Avaya complete NES integration with rollout of IP Office 7.0

Avaya has rolled out its IP Office 7.0, which completes the integration of the business communications specialist and its 2009 acquisition, Nortel Enterprise Solutions, giving some 14 million NES users access to Avaya IP Office's collaboration capabilities without having to buy new premise equipment.

Avaya also announced this week that Bell Canada and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) would offer IP Office 7.0 to their small and medium business customers.

The newest iteration of Avaya IP Office retains Avaya's trademark real-time conference and collaboration, as well as call-center reporting and automatic fallover. It also delivers an expanded selection of IP desktop phones, including 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 wide-band audio, call recording via SD card and fast USB connectivity to a laptop for temporary set-ups.

For former Nortel customers, IP Office 7.0 offers a data migration tool that lets partners transfer a business' existing data--like  voicemails and phone extensions--without having to re-enter them manually, saving time and labor costs.

The market for collaboration solutions is hot. According to a fourth quarter Forrsights Business Decision-Makers Survey from Forrester Research, 60 percent of SMBs use or are interested in collaboration software.

The former business services unit of Lucent has 30 million telephony users on Avaya small and medium communications platforms and sees SMBs as a coveted segment of the market.

"As the economy shifts into a higher gear, today's small and medium businesses need the best tools available to collaborate and compete effectively," said Isabelle Guis, the general manager at Avaya Small and Medium Enterprise Division. "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."

For more:
- see this release

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