Avaya Makes Mid-Market, On-Demand Plays

Avaya has rolled out two products aimed at expanding its footprint in the mid-market segment, as well as a completely new venture for the on-demand space.

The new applications include a single-server product called Avaya MultiVantage Express, which offers IP telephony, messaging, contact center and mobility applications, and the Avaya S8400 Media Server, which provides a migration path to the Avaya Communication Manager IP telephony for existing Definity ProLogix, IP600 or S8100 server customers.

MultiVantage Express supports up to four locations with gateways; additional locations can be supported by direct connection to IP telephones.

The applications in MultiVantage Express are not new, says Lawrence Byrd, Avaya's director of IT telephony and mobility. Many of them are available a la carte to enterprise customers. "What is new is the packaging and our focus on the mid-market space, which we define as companies with 100 to 500 employees," he told CRM Buyer.

A few years ago, Avaya rolled out Avaya IP Office, a similarly packaged application for small companies, with installations numbering around 75,000 to date, he noted.

IP On-Demand

An entirely new initiative, Avaya On Demand, provides IP telephony applications via the hosted delivery model that has become so popular among application providers and their customers.

Users can rent Avaya Intelligent Communications' functionality -- collaboration, mobile communication, contact center, messaging and customer service apps --- on a subscription basis.

There will be large demand for this product across the enterprise spectrum, but particularly among small and medium-sized companies that would welcome the operation costs savings of such a system, predicts George Humphrey, director of on-demand services at Avaya.

"Managing a voice application is not as easy as managing an e-mail or contact application," he told CRM Buyer. "Also, voice is almost always core to any company's operation. So it has to be managed well."

Avaya On Demand includes three modules.

Avaya IP Telephony On Demand provides access to 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.

Avaya Contact Center On Demand provides basic and skills-based call routing, as well as advanced applications such as self-service, multichannel functionality and advanced reporting.

Avaya Messaging On Demand offers both basic and enhanced voice messaging. Enhanced Messaging allows subscribers to manage voice and fax messages from any computer with Internet access, and lets them merge wired and wireless messages from cellular, pager, fax, home and office numbers into a single unified phone number and mailbox.