Posts Tagged ‘avaya’

Avaya’s aura of real-time business interactions

Companies must be gearing up for SpeechTEK coming up in a couple of weeks because of these major upgrade announcements. ShoreTel let loose its Contact Center 6. Avaya continues to build upon its Aura foundation.

Everything’s about real-time interactions — calls, emails, faxes, IMs, social media, ponies, and pigeon carriers.

Avaya Aura Contact Center aims to better manage the customer experience by making sense of all the interaction channels in order to easily assign a task to service the customer. It allows the customer to choose whichever method of interaction he (or she) prefers at the moment, and even later when using a different channel to follow up, Aura is supposed to keep up with the various interaction paths taken by the customer.

I’m sure this has happened to you before:

YOU: Hello. I am calling about a billing issue which I’d first notified via email about a week ago.

AGENT: I’d be glad to help you. What’s your account number please?

YOU: But I’d already entered it into the IVR… Anyway, here it is…

AGENT: Sorry, but I have no record of that email.

YOU: Okay, I’m going to start tweeting about this horrible experience…

AGENT: Um, what’s a tweet?

All right, maybe not the tweet part. But sill, somewhat frustrating, no? Only to the Web generation. Grandmas and grandpas would be happy just to speak to an agent after talking to the machine. Avaya is preparing for the flood of tech-savvy customers who aren’t shy, demand instant service, and have a very short attention span. And with Aura, it’s preparing for this future on many fronts, from Contact Center to UC to Conferencing to Session Border Control (yes, even that!), as you’ll see in the press release.

Aura will be a platform to be reckoned with.

Extra long press release here:

For Immediate Release: 20-Jul-2010

Basking Ridge, N.J. – Avaya, a global leader in enterprise communications systems, software and services, today announced a suite of new and enhanced product innovations and services based onAvaya Aura™ that redefine the economics and effectiveness of real-time, multi-media enterprise communications. These new tools and services make it possible to simultaneously accelerate decision-making and achieve meaningful financial impact, while moving enterprises towards a more people-centric approach to collaboration.

“In today’s evolving business communications environment, companies demand the right technology approach to ensure superior experiences for employees and the customers they serve,” said Kevin Kennedy, president and CEO of Avaya. “Avaya’s latest series of innovations accomplishes this through faster, more efficient orchestration of people and information. Making smart business decisions quickly can be difficult, but connecting the right people to solve issues in real-time should be both simple and cost-effective.”

New and enhanced capabilities in Avaya’s suite of Contact Center (CC) and Unified Communications (UC) applications drive improvement in the quality of customer service and employee collaboration for mid- to large-sized businesses while lowering the total cost of ownership. In addition, Avaya Aura 6.0 now features increased security, scalability and flexibility, plus common management and expanded use of virtualization across the entire platform. Avaya Aura can save large enterprises approximately 23 percent in capital expenditures and another 33 percent in operating expenditures, according to a recent survey conducted by Avaya. Mid-sized enterprises typically save even more¹.

Today’s announcements include:

