Avaya scores on both sides of Atlantic

Quicker than the Czech Republic side scoring goals on Team USA is the news flowing out of business communication applications, systems and services provider Avaya. The news stateside this week concerns the Microsoft Tech Ed 2006 conference in Boston. The Basking Ridge, N.J.-based firm is a gold sponsor of the event, and seeks to use the form to demonstrate intelligent communications solutions integrated with Microsoft applications.

The Avaya line is that deeper integration with Microsoft applications “delivers the simplicity that enables higher productivity and superior customer service through faster access to customer communications.” The week-long convention will feature demonstration of three new solutions as examples of the company philosophy. The first involves integration of the Avaya PC-based softphone application with unified communications client Microsoft Office Communicator. This solution seeks to enable Microsoft users to deal with phone calls straight out of the Office Communicator application.

The Avaya IP Office and Avaya Contact Center Express solutions will be pushed at the show as a second item. Contact Center Express is a Microsoft Dynamix CRM connector that acts as a sort of caller identification, providing on-screen relevant data and customer history upon receiving a phone call. Thirdly is Avaya’s bread and butter, namely unified communications systems. Avaya is said to be the no. 1 provider of unified communications solutions worldwide. The line of MultiVantage communications applications will be at center stage, with Avaya Modular Messaging in the starring role. Again integrated with Microsoft Outlook, Avaya Modular Messaging promises to administer voice messaging and faxes from within the Outlook program, a Linux store and / or the Microsoft Exchange server.

While the displays and demonstrations are going on in Boston (and perhaps some Americans are even paying attention to the soccer festival in Germany), Avaya network operations centers are cranking away in providing oodles of service to folks in all facets of the tournament. Via the loftily titled FIFA IT Command Center in Munich and the Aveya network operations center in Coppell,Texas, Avaya estimates figure some six terabytes of information will pass through the Avaya centers in week one of the World Cup alone. Avaya has been charged with monitoring 30,000 devices and 45,000 network connections spread over seventy locations. The Avaya network covers phone, internet and video communication and is being used by journalists, the organizing committee, stadium officials and volunteers.

On the pitch, referees and players, too, are using Avaya for communication needs. Coverage extends pre- and post-game as well, with the teams, executives, employees and such all using Avaya’s transportation and protocol application. Two hundred fifty Avaya Global Services personnel directly support the event with Avaya IP Support Services, which essentially consists of Avaya’s enterprise service platform and the secure intelligent gateway program. As to the success of the heretofore mostly bug-free system, Avaya touts its Converged Network Analyzer, which seeks to measure all available paths over the IP WAN to determine the most advantageous route for the application.