Avaya Announces New Initiatives for Mid-Size Contact Center Market

BASKING RIDGE, NJ--(Marketwire - May 27, 2009) - Avaya Inc. today announced new initiatives related to its flagship contact center solution for mid-size businesses -- Avaya Contact Center Express -- that enable organizations to deploy the sophisticated customer service capabilities of larger businesses in a simplified, fully-integrated and more cost-effective way.

Avaya, a leader in business communications applications, systems and services, acquired Agile Software NZ Limited, the developer of the Avaya Contact Center Express solution.(1) With this agreement, Avaya gains full ownership of Avaya Contact Center Express, which will help enable the company and its partners to accelerate their growth in the mid-market space.

Avaya also released Avaya Contact Center Express 4.0, the latest version of its mid-market contact center solution. This new release provides users with a host of advanced multimedia, reporting and self-service capabilities designed to enhance customer service and agent productivity for mid-size companies or divisions of large organizations.

Mid-size companies face a unique set of customer service challenges since they have a fraction of the agents, administrators and budgets of larger businesses -- yet may still require a more sophisticated set of features and services. Avaya's acquisition of Agile Software will help the mid-size customers of Avaya Contact Center Express overcome these challenges and improve contact center operations through a fully-integrated solution delivering more capabilities, easier installation, and a simplified migration path.

"Our acquisition of Agile Software -- and the evolution of Avaya Contact Center Express -- reinforces our strong commitment to the mid-market contact center space," said Anthony Bartolo, general manager, Integrated Office and Contact Center Communications. "Combining the expertise of Agile Software and Avaya will enable us to deliver more new and innovative solutions to our mid-market customers."

New Avaya Contact Center Express 4.0 Capabilities

The "out of the box" Avaya Contact Center Express solution provides mid-size businesses with features such as a unified desktop display, advanced multimedia tools, and integration to leading CRM software including Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM. The solution is powered by Avaya Aura™ Communication Manager, the company's voice and video telephony software delivering next-generation business communications.

New capabilities of Avaya Contact Center Express 4.0 include:

--  Enhanced Reporting: Enhanced multimedia performance reporting on real-
    time and historical activity in a contact center environment. Voice
    reporting is also added to existing e-mail and IM reporting, enabling
    companies to gain the robust reporting required for top-tier customer
    service. Users can choose from a range of standard reports or use custom
    reporting tools to create reports tailored to their specific needs.
    
--  Speech Self-Service Improvements: Integration with Avaya Voice Portal
    -- the award-winning platform for automated voice, speech self-service and
    video customer care -- provides seamless self and assisted service
    offerings.
    
--  More Automated Features: More automated capabilities used by large
    contact centers are extended to the mid-market space. For example, a
    "Customer Requested Callback" feature lets customers who cannot hold on the
    line to request a callback, automatically scheduling a return call from an
    agent.
    

Free & Clear Uses Avaya Contact Center Express For Personalized Service

Avaya Contact Center Express has been installed by many companies worldwide, including Seattle, WA-based Free & Clear(C), Inc., the healthy behaviors company. Free & Clear had specific needs to address in creating a customer service operation that, among other activities, could help patients quit tobacco use by scheduling "quit smoking" dates and providing supportive counseling via the phone. Avaya Contact Center Express provided an integrated platform for inbound and outbound customer service that easily evolves as Free & Clear grows.

"Avaya's mid-size solution is ideal for our current and future needs," said Leif Haslund, telecom manager at Free & Clear. "It provides an effective way to deliver personalized, professional treatment to customers across 18 states. We currently have 2 contact centers with more than 300 agents, and as we expand, we're confident Avaya Contact Center Express will help us do so with ease and agility."

About Avaya

Avaya is the leader in the contact center market based on total agent shipments worldwide (Gartner, Inc. market share measurements for 2008(2)). For more information on Avaya and its full portfolio of contact center solutions, visit: www.avaya.com.

Avaya is a global leader in enterprise communications systems. The company provides unified communications, contact centers, 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.

(1) Acquisition completed through an Avaya subsidiary, which previously owned approx. 23% of Agile Software. The Avaya subsidiary acquired the remaining 77% of Agile Software from Agile (NZ) Limited.

(2) Source: Gartner, Inc. "Gartner Worldwide Contact Center Market Share, 2008" by Drew Kraus, March 2009.

Contact Information: Media Inquiries: Jonathan Varman 908-953-6432 jvarman@avaya.com