Avaya

Intelligent communications solutions from Avaya Inc., a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services, attained SIPconnect Compliant certification from the SIP Forum, a leading independent IP communications industry association comprised of individuals and companies who contribute to the development of global IP communications based on the SIP standard.

SIPconnect certification provides enterprise customers with validation that Avaya Communication Manager, the company’s software platform for IP communications, and Avaya SIP Enablement Services, which enable companies to take advantage of SIP-based connectivity to public networks of service providers, achieved SIPconnect compliance for SIP trunking. 

Avaya also supports SIP throughout its portfolio, including Avaya Distributed Office, a communications platform for branch offices; Avaya IP Office, a converged voice and data system for small and medium businesses; Avaya Call Center; and the Avaya one-X™ Deskphone Edition 9600 series with built-in SIP capabilities.

Recently introduced by the SIP Forum, the SIPconnect Compliant program was created to help validate and ensure multimedia communication interoperability among IP communications equipment manufacturers, software providers and service providers, as well as to promote further adoption of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) as the standard for IP-based communications. Avaya is a founding member of the SIPConnect program.

“SIPconnect certification gives customers independent validation of Avaya’s compliance with the SIP Forum’s Technical Recommendation for SIP compatibility. It also acts as a benchmark for enterprises to use when confirming the service provider SIP trunking service compatibility with their enterprise telephony infrastructure,” said Anwar Siddiqui, manager of Avaya Labs’ chief technology office.

“The SIP Forum is proud to recognize Avaya as a leader in the IP Communication industry that has fully embraced SIP standards and best practices,” said Eric Burger, SIP Forum chairman. “The Forum values the participation of its full member companies, such as Avaya, in this important certification program, and such support demonstrates strong and growing traction of SIPconnect from the vendor community.”

SIP is a standards-based IP telephony signaling language that facilitates seamless interoperability among various media, including audio, video, instant messaging and presence. SIP trunking provides immediate benefits for customers that can include reduced cost and hardware footprint on premise, increased network performance, and increased choices in network infrastructure configurations.

“SIP trunking is growing in importance, with 65 percent of IT-executive participants in Nemertes’ forthcoming benchmark, Advanced Communications Services, thus far reporting that they are either evaluating or planning to implement SIP trunking within the next two years,” said Irwin Lazar, principal research analyst, Nemertes Research.

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.

About The SIP Forum
The SIP Forum is an IP communications industry association that engages in numerous activities that advance and promote SIP technology, such as the development of industry recommendations, the SIPit interoperability and testing events, special interoperability workshops, and general promotion of SIP in the industry. One of the Forum’s recent technical activities is the development of the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation - a standards-based recommendation that provides detailed guidelines for direct IP peering and interoperability between IP PBXs and VoIP service provider networks, and the SIPconnect Compliant Certification Program through which eligible companies can gain SIPconnect validation and the right to license the use of the SIP Forum’s ‘SIPconnect Compliant’ certification mark - the official brand of the leading standard for SIP Trunking products and services. For more information, please visit: http://www.sipforum.org.

 About half of Japanese consumers prefer email and the Internet to telephones when contacting companies. A recent research commissioned by communications software provider Avaya and conducted by a research company callcentres.net, Avaya Contact Centre Consumer Index Japan 2007, concluded there is a growing preference for Japanese consumers to interact with companies via the internet and self-service channels, rather than utilizing telephones.

This new direction is strongly driven by Generation X consumers who have a higher preference for interacting with companies using technologies, than Generation Y, Baby Boomers or Silent Generations.* The research was conducted online in seven countries in the Asia-Pacific region including Japan (Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, India, China, and Korea) with 300 people in each country who use call centers. The research shows the difference in gender as well.

The results of the research will enable Avaya to better meet the needs of potential and existing customers and provide strategic insights on how communications technologies can enhance the customer experience. It confirm that demand for multi-channel contact centers that respond to customer inquiries made using a variety of media, including voice, e-mail and chat, is growing across all generations. The results also indicate that companies can enhance customer satisfaction with contact centers by using database routing to connect customers to a contact center agent according to their preferences.

According to the research, about half or 48% of the research respondents in Japan replied: “I prefer to use email or the Internet to using a telephone.” This turned out to be a common trend amongst the Generation Y (47.5%) Generation X (53.85%) and the baby boomers (44.23%)

The research also revealed that preferences for gender and age in call center agents varied by gender. 51% of females preferred agents that were older than they were regardless of the agents’ gender, while 36% of male preferred female agents who were younger than them.

