Avaya

Avaya has been named to World’s Most Ethical Companies list for 2008 by The Ethisphere Institute. This marks the second consecutive year Avaya has been named to the annual listing which was initiated in 2007.
 
Ethisphere a think-tank dedicated to the research and promotion of profitable best practices in global governance, business ethics, compliance and corporate responsibility revealed the award at the Ethisphere and Forbes joint-conference, "Driving Profit through Ethical Leadership," held on June 3rd. The list of World’s Most Ethical companies will also be featured in the Q2 issue of Ethisphere Magazine.
 
Avaya was also named to Ethisphere Institute’s Best Overall Government Contractors Ethics Program earlier this year, ranking seventh out of more than 1000 companies analyzed by the Institute. 

"Adherence to the highest ethical standards is a key factor in Avaya’s core values," said Peter Liria, director, global ethics and compliance program, Avaya. "We communicate this with each employee on a regular basis – regardless of their title and role. It’s an honor to be recognized for our commitment for the second year in a row."

Researchers and analysts reviewed thousands of companies on six continents to determine the finalists using a rigorous, multi-step evaluation process. The 2008 World’s Most Ethical Companies methodology committee is comprised of leading attorneys, government officials, professors and leaders who care about ethical and honest business practices.
 
"We applaud Avaya. Avaya is among the companies honored this year because they have developed impressive and meaningful ethical business practices, making them true standouts within their industries," said Alexander Brigham, executive director of Ethisphere Institute.

"They go well beyond legal minimums, opting instead to bring about innovative ideas that contribute to the public well being. By their actions, they are forcing their competitors to follow suit, or fall behind and truly embodying the notion that ethical business practices are more profitable in the long run." 
 
Ethisphere analysts reviewed codes of ethics, litigation and regulatory infraction histories; evaluated investment in innovation and sustainable business practices; looked at companies’ activities to improve corporate citizenship; studied nominations from senior executives, industry peers, suppliers and customers; and worked with consumer action groups for feedback and rating.
 
The day-long conference, which featured Forbes editors and executives from world-renowned corporations, universities and ethics organizations, focused on ethical culture and leadership and highlighted companies’ experiences and ethical challenges, provided advice on preparing for ethical dilemmas and gave viewpoints from an investor’s perspective. The conference culminated with recognizing Ethisphere Magazine’s 2008 World’s Most Ethical Companies at an evening awards dinner.
 
About Avaya
Avaya delivers Intelligent Communications solutions that help companies transform their businesses to achieve marketplace advantage. More than one 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 provide comprehensive service and support for companies, small to large. For more information, visit the Avaya Web site at http://www.avaya.com.
 
About Ethisphere Institute
The research-based Ethisphere Institute and associated membership group, the Ethisphere Council, are supported by more than 100 institutions and corporations, including Thomson West, the Practising Law Institute, the National Association of Corporate Directors, the Global Reporting Initiative, Corpedia and dozens of others.  The Institute is dedicated to the research, creation, and sharing of best practices in ethics, compliance, and corporate governance among its membership companies. It also focuses on the development and advancement of individuals on its membership council through increased efficiency, innovation, tools, mentoring, advice, and unique career opportunities. Ethisphere Magazine is the quarterly publication of the Institute. More information on membership can be found at http://www.ethisphere.com.
 
The Ethisphere Institute publishes the globally-recognized annual World Most Ethical Companies Ranking™ as well as the Government Contractor Ethics Program Ranking™ and the upcoming Global Anti-Corruption Quotient.

Avaya Inc. achieved leadership of the North American voice and unified messaging market in both revenue and shipments, according to a key industry report measuring this core component of the unified communications (UC) sector.

The research, by global growth consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, analyzed all aspects of enterprise voice and unified messaging in 2007, including a competitive assessment of 14 vendors. Avaya led with over 27 percent of the market for revenues, more than 7 points ahead of its nearest competitor. In unified messaging shipments, Avaya led with 21 percent of the market, outpacing the next vendor by 6 points. Other companies measured in the report included Cisco, Nortel, Siemens and new market entrants.

Enterprise voice and unified messaging is a market that Frost & Sullivan expects to grow to $1 billion by 2013. Unified messaging is a technology that combines voicemail, email and fax into a single interface for easy access to all of one’s messages. According to the research, many vendors view unified messaging as a first step towards unified communications - a way to bring together many modes of communications such as email, voicemail, instant messaging, video and presence to deliver a seamless, always-on experience.

“Unified messaging is beginning to ride the unified communications wave,” said Krithi Rao, industry analyst, Frost & Sullivan. “Avaya is front and center due to a smart, open and solutions-based unified messaging strategy. Avaya’s leadership in messaging is a result of focusing on what customers need today, while helping ensure they have a simple migration path to greater value tomorrow.”