• Avaya Aura™ Contact Center, announced in a separate release today, is a new multimedia contact center application that extends to all types of media, including voice, e-mail, web chat, and instant messaging/SMS. Designed to further enhance the customer service experience, the new offering will help businesses more effectively manage customer experiences in an always-on world. Avaya Aura Contact Center complements the large enterprise solutions of Avaya Aura Call Center Elite and will serve as a multimedia extension to Call Center Elite in the future.
• Avaya Agile Communication Environment (ACE) facilitates the development of communications-enabled business applications to speed business workflow. Avaya ACE 2.2 includes Event Response Manager, a new packaged application that reduces downtime and increases efficiency by automatically notifying the right people with the right skills to respond to and manage unexpected events, such as inventory shortages, security breaches, etc. A new developer toolkit makes it easier to embed timely and personalized communications into business applications. With Avaya ACE, enterprises can communications-enable their business applications up to 80 percent faster than by using traditional methods.
• Avaya Aura Conferencing, now available in Standard Edition, provides rich audio, video and Web conferencing features on a single server that reduces management and power requirements. The Enterprise Edition, available later this year, will expand capacity and features to enable internal operator assistance, emergency blast dialing and more. Both editions integrate with UC applications from Avaya, Microsoft®, IBM® and Adobe® to offer a high-quality, integrated collaboration experience.
• Avaya Aura Messaging provides rich multimedia messaging with choices for accessing and storing messages. The first release of this Linux-based solution is specifically designed to enable Octel users to easily migrate to the new platform by maintaining the familiar user interface while delivering new features such as speech-to-text and speech-based virtual assistants.
• Avaya Aura Presence Services offers an open standards-based, native instant messaging solution providing federated presence for IBM Lotus Sametime, and IM and Presence across Microsoft®, IBM, Avaya one-X® Communicator, Avaya one-X Agent and Avaya 9600 SIP phones.
• Avaya Aura Session Manager 6.0 now scales to over 100,000 users, including 50,000 SIP phones and video capable endpoints.
• Avaya Aura Communication Manager 6.0 can now be deployed as an Evolution server for easy migration of mixed H.323/TDM endpoints to SIP environments or a full SIP-based voice and video feature server.
• Avaya Aura Session Border Controller (SBC) allows enterprises to securely connect real time, SIP-based unified communications to the rapidly growing number of IP-based devices, smart phones and applications both within and external to a company. The SBC protects a customer’s network and connected devices from attacks such as denial of service, spoofing attacks, “man in the middle,” or access through unused VoIP ports.
• Avaya Aura System Manager 6.0 provides for a common management system across Avaya Aura that now extends to Presence Services, Conferencing and Messaging, making it easier to administer and manage Avaya Aura components from one central location.
• Avaya Aura System Platform 6.0, Avaya’s virtualization technology, now encompasses all elements of the Avaya Aura architecture and applications portfolio, eliminating up to 80 percent of hardware compared to competitive solutions while reducing management, power requirements and costs.
• Avaya 9600 family of desk phones now offer larger, color touch screen displays at a lower price point, function on lower power and provide a low total cost of ownership. A new value-priced SIP model, the Avaya 1603SW-I, provides a low-cost option for small- to large sized businesses.

The company also issued a new release of Avaya Communication Server 1000 (CS1000), which increases scalability, adds support for the IPv6 protocol and enhances SIP support and connectivity. The continued investment in Avaya CS1000 provides installed customers with a smooth migration path into Avaya Aura and supports many of the applications announced today.

Avaya Aura has already enabled more than 400 enterprises to improve business efficiency and increase responsiveness since its introduction last year. Anchored by the open standards, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based, Avaya Aura Session Manager, Avaya Aura instantly reduces complexity and provides the foundation for rich, contextual applications in broader, more flexible, unified communications and collaboration deployments.

German energy provider, Energiedienst Rheinfelden, is among the first customers to adopt the new Avaya Aura 6.0 platform. The company provides electricity and other related services to more than 750,000 residents in southern Germany and Switzerland. With the adoption of the Avaya Aura 6.0 platform, the company is able to deliver superior collaboration and communications capabilities to its employees across its 26 locations, while creating a migration path for future communications investments. According to Friedhelm Bäumer, CIO at Energiendienst Rheinfelden:

“Avaya Aura is strengthening our communications infrastructure for the future. It enables staff-members to communicate and collaborate in an immediate, fast and efficient manner, even across sites. It is also making the switch from ISDN to SIP telephony a gradual one, allowing us to use existing equipment.”

More than 200 individual beta trials and or full implementations of Avaya solutions announced today are already underway. All Avaya solutions announced today are available now or will be available during the third quarter of 2010 through Avaya or authorized Avaya Connect Channel Partners.

This wide range of new and enhanced enterprise communications products and applications announced today are supported by Avaya Advisory Services, which provide consulting expertise for multi-vendor communications infrastructures and Avaya’s broad ecosystem of developer and channel partners. New to the Avaya Advisory Services is a Self-Funded Roadmap to help companies transform cost savings from prior technology deployments into process improvements to fund future technology investments.

“Avaya spent time with us to really understand our business challenges and, using their Self-Funded Roadmap, we improved our customer satisfaction scores, achieving a 40 percent reduction in call waiting times, and the ability to handle call volumes with 30 percent fewer agents,” said Arnt Eirik Johnsen, controller customer operations, Ventelo. “This has allowed us to re-invest in our business and improve customer service.”

Avaya Aura applications and architecture are complemented by Avaya’srecently announced data networking solutions and network management products, which offer up to 50 percent less total cost of ownership (TCO) than the leading competitor, and are specifically built to handle the demands of real-time communications. Designed from the ground up to optimize video, mobile and voice interactions, Avaya’s fit-for-purpose, enterprise communications and data solutions deliver peak performance, efficiency and resiliency with a smaller footprint that reduces the cost and energy requirements of converging communications networks.

