Contact Information: Deb Kline Avaya Media Relations 908-953-6179 klined@avaya.com
Avaya Unveils Breakthrough Intelligent Presence Technology for Real-time Business
| Source: Avaya Inc.
ORLANDO, FL--(Marketwire - March 17, 2008) - VoiceCon Booth 801 -- Avaya Inc., a leading global provider of business communications applications,
systems and services, today introduced Intelligent Presence, breakthrough
software that drives greater precision, speed and collaboration using
presence-based, real-time communications. Avaya Intelligent Presence
collects and integrates presence information from multiple sources for a
richer view of a worker's status that can be supplied to both individuals
and business applications to improve collaboration and business execution.
Avaya Intelligent Presence solves the challenge of integrating diverse
sources of presence information from different vendor platforms using
multiple protocols. Intelligent Presence aggregates telephony, desktop and
application presence information from Avaya and third party sources, such
as those from Microsoft, IBM and others, and bridges industry standard
protocols including SIP/SIMPLE and XMPP. This multi-vendor, multi-protocol
support provides the most comprehensive information about a user's
availability. The more holistic the view of the employee's presence, the
more accurate the contact between employees, customers, partners and
suppliers can be -- and ultimately more useful in supporting presence-aware
applications.
"Intelligent Presence will power real-time business communications --
eliminating barriers to responsiveness such as location, time of day, type
of network, platform, channel or device," said Stuart Wells, senior vice
president and president, Global Communications Solutions, Avaya. "Avaya
Intelligent Presence is at the heart of enabling presence-aware
communications and applications that bring new levels of collaboration
among workers and competitive advantage for businesses."
International Speedway, an Avaya customer, operates 12 well-known
racetracks located around the U.S., including Daytona International
Speedway, Talledega Superspeedway and others. The company is already using
Microsoft Office Communicator desktop client, and sees the value of
integrating the application with Avaya one-X Portal for enhanced presence
information.
"We have people spread out all over the U.S at different tracks and
traveling," said Bob Shafto, Director IT Operations, International Speedway
Corporation. "The key with Intelligent Presence is that if an individual is
traveling and attached to the system, it will pick up their availability
and accessibility. You'll know if they are available by cell, IM, or other
means -- somehow, you can communicate with them."
With Intelligent Presence, workers quickly and easily reach the right
person needed, across different vendor platforms, channels and devices for
more efficient interactions with internal and external contacts. When
embedded into business applications and processes, this information
automatically connects those who need to take action on an issue through
the communications channel on which they can be reached. The server
automates presence and availability updates and at the same time, allows
users or enterprises to apply rules and policies to govern presence
information exchange. For example, an employee can selectively segment who
can reach them and by what means.
"Presence is considered a must-have for unified communications. What's
needed to take presence to the next level is the ability to tap both new
and existing sources of information and develop presence-aware
communications and applications that cross protocols and vendors," said
Brian Riggs, research director, Current Analysis.
The Avaya Intelligent Presence Server is based on the highly scalable,
multi-protocol Jabber Extensible Communications Platform™ (Jabber
XCP™).
"Presence is the on-ramp to unified communications, connecting users,
services and devices for continuous real-time communications," said Paul
Guerin, CEO of Jabber. "Avaya's experience in real-time communications
combined with Jabber's addition of SIP/SIMPLE support to their proven XMPP
presence technology creates a powerful combination uniquely available in
Avaya Intelligent Presence."
Avaya Intelligent Presence supports existing presence and telephony
platforms, and provides a centralized system for managing and enforcing
presence policies.
Avaya Intelligent Presence provides a common set of services on which
innovative, presence-aware applications can be developed supporting unified
communications, customer service and communications-enabled business
processes. As Avaya extends presence-awareness into these industry-leading
communication applications, they will enable faster customer service and
more efficient processes by more effectively bringing people and resources
to bear. For example, new presence-aware customer care operations can
quickly identify and link available expert resources to customers using
standard desktop software like Microsoft Office Communicator, IBM Lotus
Sametime or Jabber XCP, or presence-aware automated notification can enable
more rapid response to process issues by ensuring that employees are
reached in the fastest possible way.
Avaya Intelligent Presence will be available in the second quarter this
year and included within the Unified Communications Standard Edition and
supported with Avaya one-X™ clients and endpoints, including one-X
Portal, one-X Communicator and one-X Deskphones. Soft clients will provide
a single interface from which to view accurate, reliable presence status
and select the most effective, efficient communication channel, including
click to call or click to conference, with or without video. Avaya
Intelligent Presence will integrate with Microsoft Office Communicator in
the second quarter, and later this year with IBM Lotus Sametime and
Microsoft Exchange. Avaya will also issue an SDK that allows Avaya
DevConnect members and customers to build and integrate solutions to Avaya
Intelligent Presence.
About Avaya
Avaya delivers Intelligent Communications solutions
that help companies transform their businesses to achieve marketplace
advantage. More than one million businesses worldwide, including more than
90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®, use Avaya solutions for IP telephony, unified communications,
contact centers and communications-enabled business processes. Avaya
Global Services provide comprehensive service and support for
companies, small to large. For more information, visit the Avaya Web site
at http://www.avaya.com.