Black & Decker goes VoIP with Avaya

The world's best-known power tool empire is transitioning to VoIP. Black & Decker of Towson, Md., is tapping Avaya for the technology migration. The Basking Ridge., N.J. systems integrator will take Black & Decker's 200-location system to an IP-based telephony platform. The network will include 11 call centers and manufacturing operations in 10 countries.

The project, according to Avaya, will involve integrating existing digital phones into a system with Avaya IP desktop and IP softphones. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed. The bottom line, per usual, is saving money on long-distance communications. The company has 27,000 employees throughout the world.

Avaya said a recent report from the Synergy Research Group in Reno, Nev., places Avaya at the top of enterprise VoIP vendors in terms of revenues. The report is said to peg Avaya's market share at 25.4 percent of the global market for the second quarter of 2007.

For more:
- The official announcement from Avaya is here
- ComputerWorld provides similar information here
- The Synergy report is cited here