For additional information, including a detailed backgrounder on the Avaya Aura products and a white paper, please visit the Avaya press room online at: http://www.avaya.com/gcm/master-usa/en-us/corporate/pressroom/index.htm

JOIN AVAYA FOR THE LAUNCH: Avaya will host a series of global one-hour webcasts on today’s announcement for customers, partners and other interested parties. To register for the webcast associated with your location, please click on one of the following links:

• For the US, starting at 1:00 pm EDT today, click here.
• For Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Latin America and South America, starting at 2:30 pm EDT today, click here.
• For Asia-Pacific, starting at 11:30 pm EDT today, click here.
• For Europe, Middle East and Africa, starting at 5:00 am EDT, Wednesday, July 21, click here.

About Avaya

Avaya is a global leader in enterprise communications systems. The company provides unified communications, contact centers, data solutions, and related services directly and through its channel partners to leading businesses and organizations around the world. Enterprises of all sizes depend on Avaya for state-of-the-art communications that improve efficiency, collaboration, customer service and competitiveness. For more information, please visit www.avaya.com.

All this crazy tablet nonsense (talking about you Avaya, RIM, and Cisco)

Imitation is the highest form of flattery, but come on, this whole tablet craze has gone too far.

So Apple came out with the blockbuster iPad tablet, and now everyone and their dogs are making one. Yes, I’m talking about you, Avaya, RIM, and Cisco.

What I find funny is that the PC companies — namely Microsoft and HP — abandoned their tablet projects once the iPad was imminent and proved to be a huge success, but it’s the communications companies that have a hard time letting go.

I’m not saying that the iPad is the end-all of all tablet devices. No, let’s hope not. I do want to see competing devices from Microsoft and HP (especially using the recently acquired Palm webOS). These are the companies that have been in the computing business for decades and have a clue about these devices.

But for companies like Avaya, RIM, and Cisco to venture into the tablet alternate universe is not productive. In fact, I dare say that it’s more of a marketing ploy than anything else — generate buzz, ride the iPad’s coattails, show ‘em we’re hip. After all, it’s not too hard to make one these days: source the cheap hardware from China, slap on the OS (be in Android, Windows, or Blackberry), and announce it to the world.

But guess what? There won’t be companies lining up to buy one of these babies.

You should know better, guys. And I’m not talking about not challenging Apple because you are targeting business users. I’m talking about your denial that communications today is more about applications than about the device. Leave the device to the likes of Apple, Microsoft, HP, and IBM to design and make. You are supposed to be leaders in the communications biz, but why am I still carrying an iPhone and a Blackberry and still staring at my ugly desk phone? Now you also want me to carry your tablet?

We’re all accustomed to the fact that audio capabilities aren’t limited to phones anymore. A lot of the emphasis on these new tablets are about video capabilities, but this is 2010 and we also know that smartphones have the horsepower for video, too. So really, is there the need for a business tablet?

So here’s my advice: Abandon your tablet projects and hire more developers and UI experts to focus on applications. If you insist on a tablet, then OEM it from somebody who knows it better than you. Partner with the tablet makers to ensure your app is well-designed for their device. But for the sake of business please stop it with the tablet business.

An Avaya tablet?

Hmmm, what is Avaya up to with this tablet device going through FCC approval? Eric Krapf of No Jitter analyzes:

So one possibility is that Avaya really intends to compete toe-to-toe on end-to-end. That would explain Avaya recommitting to its data product line, instead of shedding it, as many people expected they would when they acquired it as part of Nortel Enterprise.

Frankly, that’s the only possibility that makes any sense. If Avaya is building a tablet that’s essentially a tablet version of its proprietary desk phones–an Avaya-specific device, optimized for the Avaya platform, if not restricted to that platform–well, that just wouldn’t seem to make any sense. Proprietary desk phones can be inflexible devices that hang off a proprietary platform, because they’re not going anywhere. Tablets are mobile devices that are supposed to connect to different, often public, networks. Unless Avaya is planning some kind of dual-mode tablet–Avaya-optimized for the office, more generic for the outside world.

