News | May 8, 2006

Avaya On Demand Delivers Intelligent Communications As A Service

Avaya On Demand provides IP communications applications on a per-user, per-month subscription basis

Solutions for IP Telephony, Contact Center and Messaging are hosted from an Avaya data center

Avaya On Demand provides businesses with turnkey access to intelligent communications as a service from Avaya Inc. (NYSE:AV) , a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services. The Avaya Intelligent Communications solutions are delivered on a subscription basis for as low as $25 per user per month for IP Telephony, making it easy for companies to improve collaboration, mobile communications and customer service with award-winning Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony, Contact Center and Messaging applications.

Companies with as few as 100 users can benefit from lower upfront capital costs and reduced management responsibilities by choosing Avaya On Demand. The communications infrastructure and applications are housed in a secure Avaya-operated data center, delivering worry-free, remotely managed solutions that include back-up systems to provide business continuity in the event of a service disruption. From the data centers, IP networking distributes feature- rich Avaya enterprise-class communications applications to companies of almost any size, from mid-sized businesses to large enterprises. Each solution is pre-configured and pre-tested to help speed implementation, and the solution can be expanded by simply adding phones when new employees are hired or seasonal workloads increase temporarily.

"The growing popularity of hosted solutions shows that mature IP network technology is making a difference in how companies choose to expand communications capabilities," said Nick Lippis, president of Lippis Consulting. "The managed services element of the hosted model enables smaller businesses and companies with limited in-house technology staff to confidently migrate to IP telephony and take advantage of the advanced communications capabilities it can offer."

Three Avaya On Demand solutions are available in North America today. All are available in a flexible, modular pricing model that provides everything a customer needs, including platform hardware, software, services, phones and gateways. Customers pay only for the functionality they need - by user, by application and by month. The Avaya On Demand solutions provide complete feature transparency, because of full Q-sig integration with on premise Avaya communications servers. Based on recognized industry standards, the solutions are designed to integrate with existing multi-vendor networks for simpler, smoother implementation. And the hosted model allows customers to expand offices or divisions as needed, enabling gradual or rapid migration to IP telephony.

  • Avaya IP Telephony On Demand is a flexible, low-risk way for companies to migrate to IP communications. The solution includes access to the more than 700 features and functions of Avaya Communication Manager software, including the ability to add conferencing, mobility features such as Avaya IP Softphone for PC-based telephony, and Avaya Extension to Cellular, which can ring the user's desk phone and cell phone simultaneously for single-number reachability in the office or on the road.
  • Avaya Contact Center On Demand provides Avaya contact center applications in a repeatable, usage-based solution that enables businesses with as few as 30 customer service agents to select the exact set of contact center capabilities that can help the company grow and compete. From basic and skills-based call routing to advanced applications, such as self-service, multi-channel and advanced reporting, Avaya Contact Center On Demand can help companies serve customers more effectively while providing efficiencies and flexibility.
  • Avaya Messaging On Demand offers both basic and enhanced voice messaging in a secure, fully managed, high-availability solution. Basic Messaging can provide a mailbox for voice mail only or for both voice mail and fax communications. Enhanced Messaging allows subscribers to manage voice and fax messages from any computer with Internet access, and also adds the ability to merge wired and wireless messages from cellular, pager, fax, home and office numbers into a single unified phone number and mailbox.

    • Avaya On Demand solutions are sold through a select group of authorized Avaya BusinessPartners, Systems Integrators and Service Providers, which can sell the solutions under private label branding. Carousel Industries is one of the first authorized Avaya BusinessPartners providing Avaya On Demand.

    "We selected Avaya on Demand solutions based on the excellence of the technology and the flexibility of the Avaya hosted platform," said Jeff Gardner, CEO, Carousel Industries. "It's a cost-effective way to offer our customers value-added applications in combination with our own services to provide communications capabilities that were previously associated with enterprise, premises-based solutions."

    Supported by highly skilled Avaya technicians and engineers, the Avaya On Demand application servers and end-to-end network infrastructure in Avaya data centers are also monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week by award-winning, patented Avaya technologies that use artificial intelligence to remotely diagnose and adjust networks to avoid service outages.

    "The introduction of Avaya On Demand represents a new innovative approach for delivering intelligent communications to our customers," said Denzil Samuels, vice president and general manager, Avaya Global Managed Services. "It is another example of how Avaya is helping businesses expand communications flexibly and reliably, in the way that makes sense for their business."

    About Avaya
    Avaya Inc. designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than 1 million businesses worldwide, including over 90 percent 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 the Avaya website: www.avaya.com.

    About 2006 FIFA World Cup
    As the Official Convergence Communication provider for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Avaya is providing a champion communications network for the World's largest sporting event. The converged network -- that combines voice and data on the same infrastructure -- will connect the 12 host stadiums, the international media centres in Munich, Berlin and Dortmund and the FIFA headquarters in Berlin. Players, coaches, volunteers and fans alike will benefit from the Avaya network that will be instrumental in player and journalist accreditation, the reporting of results, material tracking, accommodation confirmations, transportation, and ticketing among other critical functions. With an estimated 45,000 network connections, 30,000 network devices and over 15 terabytes (or 15,000,000,000,000 bytes) of data, it is the largest converged communication network ever built for a sporting event.