits.