Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Avaya as North American Leader in Outbound Communications Market

BASKING RIDGE, NJ--(Marketwire - June 16, 2008) - Avaya Inc. today announced it has received Frost & Sullivan's 2008 North American Market Leadership Award for Outbound Dialing, based on its leading market share position, high-quality product mix and focused customer strategy in premise-based outbound communications.

Outbound dialing is a key component of contact centers, enabling businesses to place large volumes of outbound calls for activities such as telesales and proactive customer service. The award is based on research from growth consulting company Frost & Sullivan, which analyzed all aspects of outbound dialing, including comparisons of key vendors. In the research, Avaya led in premise-based outbound dialing with 28 percent of the market for revenues, nearly 7 points ahead of its nearest competitor.(1)

Avaya's leadership in this market was driven by strong growth, with Frost & Sullivan reporting that Avaya's outbound contact revenue grew 67 percent year-over-year, compared to overall market growth of 11 percent.

Frost & Sullivan says outbound communications is evolving beyond activities such as telesales and telemarketing to now enhance customer service with on demand and agent-less outreach, such as outbound alerts and emergency notifications. According to Frost & Sullivan's research, the overall North American outbound dialing market is $268 million in revenues, and is expected to grow to $522 million by 2014(2). In addition to Avaya, other vendors that were measured in the research included Aspect Software, Noble Systems, SER, and Genesys.

Avaya's core outbound communications solution is Avaya Proactive Contact, an applications suite that enables proactive management of customer relationships in a contact center. According to Frost & Sullivan, Proactive Contact places Avaya in "an extremely strong position" to enhance end user value and meet ongoing business needs. The application includes advanced predictive dialing technology, enhanced call progress analysis, auto control of service levels and sophisticated call blending options. It also reflects Avaya's strong understanding of global regulations, enabling customers to easily navigate shifts in regulatory compliance.

"The companies that will win in outbound communications -- and evolve it to its next stage -- are the ones that can deliver real value to customers during proactive outreach," said Michael DeSalles, strategic analyst with Frost & Sullivan. "Avaya continues to stand out in this mature market by bringing greater levels of intelligence to outbound communications, and focusing on innovative new ways to enhance customer experiences during every interaction."

Avaya Customer Ryla Streamlines Customer Outreach with Proactive Contact

As reported by Frost & Sullivan's research, more businesses are choosing Avaya's outbound communications solutions to meet their growing customer outreach needs. This includes Ryla, a leading provider of customer contact and crisis response solutions serving clients ranging from regional utility companies to large financial institutions to political campaigns.

Ryla uses Avaya Proactive Contact to provide outbound communications campaigns for many of their clients. This helps them deliver customer outreach more effectively, while serving the needs of their clients' brand, image and customer communication. Additionally, the solution helps Ryla drive a more flexible and productive agent workforce through its ability to integrate outbound calling with inbound communications.

"Avaya's outbound solutions and expertise in contact centers has enabled us to deliver a more efficient and productive customer service operations," said Ruben Maury, Ryla's vice president of Information Technology. "Outbound communications is a critical function that can strengthen customer contacts in a cost-effective way. By integrating Avaya outbound and inbound communications, we can significantly streamline functions such as billing and forecasting, making more efficient use of an agent's time."

"In today's economic environment, companies are searching for ways to provide more cost-effective customer support, while still increasing consumer satisfaction," said Laura DiSciullo, vice president, global product management, Avaya. "Through intelligent proactive outreach solutions, Avaya is helping companies capitalize on these opportunities, and making outbound communications an essential element of their customer retention and growth strategy."

To learn more about Frost & Sullivan's research, please visit: www.frost.com.

About Avaya

Avaya delivers Intelligent Communications solutions that help companies transform their businesses to achieve marketplace advantage. More than 1 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 provides comprehensive service and support for companies, small to large.

For more information visit the Avaya Web site: http://www.avaya.com.

(1) Represents premise-based outbound dialing market.
(2) Represents 2007 revenues total of premise-based and hosted outbound
    dialing market.

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