According to the research, 45% of Japanese would be happy to use self-service technology, such as touch tone system or speech recognition system for “basic” queries (e.g. checking account balances, checking on cinema times or checking trial timetables). This result shows that increasing number of Japanese is comfortable with using self-service technology when contacting companies. However, the number decline to 19.7% for “somewhat complex” queries (e.g. trading stocks, booking flights, paying bills) and 11% for very complex queries (e.g. opening a new bank account, applying for loans, credit cards) .To offer better response and improve positive experiences, businesses need to sort call reason accurately to rout the basic queries to self service technology and rout the complex queries to the agents.

Avaya offers contact center applications that cater to diversifying consumer needs and provide support for the enhancement of customer satisfaction.

Solutions combining multi-channel contact centers with database routing
Avaya provides Avaya Interaction Center, a multi-channel software application that allows centralized management of contacts made over a variety of different channels including telephone, e-mail and Web chat. Avaya Interaction Center is able to uniquely recognize the customer whichever method of access is used and process the inquiry using a single agent application. Used in conjunction with a database, it also offers database routing that connects the customer to a specific agent according to the number from which they are calling, their e-mail address, Web log-in ID, etc.

Self service solution to increase customer satisfaction with contact centers
Avaya offer the latest in IVR solutions, Avaya Voice Portal, a SIP-capable automatic voice-activated solution that allows the construction of voice portal environments (websites that allow users to search for information using voice-based access). Avaya Voice Portal allows users in an environment without a PC to use their phone to look up information on a website by voice command. For example, the Voice Portal can be used for stock price search service. It allows companies to differentiate their services from those of other companies while utilizing their existing investment in websites.

Research outline:
Research title:  Avaya Contact Centre Consumer Index Japan 2007
Research period: October 1 to 31, 2007
Method:  Online research through Callcentres.net
Research subjects:300 males and females residing in Japan between the ages of 16 and 82 who used call centers
*Definitions of Generations:
Generation Y = born 1977-1991 (16-30 years old)
Generation X = born 1962-1976 (31-45 years old)
Baby Boomers = born 1946-1961 (46-61 years old)
Silent Generation = born 1925-1945 (62-82 years old)
(also known as True Believers)

Further details on the research are available on request.

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.

About callcentres.net
Established in 1999 and based in Sydney with a regional office in Singapore, callcentres.net is the central portal for the Asia Pacific contact centre industry providing research, benchmarking studies and up-to-date news and information.  is recognized as the leading Analyst organization for the Asia Pacific contact centre industry. www.callcentres.net

CARY, N.C. – Cicero Inc. (BB:CICN), a leading provider of desktop integration and automation solutions, today announced it has been selected by Avaya Inc., a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services, for membership in the Avaya DevConnect program.

Cicero Inc. is the developer of the Cicero integration framework, which non-invasively and rapidly integrates disparate applications in order to consolidate information, extend legacy applications, automate workflows and support service-oriented architectures with Web services. As a result, companies can quickly integrate CTI (computer telephony integration) and call center applications with other applications on any platform (legacy, Web, Java, Windows, etc.), without changing or writing any application code. By doing so, they can streamline business processes, reduce agent training, shorten call times and improve the overall customer experience.

The Avaya DevConnect program promotes the development, compliance-testing and co-marketing of innovative third-party products that are compatible with standards-based Avaya solutions. Member organizations have expertise in a broad range of technologies – including IP telephony, contact centers and mobility applications – helping companies extend the value of multivendor networks and transform voice into an intelligent business application that delivers true value to the bottom line.

“As a member of the Avaya DevConnect program, we will be able to further deliver solutions that non-invasively integrate Avaya technologies with other disparate contact center applications,” said John Broderick, CEO of Cicero Inc. “We look forward to working closely with Avaya to deliver compliance-tested solutions to contact centers that reduce the complexity of typical integration efforts, improve application functionality, improve workflow and significantly shorten deployment time so organizations can quickly realize the business benefits.”

The Avaya DevConnect program currently includes thousands of software and hardware developer companies, integrators, service providers and customers. Members have created a broad array of innovative solutions tested for Avaya compliance, including natural language speech recognition applications, wireless services, specialized computer telephony integration and reporting capabilities, and applications tailored for specific vertical industries.

Through the DevConnect program, Avaya provides a number of tools and capabilities to member companies. One example is Application Enablement Services (AES), a set of application programming interfaces, protocols and Web services that makes it easier for developers to create Avaya-compatible networks, devices and applications.