Personally, I’m not so sure about Avaya (or any Big Telecom companies) getting into such a thing, especially in tablet computing. The communications business isn’t about hardware any more — it’s now about applications. Plus, building computers isn’t a competency for Avaya or its peers. Leave that stuff to HP, Dell, Apple, and Microsoft, especially if it’s about tablet computing. Instead of coming up with its own tablet, why not develop a kick-butt app for the iPad (or other mobile devices) instead? Does Avaya really think it can create a better tablet computing experience than Apple (or other computer companies)?

Besides, nobody wants desk phones any more. It’s about mobility and portability. People want to get calls on their mobile devices now, be it a smartphone or a tablet computer. A fancy desktop phone with a big multi-touch capable screen may look sexy, but come on, it’s 2010 so let’s please move away from the desk.

Avaya and NICE end partnership in China? [Updated]

Update: According to both Avaya and NICE Systems representatives, there is no change to the existing global partnership between the two companies. From Avaya: “Avaya has not terminated its partnership with NICE in China or anywhere else in APAC, and both companies continue to cooperate in the contact center space.” From NICE: “Particularly for China region, NICE and Avaya management in China have the mutual commitment of continuous cooperation. The joint success throughout the years and strong relationship will continue to drive this cooperation moving forward.”

I am hearing from a China-based source that Avaya has ended its alliance with NICE Systems in the China (perhaps all of Asia?) market. No official word yet from the press contacts at respective companies. I will keep you updated once I hear back.

Avaya has been successful in the Chinese market, but as in elsewhere it faces stiff competition with behemoth Cisco. Because of the name brand Avaya has won the hearts of many major corporations in China, but in that market it also has to fend off the likes of NEC and Panasonic which have a strong presence in Asia and are more well received by smaller businesses — a growing sector of the Chinese economy.

NICE Systems first opened its APAC office in Hong Kong in 2001 and has since scored some high-profile wins in the region, but mainly in its video products. The (only?) publicized voice/contact center related contract came from Chinese e-commerce site, Alibaba.com, in 2008.

Perhaps that is the reason why Avaya and NICE ended their partnership in the region. It appears NICE is having difficulties making inroads in the call recording and quality management areas of contact centers in China.

Guest post from Interop: Is video really ready to take off? I mean, REALLY?

John Stepp has graciously agreed to share with InsideCTI readers his insights into the latest and greatest from Interop in Las Vegas. John is a full spectrum communications consultant and an expert on free and open source communications technologies. You can learn more about him and his services at Free Tech Consultants.

The Interop 2010 trade show floor opened Tuesday to a packed crowd flooding in to pick up the latest information on all things IT.  I am not sure if everyone learned what they needed, but at least they got a t-shirt and hat from HP who had a large presence at the Las Vegas show.

My quest for the holy grail of videoconference interoperability was still met with some stiff resistance, but I was glad to hear LifeSize’s insistence that interoperability with Skype video was definitely on their near term product roadmap.   LifeSize currently is working with Skype voice, so their claims are credible.  There is no question that interoperability with Skype video will allow the videoconferencing segment to take off huge, pulling the rest of enterprise communications with it.  How else will B2C video ever take off?    For that matter, how else will B2B get traction and take off like it should?  The most important application for video is to get closer to customers and business partners.

I am sure that once the dam is broken, others will follow.  After all Skype and Avaya are in the same ownership family and it makes sense to create some synergy there.  I believe Avaya is cognizant of that, but it remains to be seen what their video future is.  The Cisco-Tandberg combo looms large as a competitive threat, especially if they lower their costs for individual users and get that human network thing going, which is probably what they will do.  Polycom’s great technology will become more and more valuable if that happens.

A new entrant into the videoconferencing space is Vu Telepresence.   They have a very low cost 720p offering that includes the HDTV and pan tilt zoom camera.  They are selling it for what some companies are selling their low end products for.  Vu Telepresence is also offering the system for 24 or 36 months with a 60 day money back guarantee.  It might not be quite as good as the market leaders, but offers a good low cost alternative for companies wanting to test the videoconferencing waters. However, like most everyone else, they do not seem interested in Skype interoperability.

The videoconferencing market needs to be truly interoperable to make video the number one communications platform.  With price points for great HD video now well within the grasp of enterprise customers, there is no excuse for not taking the plunge.  How do you get customers and business partners to communicate with your videoconferencing system?  Make it free!  Judging from the many videoconference systems gathering dust and cobwebs in offices around the country, do companies really need videoconferencing to talk to each other?  I have a low cost alternative – it’s called a phone.

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