Avaya announces SIP-enabled handsets
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The IP wars continue this week with Avaya, now a privately held rather than public company, announcing Avaya Communications Manager 5.0 and new customer service solutions, including a SIP-enabled handset for CSRs (customer service representatives). Communications Manager 5.0 is a full, rather than a point, upgrade to Avaya's main telephony and communications platform. The new version takes the technology from IP to SIP and adds a number of new capabilities."We are taking this version from the service provider trunk all the way to the desktop with a purpose-built SIP contact center phone," said Colleen Aguirre, director, product management for Customer Service applications.The SIP-enabled phone, Avaya Agent Deskphone 16CC, has a list price of $355.The transition of contact centers to IP-enabled centers has been ongoing, said Aguirre. "It flattens out networks and allows for consolidation of servers."The next step from IP to SIP protocol will add additional such capabilities as presence detection while giving contact center managers increased flexibility. For example, version 5.0 of Communications Manager will allow agents to transfer customer data along with a call. The 5.0 upgrade also automates and equalizes the distribution of calls to CSRs and allows agents and managers to evaluate agent availability. "We translated all of that information into the SIP protocol," Aguirre said.While Cisco does not have a SIP-handset and its software still requires middleware translation software, an all-SIP-based solution does not require middleware.Jay Lassman, research director for Communications Applications at Gartner said, Avaya is positioning itself for compatibility with unified communications solutions. "They seem to be on a very aggressive path toward positioning their users for future SIP interoperability," said Lassman.
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Cisco said that its IP Phone allows unconstrained Gigabit Ethernet-enabled bandwidth from the network to desktop phone. Cisco&#39;s Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engine 32 has been enhanced to allow customers to enable
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New Ultra Video handset supports DivX, many audio formats.
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(InfoWorld) - An acquisition of Avaya by Nortel might help the buyer expand its enterprise telephony business and pare down a crowded industry, but the deal could be tough for customers. Avaya is in talks with possible buyers and recently discussed a possible deal with Nortel, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Together, the companies would become the world's biggest vendor of telephony gear with as much as 35 percent of the market in its home base of North America, according to analyst Inder Singh of Prudential Equity Group. "Anywhere you look, they would become the dominant vendor," Singh said. Nortel, still emerging from years of accounting scandals and reorganizations, could use Avaya to boost its enterprise business, which delivers higher margins than its carrier network side, according to Singh. Because the companies have many similar products, the deal might also help Nortel cut costs by eliminating redundancies, he added. But for customers, the combination might not be such a good deal. Although Nortel is a bigger company, Avaya is the stronger of the two in IP telephony, which is where enterprise phone systems are going. Integration with Nortel and its unified communications partner, Microsoft, would cause a lot of confusion for customers, said Yankee Group analyst Zeus Kerravala. Avaya has made great technical strides recently, especially in software, he said. "Darwin should take over here and let the strongest survive," Kerravala said. One possible benefit to customers would be a one-stop shop with a strong telephony lineup as well as enterprise data networking gear, such as switches, which Avaya lacks, said Dell'Oro Group analyst Alan Weckel. Even if Nortel doesn't buy Avaya, analysts see acquisitions on the horizon in the industry. Enterprise telephony is a fragmented business: In 2006, in terms of numbers of lines installed, Nortel had 13.4 percent of the market, Avaya 11.6 percent and Cisco Systems Inc. 8.5 percent, according to Weckel. It takes a big vendor to keep up with the new features enterprises will seek as traditional phone systems give way to IP telephony and unified communications with its combination of voice, text, videoconferencing, and mobility, Weckel said. There also won't be room for as many companies in the next several years because even as IP telephony spending grows at 40 percent per year, revenue from traditional phone systems is falling as much as 15 percent, creating lackluster growth overall, Prudential's Singh said. Meanwhile, Cisco, which isn't saddled with a legacy equipment business, keeps growing. Though some observers have downplayed Nortel's unified communications partnership with Microsoft, which also has interoperability relationships with Cisco and other vendors, Singh believes that could be the factor that makes such a deal significant. Nortel and Microsoft are sharing software and doing joint development through a deal announced last year. "It would be industry-game-changing if you had these three companies lined up on one side with Cisco on the other side," Singh said.
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Avaya (Quote, Chart), a communications software, systems and services company, has announced a new Internet Protocol-based video-conferencing offering for businesses.
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Telecommunications equipment company Avaya Inc.  agreed to pay either $80 million or $250 million if it backs out of an agreement to be bought by private equity firms TPG Capital and Silver Lake, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
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Avaya Inc.  said on Monday it agreed to be acquired by private equity firms TPG Capital and Silver Lake for $8.2 billion, the latest in a string of deals in the telecommunications-equipment industry.
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Interpublic Group is getting more connected to telephony company Avaya, which has added one more IPG agency to its roster and bulked up its interactive business at another--assignments that sources estimated to be worth a total of &#36;15 million in billings.
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Avaya announced on Monday that the integration between its IP softphone and Polycom&#39;s ViaVideo II camera, first announced last December, is now at a releasable stage.
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Handset allows Skype users to make free Internet calls and send IM messages to each other while on the move.
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HONG KONG -- Nokia Corp. has developed a prototype handset that supports Mobile IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6), a version of the protocol that will help to improve the quality of VOIP (voice over IP), streaming video and other applications delivered to wireless devices, the company said Tuesday.
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Cordless handsets, speakerphones, and Wi-Fi devices allow you to use Skype where you want.
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Telecommunications gear maker Avaya is negotiating with private equity and strategic bidders about selling all or part of the company, according to a media report.
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Peer-to-peer IP telephony startup Skype yesterday released a version of its software designed for mobile devices running Microsoft&#39;s PocketPC operating system.
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The ground rules of the tests of Cisco and Avaya systems.
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Company expands support for VoIP services, but also launches software that helps mobile operators block such traffic.
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BEDMINSTER, NJ - In a move its IP voice services forward, AT&amp;T announced Tuesday (Sept. 21) that is has formed an Innovation and Interoperability Program to foster development of applications and systems for its voice-over-IP (VoIP) network.