The open and interoperable nature of Avaya’s messaging platform, Avaya Modular Messaging, helped drive the company’s leadership in this space. In its research, Frost & Sullivan states that Avaya Modular Messaging provides a “clear and non-disruptive migration path” to new unified communications capabilities. The research also highlights Avaya’s “first mover’s advantage in next-generation enterprise communications,” due to its innovation in technologies such as Communications Enabled Business Processes.

“Avaya is committed to delivering advanced unified messaging technologies that enhance business productivity at an affordable price,” said Jorge Blanco, vice president, Product Strategy, Avaya. “We believe these results demonstrate that customers understand the value of Avaya unified messaging tools and are putting them to work for real business benefit.”

To access Frost & Sullivan’s research, please visit: www.frost.com.

About Avaya Unified Messaging Solutions
Avaya Modular Messaging - part of Avaya’s portfolio of Unified Communications solutions - combines messaging systems such as e-mail, voicemail, and fax into a single, scalable solution that seamlessly integrates with existing platforms. It can communicate with other Avaya messaging systems and non-Avaya voice mail systems in a network, and can be deployed with advanced speech automation capabilities for faster access to voicemail, email, calendars, tasks and corporate directories. Avaya provides messaging applications as part of its small, mid-sized and enterprise market solutions.

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.

Avaya and Lenovo announced the availability of the Avaya Mobility Edition for Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops, a solution targeted for business users that embeds the Avaya Internet protocol (IP) Softphone application into Lenovo PCs. The unified solution enables complete, enterprise communications from any location with optimum security, usability and quality of service.

With an Avaya IP Softphone, a Lenovo PC becomes the office phone by integrating with an existing office extension number and linking it with multiple office, home and mobile numbers that can ring simultaneously or in a sequence at the user’s choice. Location becomes irrelevant: callers can reach employees quickly through a single number; employees have full access to Avaya Communication Manager features, voicemail and directories on their Lenovo PCs. In addition, users can make calls using a simple, click-to-dial feature from corporate directories, call logs, Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes contact lists or any open desktop application.

“The Avaya Mobility Edition for our Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks provides unified communications that facilitate business communications among our staff internally and with our customers externally,” said Jerry Perkins, executive vice president, Emerging Technologies and Corporate Strategy for Cross Telecom. “This secure, cost-effective solution has generated significant interest from our customers both in fixed and mobile locations due to its ease of use.”

The solution includes support for biometric log-in using fingerprint readers on Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks and optional Lenovo external keyboards, as well as a new voicemail notification function that uses Lenovo’s ThinkLight feature. Lenovo’s integrated fingerprint reader provides easy access to business communications with the swipe of a finger while protecting contact lists and call histories from unauthorized access. In addition, Lenovo’s ThinkLight, located on the top of the ThinkPad notebooks’ screen bezel, alerts users to incoming voicemail.

“By using the Avaya Mobility Edition on Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops, users can streamline communications by taking their office phone with them on their PC, whether they are working in the office, from home or on the road,” said Bob Galush, vice president, Software and Peripherals Marketing, Lenovo. “This combined solution integrates the latest Voice over Internet protocol solution with Lenovo’s proven PC technologies resulting in a secure, easy-to-use computing and telephony experience.”

“Avaya’s Unified Communications and IP telephony solution embedded on Lenovo’s ThinkPad notebooks enhances worker productivity by providing secure access to a built-in softphone for business communications from any location via their notebook PC,” said Stephen Borcich, vice president, Unified Communications, Avaya. “The integrated solution can reduce company expenses by limiting the need for calling cards, hotel phones, second home lines and cell phone charges. The Avaya Mobility Edition for Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops enables companies to quickly streamline the growing complexity of their workers’ communications environment on their existing PC fleets while giving them more functionality that’s also easy to use.”

The solution is available for purchase immediately in North America from Lenovo and Lenovo business partners. Technical support for the joint solution will be provided by Avaya. Pricing starts at $51 per user, with volume discounts available.

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, www.avaya.com. 

About Lenovo
Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is dedicated to building the world’s best engineered personal computers. Lenovo’s business model is built on innovation, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction as well as a focus on investment in emerging markets. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the company develops, manufactures and markets reliable high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services worldwide. Lenovo has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information see www.lenovo.com.

Avaya 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:

• Avaya Communication Manager 5.0
• Avaya SIP Enablement Services 5.0
• SIP R2.0 firmware for the Avaya one-X Deskphone 9620, 9630/G, 9640/G models [NOTE: Avaya 9600 series phones can be provisioned as either SIP or H.323 devices with no extra charge.]
• Avaya Video Telephony Solution
• Avaya G450 Gateway

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.