Avaya Unified Communications Add Broader Support for Microsoft Users

Avaya Unified Communications Solutions for Microsoft users integrate Avaya's sophisticated telephony, conferencing and messaging applications with Microsoft Office Communicator, Microsoft Exchange, Office Outlook(1), Office Sharepoint, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Live Meeting applications and Windows Mobile 5.0 to provide new value for users at the desktop or on a mobile device. The new solutions join a host of Avaya Unified Communications offers that enable users to access, interact with and manage email and voice mail, tasks and calendaring, and calling and conferencing through speech commands.

"Avaya Unified Communications Solutions for Microsoft provide users with a flexible, seamless interface to powerful telephony, messaging or conferencing capabilities from desktop applications," said Eileen Rudden, vice president and general manager, Unified Communications, Avaya. "These solutions are geared to fit user needs and preferences while enabling IT to securely and sensibly support the diversity of communications requirements that can maximize productivity across the entire organization."

The new, Avaya Unified Communications Solutions for Microsoft include:

• Avaya Communication Manager "click-to-call" and integrated telephony presence -- Avaya Communication Manager end users can click-to-call from inside Microsoft Office Communicator and applications with Smart Tags such as Office Outlook and Sharepoint. Workers can see the real-time telephony presence status information of colleagues on their buddy lists. Avaya IP Softphone users can already click-to-call any phone number highlighted in Internet Explorer. IT Managers can choose centralized server- or client-based implementation depending on the level of control and functionality required, with Avaya IP Softphone providing access to all Avaya Communication Manager features -- including Extension-to-Cellular mobility -- from the desktop application. Users will also have video calling capability backed by Avaya call control, so video calls can be put on hold, transferred or conferenced into multi-party calls. These solutions are planned for availability in the first quarter of 2007.
  
  
• Avaya Meeting Exchange conference call entry and management -- Avaya Meeting Exchange customers can schedule conference calls through Office Outlook, and simultaneously reserve the bridge and issue notices to participants. From the Live Meeting interface, they will be able to "click-to-conference," control audio components, view a dynamic roster of all web and/or audio participants and who is speaking, identify and mute noisy lines, mute/unmute participants. The solutions are expected to be available this summer.
  
  
• Avaya one-X Mobile and IP Softphone for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices -- For mobile users, Avaya one-X Mobile will be supported on devices running Windows Mobile 5.0, allowing calls to simultaneously ring the desk phone and mobile device and extending enterprise call control features to the mobile phone. Calls initiated on the mobile device can be routed through Avaya servers for significant cost savings -- especially on international calls. The Avaya IP Softphone for Windows Mobile 5.0 powered devices is available now for use on mobile devices in WiFi environments, enhancing the value of specialized hand-held devices -- such as Symbol M50 or M70 devices -- with built-in telephony.
  
  
• Avaya Communication Manager and Modular Messaging integration to Exchange 2007 -- Avaya Modular Messaging 3.1, available now, offers full featured unified messaging and can be deployed in either a traditional configuration -- with voicemails maintained on a separate Avaya message storage server -- or in a unified configuration allowing storage of both email and voicemail messages on the Microsoft Exchange 2003 email server. Avaya Modular Messaging will also support Exchange 2007 as a message store by the second quarter this year. For those customers choosing to use Microsoft Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging, Avaya Communication Manager can be configured for SIP interoperability.
  
  
• Avaya Modular Messaging 3.1 Secure Outlook client -- To help meet security, compliance or corporate governance requirements, IT managers can restrict the ability of employees to download and store voice messages onto a laptop, PC or other data store while providing access these voice messages through the Outlook interface. The solution is available now.

"Information workers regularly interact with multiple applications simultaneously and use multiple devices to support different applications and networks," said Zig Serafin, general manager, Unified Communications Group at Microsoft Corp. "Microsoft is pleased that our industry partner, Avaya, has developed Avaya Unified Communications Solutions for Microsoft which can significantly streamline this experience, providing greater flexibility for both the employee and the company."

Learning Opportunities: Avaya Unified Communications Web Events

Avaya is hosting a live Web forum on Unified Communications featuring guest speakers from Gartner, IBM and Microsoft this Thursday, February 22, 2007 from 12 noon - 1:15 pm Eastern. For more information and to register for the Avaya Web Forum, please visit: http://avaya.netlabs.net/email_templates/reg4events/ucnow/invite.html

Beginning March 1, 2007, CIO magazine will begin airing a Webcast entitled, "Enabling the Infoworker: How thought leaders from Avaya and Microsoft Envision Unified Communications." The CIO magazine webcast will be available at http://www.cio.com/webcasts.

About Avaya

Avaya Inc. designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than one million businesses worldwide, including over 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®. 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.

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