DENVER, CO--(Marketwire - April 20, 2010) - The Art of Evolution/GlobalConnect 2010 -- Avaya Inc. and the International Avaya User Group, today announced the winners of the annual Avaya Customer Innovation Awards at The Art of Evolution/GlobalConnect 2010 conference being held this week in Denver, Colo.
The awards recognize Avaya customers in five categories that have demonstrated a visionary view of the business value of communication technologies, the most resourceful and creative use of unified communications and contact center solutions to solve business challenges, or a commitment to communications excellence over time.
"We see groundbreaking use of Avaya solutions by our members every day. It is one of our greatest pleasures to see how companies and organizations implementing unified communications and contact center technologies in creative, transformative ways," said Frank Castro, member, Board of Directors of IAUG. "These companies have overcome significant challenges within the past year, lowered costs, improved public safety and service and still moved their business ahead even in a difficult economic environment. The International Avaya User Group salutes all of them."
The categories and winners of the 2010 Avaya Customer Innovation Awards are:
- Technology Innovation Best Practice: Banner Healthcare -- Banner Healthcare's deployment of Avaya's Unified Communications solutions enabled its US-based doctors to partner with a hospital in Israel to take calls "off hours" to offer round-the-clock care. By leveraging its global IP Telephony network, Banner's streamlined voice technology solutions help push the envelope of quality healthcare while significantly lowering its overall business costs.
- Business Innovation Best Practice: HSBC Brazil -- Over the past two years, HSBC Brazil deployed Avaya Contact Center solutions to improve customer service and lower costs. The new solutions enabled innovations that yielded a 100 percent return on investment within three months of replacing the former vendor's solution. The company reduced costs by turning long distance calls into local calls, and dramatically increased customer satisfaction through the use of new innovations, including immediate web callback technology, in which new customers can request an immediate callback to know further information about any product or service.
- Enterprise Transformation (sub 1,000 employees): Coppin State University -- Coppin State University leveraged Avaya Unified Communications for its open standards and ability to integrate applications from other vendors for its Enhanced 9-1-1 pilot program. With the help of Avaya, every building and floor on the campus is now partitioned into emergency zones to allow the campus police control center and the local 9-1-1 operations center to instantly see the location of every emergency 9-1-1 call to quickly and accurately respond in a crisis. Additionally, the campus police receive a floor plan of the emergency zone from which the 9-1-1 call was placed. Text and email message alerts are automatically sent to a predefined group based on the origin of the call.
- Enterprise Transformation (more than 1,000 employees): Aetna -- Aetna's visionary use of Avaya Contact Center solutions established a centralized, flexible self-service environment to offer 24 hour access to service and reduce agent workloads. Since calls can flow between systems, inquiries are quickly routed to the agent who is the best available match for the customer's need -- regardless of the agent's location. New applications such enable "chat sessions" and improve call recording used for compliance and training purposes as a result, Aetna is cutting costs and winning business.
- Sustained Excellence: Marriott International -- By consolidating its communications infrastructure to a flattened, centralized and extended model (FCE), Marriott International lowered costs and streamlined management, administration and future upgrades. The highly reliable, highly available solution is deployed in two locations to ensure maximum uptime, while centralization allows communications to be easily expanded to accommodate new properties. Avaya Unified Communications and Contact Center solutions are used in Marriott's flagship properties, contact centers and their IT Help Desk to reduce costs and consolidate infrastructure.
"We are honored to be recognized by Avaya for our use of technology which has enabled Marriott to provide industry leading support for our customer base," said Al Sample, Vice President of Information Resources Client Services. "This award demonstrates our dedication to ensuring business continuity and to providing wonderful guest experiences."
Winners of the awards were chosen by a committee of Avaya International User Group members along with an Avaya associate. The awards were announced this morning at the Avaya International User Group annual conference. The annual conference has brought together more than 3,000 Avaya and heritage Nortel customers and partners for in-depth workshops and discussions on using communications technologies to improve and transform business. For more information, visit: http://www.avayausersconference.org/.
About IAUG
The International Avaya User Group (IAUG) is an international, user-driven association serving Avaya customers worldwide. We exist to educate and inform telecommunications and IT professionals while providing a professional network for those with common concerns to address and success stories to share. IAUG is one of the industry's largest and most progressive user groups, with a community of nearly 6,000 members in more than 75 chapters around the globe. For more information on IAUG, visit www.iaug.org.
About Avaya
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. For more information please visit www.avaya.com.
Contact Information:
Avaya Contact:
Deborah Kline
Media Relations
908-953-6179
klined@avaya.com