“With the involvement of companies like Cicero Inc., our Avaya developer community has become a catalyst for rapid innovation, creating multivendor applications that help enterprises around the world unleash powerful new possibilities for operating more efficiently and effectively,” said Eric Rossman, vice president, developer relations and technical alliances, Avaya. “We help businesses embed secure, reliable Intelligent Communications into the very fabric of their organization so employees and customers have ready access to information regardless of where they are and how they prefer to communicate.”
 
As a member of the DevConnect program, companies have access to a wide range of support from Avaya, including technical resources and training. There are three levels of membership – Registered, Gold and Platinum – each entailing progressive levels of marketing and sales involvement.  Free Registered membership is available to anyone interested in designing Avaya-compatible solutions. Gold-level members and Platinum members must meet rigorous Avaya criteria for customer satisfaction, product support, business operations, marketing and sales. Cicero Inc. is a Gold member of the Avaya DevConnect program.

Membership information and a listing of solutions developed and tested under the DevConnect program are available at www.avaya.com/devconnect.

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.

About Cicero Inc.
Cicero Inc. provides desktop integration, automation and modernization solutions for contact centers and other complex information environments.  Cicero aligns technology with business processes, streamlines user interactions, improves total productivity, assures completeness and compliance, reduces turnover, and raises knowledge-worker morale and effectiveness. 
Patented Cicero technology quickly and non-invasively integrates disparate applications, enables legacy systems and automates workflow tasks on the desktop. Cicero integration produces results in weeks, and a return on investment (ROI) can be achieved in months. Cicero commits to results that are impossible for invasive, server-side strategies and technologies.

Cicero’s technology serves more than 50,000 knowledge workers at Merrill Lynch, IBM, Nationwide Insurance and other companies large and small. In one recent implementation, Cicero integrated eight applications for 900 agent desktops in just seven weeks and reduced average call times by approximately 40 seconds. The results include improved customer service and a $1+ million per year operating cost reduction.  For more information about Cicero, please visit www.ciceroinc.com.

Cicero and Cicero Studio are trademarks of Cicero Inc. and/or its affiliates. Other company names and/or products are for identification purposes and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.

PAETEC Holding Corp. (NASDAQ GS: PAET) today announced that its Dynamic IP service is compliant with key Internet protocol (IP) telephony solutions from Avaya Inc., a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services.

The Dynamic IP solution offers businesses true bandwidth allocation for voice and data while leveraging existing voice equipment. The application now is compliance-tested by Avaya for compatibility with the Avaya IP Office, a secure, easy-to-use converged voice and data system for small and medium businesses. To date more than 100,000 Avaya IP Office systems have been sold worldwide.

“Our goal is to offer our customers the most cost-effective solution possible,” said PAETEC Chief Marketing Officer Jack Baron. “Part of the way we do this is through relationships with market leaders such as Avaya, which ensures a level of quality and consistency to our service and also sets the stage for future technical innovations.”

PAETEC is a member of the Avaya DevConnect program - an initiative to develop, market and sell innovative third-party products that interoperate with Avaya technology and extend the value of a company’s investment in its network.  

As a Gold member of the program, PAETEC is eligible to submit products for compatibility testing by the Avaya Solution Interoperability and Test Lab in Lincroft, N.J. There a team of Avaya engineers develops a comprehensive test plan for each application to verify whether it is Avaya compliant. Doing so ensures businesses can confidently add best-in-class capabilities to their network without having to replace their existing infrastructure—speeding deployment of new applications and reducing both network complexity and implementation costs.  

“By offering compliance testing to the many innovative companies like PAETEC who are members of our DevConnect program, Avaya promotes fully interoperable solutions that help businesses unleash powerful new possibilities,” said Eric Rossman, vice president, developer relations and technical alliances, Avaya. “They are able to use Intelligent Communications to connect employees and customers to information from wherever they are, over whatever device they have available – getting more out of their multivendor network and delivering new value to their bottom line.”

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.  For more information on the Avaya DevConnect program, visit www.avaya.com/devconnect.

About PAETEC
PAETEC (NASDAQ GS: PAET) is personalizing business communications for medium-sized and large businesses, enterprise organizations and institutions across the United States. We offer a comprehensive suite of IP, voice, data and Internet services, as well as enterprise communications management software, network security solutions, customer premises equipment (CPE) and managed services. For more information, visit www.paetec.com.