| 23 July 2012
- New Avaya IP Office 8.1 Solution Enhances Mobility, Centralises Management and Adds New Security Options
- Company’s Flagship SME Solution Boosts Scalability, Driving Cost-Effective Collaboration for Mid-Sized Companies
- Techna Glass Selects IP Office 8.1 to Enhance Customer Service and Mobility
Basking Ridge, New Jersey - Avaya today announced the new version of its unified communications (UC) solution for small and mid-sized enterprises (SME), Avaya IP Office 8.1, which adds innovative capabilities to tap the full potential of next-generation collaboration. This includes new mobility, management and security features—as well as custom-built services—to help SMEs efficiently and securely take advantage of BYOD (“Bring Your Own Device”) environments and advanced mobility.
Additionally, Avaya IP Office 8.1—which can serve SMEs as small as 5 employees—now scales up to 1,000 users in a single location (up from 384). This gives mid-sized companies a more cost-effective, simplified way to manage more people on a network in one or multiple sites. It also provides Avaya business partners with new opportunities to provide mid-market customers with affordable, yet high-capability collaboration solutions.
SME Mobility Made Simple, Secure
An April 2012 Forrester Research study on BYOD trends reported that 56% of SME workers who use a tablet for work say they bring in their own personal tablet, while 66% say the same for their smartphones[1]. To ensure SMEs have the capabilities required for an evolving work environment, Avaya IP Office 8.1 introduces:
- ·Avaya Flare® Communicator, the advanced mobility app previously only available to large enterprises, is now available to Avaya IP Office SME users on Apple iPad tablets or Windows-based laptops. It enables mobile access to collaboration capabilities such as business-class calling, presence, company directory search, and management of two simultaneous calls while mobile. Avaya Flare® Communicator for iPad tablets lets users ‘drag and drop’ available contacts into a spotlight, and launch instant messages, voice calls or emails by simply tapping the screen. The Avaya Flare® Communicator for Windows brings these capabilities to laptops.
- ·New Centralised Management and licensing capabilities eliminate the complexity of overseeing communications for multi-site environments by enabling effective management of several sites from one location. Adjustments to individual sites can be made using a simple administration tool, saving on costs, labour and time.
- ·Enhanced Security Options for Avaya IP Office adds protection against toll fraud, denial of service attacks, and other threats through use of a new SME version of Avaya Session Border Controller—a solution delivering a protective SIP-based firewall. It makes security easy and affordable for SMEs to implement, with advanced capabilities for mobile workers such as the ability to encrypt media and signalling connections without using a VPN for UC. Availability anticipated later calendar 3Q ’12.
- ·Avaya IP Office Support Service, the first support service from Avaya for SMEs, provides fast resolution, technical support from experts, and secure remote access. New SSL-VPN capabilities embedded in Avaya IP Office 8.1 help ensure secure delivery of upgrades, patches and Web-based services. Customers are entitled to major upgrades, and Avaya partners can offer it via wholesale or co-delivery models.
Additional IP Office Information:
- ·IP Office 8.1 can be paired with Avaya’s recently introduced ERS 3500 switches to automate network set-up. One simple command automatically configures the switches and enables IP phones on Avaya IP Office.
- ·Avaya one-X Mobile® Preferred for IP Office mobility app is now available for iPhone devices (previously announced for Android devices), bringing comprehensive business-class UC features to SME iPhone users.
- ·Interoperability between Radvision SCOPIA endpoints and IP Office is expected at the end of 2012, offering open, cost-effective and easy-to-use video collaboration.
- ·Avaya IP Office is sold exclusively through Avaya’s channel partners. The solution is available now globally.
Rick Maciel, Business Systems Manager, Techna Glass said: “As a growing windshield installation company—with 18 locations and a busy contact centre operation—we require a reliable communications system that supports the highest levels of customer service. Avaya IP Office 8.1 helps us by enabling large volumes of call flows to move smoothly, and providing a great way to manage communications across all locations. We also plan to use IP Office’s mobility capabilities in new ways, with features such as chat and presence via iPhone keeping mobile workers connected, and headquarters employees in touch with branch stores. With IP Office, managing our communications system couldn’t be any easier.”
“With the bar raised on all aspects of business mobility, security and management, Avaya is bringing its innovation to the forefront of the SME space – and extending it further into the mid-market. Avaya IP Office 8.1 introduces new capabilities that help our customers and partners succeed in a shifting collaboration landscape, while ensuring they have the capacity to meet expanding communications needs, said: ”Mark Monday, vice president, Collaboration Platforms, Avaya
Rob Arnold, Program Manager, Unified Communications and Collaboration, Frost and Sullivan lent a voice: “With each version of Avaya IP Office, we’ve seen UC delivered to SMEs with rising levels of simplicity and cost-savings, combined with increasingly sophisticated features. IP Office 8.1 continues on this path and scales upward - helping more growing SMEs, mid-size companies and Avaya partners easily gain the benefits of enterprise-class collaboration.
Statistics
- More than 60 percent of medium-sized firms in an online survey indicated that they provide smartphones to employees. Specific company percentages by country surveyed were: U.S. 69 %; UK 70 %; Germany 79 %; China 64 %; Brazil 64 %. Source: IDC[2]
- The top three items organisations want in a mobile security solution are 1.Centralised Functionality, 2. Logging/Monitoring, 3. Ease of Deployment. Source: SANS Mobility/BYOD Security Survey, March 2012.
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