Avaya Announces Native SIP on S8300C and a New Gateway

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Avaya today introduced enhancements to its market-leading IP Telephony solutions delivering advanced Intelligent Communications capabilities using end-to-end, full-featured Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). This includes the latest version of Avaya's flagship IP telephony software – Avaya Communication Manager 5.0 – which enables businesses to gain essential and innovative telephony functions using end-to-end SIP. With open standards-based SIP, businesses can drive greater cost-efficiencies in the deployment of enterprise communications, and help improve productivity among an increasingly-mobile workforce.

 

Since its debut in 2002, Avaya Communication Manager has helped businesses cost-effectively evolve their communications to IP Telephony and now, SIP. It also provides a foundation for applications powering contact centers, unified communications and mid-sized businesses (using MultiVantage Express). Avaya is the global leader in IP Telephony revenues.¹
 
Avaya Communication Manager 5.0 gives IT administrators a more cost-efficient and reliable way to implement end-to-end SIP.  The software now features embedded SIP, allowing co-residency on a single server (initially with the Avaya S8300C Server) – eliminating the cost and management issues associated with multiple servers. New SIP trunk alternate routing – a key capability for redistributing voice, video and data when network congestion arises – is also available, making communications more reliable.

 

New SIP firmware for Avaya endpoints provides an integral part of the end-to-end solution. Avaya's advanced one-X IP Deskphones can be SIP-enabled – leveraging open, multimedia communications for improved productivity and mobility – and the phones can interchange between SIP or IP environments. Avaya's SIP-enabled phones bring presence to directories to let users see the availability of colleagues. Mobility features are also SIP-enabled, such as Extension-to-Cellular, which transparently bridges a user's cell phone with their phone extension, and "SIP Visiting User," which lets users log into and access their deskphone features from any phone on the network.

 

A new version of the Avaya Video Telephony Solution is also now SIP-enabled, providing a more cost-effective way to deploy enterprise-class videoconferencing. Enhancements allow users to handle "ad hoc" video calls in the same way as voice calls, simply adding and forwarding both voice and video, and creating video conferences for up to six people.

 

"Businesses expect enterprise-class communications to be reliable, feature-rich and always-on," said Simon Woollett, vice president and general manager, Avaya's Converged Communications Division. "Avaya now delivers on these expectations in the open SIP world, enabling companies to more easily and cost-effectively deploy next generation applications such as customer service and unified communications – and gain maximum impact from them."

 

Avaya recently attained SIPconnect Compliant certification from the SIP Forum, a leading independent IP communications industry association that contributes to the development of global IP communications based on SIP.

 

Other new advancements in the Avaya Communication Manager platform include a new software maintenance model for its communications applications Software Support Plus Upgrades. With the introduction of Communication Manager 5.0, this new model is available on virtually all of Avaya's enterprise communication applications. It provides a three-year subscription for all major upgrade releases and service packs, driving lower upgrade prices and streamlined access to future releases. Customers can save 25-35% on average in upgrade costs with Software Support Plus Upgrades.

 

The updated portfolio also gains a new media gateway – the Avaya G450 – for more flexible choices for branch offices and small campuses.

 

More Businesses Evolving to Intelligent Communications With Avaya SIP
Over the years, Avaya Communication Manager has helped businesses securely and easily evolve their communications from traditional telephony to IP telephony and now to SIP. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, a national provider of defense, services and public safety and security solutions, relied on the flexibility of Avaya Communication Manager, as they grew rapidly through new acquisitions. With SIP, the communications systems inherited through each acquisition can be seamlessly integrated into Kratos' network.

 

"We recently acquired a company that had another vendor's phones," said John Jensen, director of communications for Kratos Defense & Security Solutions. "With the SIP capabilities of Avaya Communication Manager, we've been able to integrate the other vendor's phones very easily – and enhance them with a much broader feature set."

 

Another Avaya SIP user is Xeta Technologies, a leading provider of voice communications systems and data networks and an Avaya Platinum business partner. Xeta uses the new Avaya Communication Manager 5.0. According to Jim Middleton, senior solution architect with the company, the solution lets businesses download configurations directly to any SIP phone on their network, which eliminates the need to program each one individually.

 

"The new advancements eliminate the need for a separate application server for SIP," adds Middleton. "We see SIP reducing deployment costs by about $5,000 for every one hundred users, making enterprise communications far more affordable than ever before."

 

New Products Referenced in this Press Release Include:

 

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.

 

¹According to Synergy Research Group's 3Q 2007 Enterprise Voice Market Shares Report.