Avaya Helps Small and Mid-Size Companies 'Think Big' With Enhanced Collaboration Products, New Innovations

BASKING RIDGE, NJ--(Marketwire - May 17, 2011) -

• New SME customers -- bakery owner and TV starBuddy Valastro and top music firm The Agency Group -- share experiences in collaboration

• Company shares forthcoming innovations for small and medium businesses: Avaya Flare Experience for mobile devices, hybrid cloud model

Avaya, a global leader in business collaboration systems, software and services, today unveiled new product releases, customers and innovations in the small and medium business market at a global press, analyst and partner event. These announcements include the new version of Avaya's communications solution for this market -- Avaya IP Office 7.0 -- which drives improved savings, user experiences, and collaboration for a new generation of entrepreneurs, early-stage companies, and mid-size firms.

Today, the company also unveiled customer and partner support for Avaya IP Office 7.0 including two new 7.0 customers: Carlo's Bakery, home to owner and television personality Buddy Valastro, and top music booking firm The Agency Group (for more details on customers, see quotes below). Additionally, Avaya announced that several service provider partners -- including Bell Canada and Verizon -- will offer Avaya IP Office 7.0 to their small and medium business customers.

New Avaya IP Office 7.0 Capabilities
Avaya IP Office 7.0 completes the integration of Nortel Enterprise Solutions (NES) IP and digital phones into the IP Office platform (NES was acquired by Avaya, Dec. 2009). This integration now enables approximately 14 million NES users¹ to gain Avaya IP Office's collaboration capabilities, and can drive 40 to 60 percent in savings² for NES customers by enabling them to retain existing phones when upgrading to Avaya IP Office. This upgrade can be accelerated and simplified by a new Data Migration Tool that lets partners transfer a business' existing data (i.e. voicemails, phone extensions) to their new systems, maintaining productivity without interruption.

Avaya IP Office 7.0 also delivers an expanded portfolio of devices for multimedia collaboration, including sophisticated new color touchscreen desktop phones that let users scroll through contacts or manage visual voicemail at the touch of a finger. Additionally, new conference room phones offer patented wide-band audio, call recording via SD card, and fast USB connectivity to a laptop for temporary set-ups. These are part of a portfolio that offers a range of advanced communications, such as HD videoconferencing via desktop PC with no added equipment required.

Forthcoming Capabilities, Demos for Small and Medium Businesses
Nearly 60% of small and mid-size businesses state they use, are interested in, or are planning to use collaboration software.³ At an Avaya press, analyst and partner event today in New York, the company discussed forthcoming innovations in collaboration for this market, including the Avaya Flare Experience for small and medium businesses. Avaya also demonstrated advanced multi-party videoconferencing via several devices, desktop sharing capabilities, and an upgrade from a Nortel device to Avaya IP Office using the Data Migration Tool.

Avaya also shared its vision for a hybrid cloud approach to small and medium communications, which places Avaya IP Office on premise, while enabling select applications to be hosted 'in the cloud' on a partner network. This capability will allow more flexible use and faster deployments of Avaya's latest collaboration applications.

Supporting Quotes
Buddy Valastro, owner of Carlos Bakery and reality-television star (IP Office 7.0 customer): "Our business is growing. The lines at the bakery are getting longer, and customer call volumes are rising -- which is fantastic. But I realized we needed a communications solution that's powerful enough to handle our rising business and can enable us to serve every customer with as much quality as we put into our cakes. Avaya IP Office 7.0 gives my employees and I the collaboration tools necessary to drive top quality service and business, whether we're on-the-go or at Carlo's Bakery. I know the importance of delivering and getting the best, and that's why I chose Avaya IP Office." (Implementation by Avaya business partner American Office Equipment)

Howie Gold, director of IT, The Agency Group (IP Office 7.0 customer): "Avaya has done a great job of bringing the features of our existing Nortel phones to the Avaya IP Office platform, which makes the transition easier." For full story on The Agency Group's experience, read the press release issued today here. (Implementation by Avaya business partner Telanet)

Cary Parsons: vice president, Infrastructure Services, Bell Canada (Avaya service provider partner): "As the Canadian market leader in small and medium business communications, Bell is sensitive to the evolving needs of customers in this dynamic market. We are pleased to add the new version of IP Office to our portfolio, delivering seamless migration to next-generation unified communications for our customers. Avaya IP Office aligns with our goals of delivering innovation in communications, while protecting the user's prior technology investments."

Isabelle Guis, general manager, Avaya Small and Medium Enterprise Division:
"As the economy shifts into a higher gear, today's small and medium businesses need the best tools available to collaborate and compete effectively. Avaya IP Office 7.0 represents the pinnacle of advanced communications in this market, providing vast unified communications capabilities with a focus on simplicity and savings."

Related Information
Leadership: Avaya is now the leader in the small and medium business market with approximately 30 million telephony users on Avaya small and medium communications platforms.⁴
Customers: Avaya recently passed 200,000 Avaya IP Office customers.⁵
New Contest: Avaya today launched a Small Business Innovators contest, asking entrants to describe their idea for innovating the way their business serves customers, and have a chance to win a grand prize: a new IP Office solution and related products.

Tags: Avaya IP Office, unified communications, small business, SMB, SME, contact center, mid-size business, medium business, communications

For more information, photos and case studies, visit the Avaya IP Office 7.0 virtual media kit online here.

About Avaya:
Avaya is a global leader in business communications and collaboration, providing unified communications, contact centers, data solutions and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visit www.avaya.com.

Certain statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "should" or "will" or other similar terminology. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While we believe these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These and other important factors may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to Avaya's filings with the SEC that are available at www.sec.gov. Avaya disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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(1) Based on Avaya internal figures.
(2) Based on Avaya calculations.
(3) Forrsights Business Decision-Makers Survey, Q4 2010, Forrester Research Inc., February 2011. SME defined in this case as a business with 100-999 employees. On collaboration software: 57% are 'interested in using,' 'occasionally use,' 'frequently use' or 'planning to use in next 12 mos.'
(4) Avaya calculations based on Dell'Oro market share reports. Figure represents Nortel and Avaya users of Traditional Key, Hybrid PBX - Small and IP-PBX systems since 2003.
(5) Based on internal Avaya sales figures.