Avaya IP Contact Center Solution Receives Editor's Choice Award from Network Computing Magazine
June 20 2005 - 10:01AM
PR Newswire (US)
Avaya IP Contact Center Solution Receives Editor's Choice Award
from Network Computing Magazine Extensive evaluation rates Avaya as
the top choice for the best mix of features integration with
existing systems and price BASKING RIDGE, N.J., June 20
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Avaya Inc. (NYSE: AV), a leading global
provider of business communications applications, systems and
services, today announced that its Internet protocol (IP)-enabled
contact center solutions have received an Editor's Choice Award
from Network Computing magazine, an industry-leading publication
for information technology and networking professionals. Based on
an extensive evaluation, the magazine cited Avaya for providing the
best mix of features, its ability to integrate with existing
systems and its reasonable price. Each vendor participating in the
evaluation was asked to respond to a Request for Information (RFI)
for a fictional manufacturer, Kodiak Corp. The company needed to
move to an IP-enabled contact center in order to eliminate high
toll charges, accommodate multimedia call routing and support
work-at- home agents. In addition, Kodiak wanted to add these new
capabilities to its legacy infrastructure. The solution proposed by
Avaya included Avaya Interaction Center 6.3 running on an Avaya
S8500 Media Server. Interaction Center is a multimedia contact
management application that is part of the Avaya Customer
Interaction Suite -- a family of next-generation IP applications
that can seamlessly link a company's workforce, regardless of where
they are based, to serve customers with greater speed, accuracy and
efficiency. Avaya last week introduced next- generation contact
center applications for the suite, including Interaction Center
7.0, which includes a Web browser-based multimedia agent interface
to simplify deployment, as well as new workflow design tools,
enhanced Web-chat capabilities and broadened language support.
Network Computing evaluated each proposal based on system design,
support for agents, reporting capabilities and price. The magazine
noted that Avaya's design allows agents to connect to a contact
center through a company's existing TDM-based PBX and easily move
to IP phones over time. PC-based Avaya softphones are also an
option. Avaya's IP Agent softphone incorporates both phone and
contact center functions in a single application that runs on a PC
or laptop computer, allowing telecommuters, remote and home-based
agents to connect over either an IP network or the public switched
network. "Add the built-in VPN, and you'd have what we consider the
best proposal for telecommuter support," wrote technology editor
Mike DeMaria. In fact, Network Computing awarded bonus points to
Avaya "for being the only vendor to offer built-in VPN
capabilities." Avaya was also cited as "the only option for
endpoint-to-gateway encryption." Avaya gave Kodiak the option of
using a local client or a server-based thin-client for computer
telephony integration -- delivering contact and wait- time
information to agents and suggested responses to typical customer
inquiries. Network Computing noted that Avaya's workflow designer
application allows companies to simulate and test workflow
scenarios before implementing them, and information technology (IT)
managers can "drop into lower-level programming and access custom
APIs." Avaya Interaction Center also allows companies to assign
logic to customer queues. "For example, if a service agreement
can't be met for a specific queue, a pool of reserve agents can be
transferred to it," Network Computing reported. "An agent can work
simultaneously on two tasks, such as a phone conversation and
e-mail, if business rules allow, and agents can be interrupted from
e-mail for priority phone calls. Callers can be informed of their
estimated wait times, leave a callback number and enter an IVR
self-service module without losing their spot in the queue." On the
reporting side, Avaya allows companies to store up to 10 years of
monthly call-history data or five years of daily data. Avaya's
proposal was the most detailed response and one of the two least
expensive in the evaluation, Network Computing said. It included
"an extensive ROI analysis to help Kodiak's IT department justify
going to VoIP across the enterprise." Network Computing recommended
that companies using Avaya VoIP systems consider staying with Avaya
for their contact center operations. "Avaya Interaction Center and
our contact center applications are designed to help businesses
turn any employee into a contact center resource to improve
customer service and build revenue," said Eileen Rudden, vice
president, Enterprise Communications Applications Division, Avaya.
"The business scenario explored by Network Computing demonstrates
the need for applications that can securely and intelligently
extend contact center capabilities to distributed agents, workers
and experts in any location, while retaining existing investments
in technology." The results of Network Computing's IP-enabled
contact center evaluation are featured in the publication's June
13th issue, available online at http://www.networkcomputing.com/.
Avaya's full response to the RFI is posted at
http://i.cmpnet.com/nc/1611/graphics/1611rfi1.pdf. About Avaya
Avaya Inc. designs, builds and manages communications networks for
more than 1 million businesses worldwide, including over 90 percent
of the FORTUNE 500(R). Focused on businesses large to small, Avaya
is a world leader in secure and reliable Internet Protocol (IP)
telephony systems and communications software applications and
services. Driving the convergence of voice and data communications
with business applications -- and distinguished by comprehensive
worldwide services -- Avaya helps customers leverage existing and
new networks to achieve superior business results. For more
information visit the Avaya website: http://www.avaya.com/.
DATASOURCE: Avaya Inc. CONTACT: Media: Jonathan Varman,
+1-908-953-6432, , or Investor: Matt Booher, +1-908-953-7500, ,
both of Avaya Inc. Web site: http://www.avaya.com/
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