Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Guildford, UK – 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 help 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 today, 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 can enable 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 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. Essential Mobility extends voice capabilities such as one number access and call control, and is currently supported on Symbian, Windows Mobile and iPhone devices (support for Android and Blackberry devices will be available in first quarter of 2012).
SMEs Gain Cost-Saving, Productivity Benefits
Avaya IP Office 8.0 also offers new “serverless” collaboration capabilities delivered through an integrated unified communications module,[1] called the Avaya C110 Unified Communications module. 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 and quicker way for workers to communicate via their preferred application. This can enable 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:
Simon O’Sullivan, Global IT Director, FitFlop
“For us to leverage a single solution like Avaya IP Office is huge – not just in terms of savings, but also in logistics. We manage separate brands each with their own identity and customer base, and requiring a completely separate system would be costly and confusing. We’re leveraging the same Avaya IP Office system in a multi-tenanted fashion – with full resilience – to ensure we can service our customers to the highest degree. We couldn’t find any other solution with that sort of capability at this price point, so choosing Avaya IP Office was a given for us!”
(Note: Avaya Business Partner Aurora Networks have worked closely together with FitFlop and Avaya to develop IP Office as a global solution for Fitflop)
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 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 report[2]
–Small and mid-size business interest in adding UC technologies is considerable with more than 30% of small firms and more than 55% of midsize firms citing plans to buy UC components in the next 12 months. Source: IDC report[3]
[1]Available 1Q 2012
[2]IDC Report, Consumerization of IT in SMBs Worldwide, August 2011, Raymond Boggs
[3]IDC Report, Unified Communications in U.S. Small and Medium-Sized Businesses, October 2011, Justin Jaffe
Tags: Avaya, IP Office, Mobility, Unified Communications, SMB, SME, Small Business Communications, mobile collaboration
About Avaya:
Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centers, networking and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visit www.avaya.com.
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