Avaya provides the path to gradually migrate to IP Telephony at businesses' own pace and choice enabling maximum protection of existing investments
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, - Avaya Inc. (NYSE:AV), a leading global provider of business communications software, systems and services, - today announced its participation in Gitex 2004, Avaya will demonstrate there its focus on helping enterprises, from the very large to small, migrate to IP telephony at their own pace allowing them to maximise the protection on their existing communications network investment. This gradual transition is what will drive rapid adoption of enterprise IP telephony in the Middle East.
IP telephony (Internet Protocol) is a technology that supports voice, data and video transmission via IP-based LANs, Wireless LANs, WANs, and the Internet. IP telephony enables enterprises to utilize new and advanced applications that integrate Internet communications with a range of communications media -- including telephony, video and wireless voice -- driving greater productivity and cost-efficiency throughout an organization.
Nidal Abou Ltaif, Avaya's Managing Director, Middle East and North Africa said: "Avaya sees a new era of business growth and productivity. With new IP technology, the potential for gaining strategic advantage, by integrating communications with IT, has never been greater. It offers a means to transform the way people work: making people more productive processes more intelligent and customers more loyal. In short, businesses more competitive"
Avaya's converged telephony systems support both IP and traditional lines and phones, meaning that organizations can migrate incrementally to an IP infrastructure whilst leveraging further their existing investments. Avaya IP solutions enable companies to operate both a traditional phone system and new IP technology seamlessly in such a way that callers and users will not even realise which network they are connected to and experience no disruption. This is to be compared with a forklift approach where a complete revamp of the network is required. However, Avaya can also provide a complete IP Telephony solution in a new (Greenfield) environment.
Avaya will also demonstrate to Gitex visitors how its ability to integrate in a multi-vendor environment can enable them to efficiently, seamlessly and securely drive their business from where it is today to where they need it to be. Avaya's communications architecture is based on open standards and therefore gives customers the freedom to choose the infrastructure and applications that will best meet their business goals.
According to Abou Ltaif, the apparent benefit of Avaya's IP Contact Center is. He explains: "Most contact centers in the Middle East support live voice interaction with agents. By migrating contact centers to IP, customers will have a variety of ways through which they can communicate with an organization and its agents". IP based contact centers, according to Abou Ltaif, will also enable organizations to quickly and efficiency expands their territorial coverage, thanks to the virtual nature of IP Telephony. He said:" IP based contact center will truly allow Middle East organizations to provide outsourcing services to businesses across the world". Examples of this technology will be demonstrated at Gitex this year.
The IP Contact Center solutions can enable organizations span multiple sites, where they operate together as one virtual Contact Center, further reducing costs, improving management processes, and offering better services.
Avaya will be exhibiting at Gitex on Al Yousuf stand in Hall 4, Stand number C4-1. Suhail Zain-Eldeen, Managing Director Al Yousuf IT Company: "Our partnership with Avaya allows us to leverage the great business opportunities presented by a market eagerly looking to achieve great business results through smart technology deployments. We're happy to see Avaya again on our stand this year." For more information, visit Avaya at www.avaya.com/gitex.
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Note to editors:
Avaya maintained its position as the leading enterprise converged telephony provider in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) in the first quarter of 2004, according to a recent report by industry analyst firm Synergy[1]. Avaya increased its market share by more than 7 percent to nearly 50 percent in the three months from January to March, placing it nearly 30 percentage points ahead of the nearest competitor. This number one position was measured in terms of ports shipped. A converged telephony system supports both internet protocol (IP) and traditional lines and phones, while providing call control through IP. This enables organizations to migrate incrementally to an IP infrastructure whilst maintaining their existing investments.
According to the same Synergy report, during the quarter, Avaya also held on to its number one position in the overall EMEA enterprise IP telephony market, also measured by ports shipped, increasing its share to more than a quarter of the market. In total, Avaya shipped nearly 170,000 IP telephony ports in the quarter, an increase of 19 percent over the previous quarter.
In a separate report[2], Synergy forecasts that the customer trend towards buying converged telephony solutions will continue in EMEA, with revenues predicted to increase from nearly $350 million in 2004 to more than $700 million by 2008, a compound annual growth rate of nearly 20 percent.
The full Synergy report, entitled "Q1 2004 Enterprise VoIP EMEA Market Shares," covers the EMEA enterprise voice market, providing market share data for Enterprise VoIP Gateways and Enterprise Telephony -- covering both IP and TDM telephony. Market share for IP telephony is given in terms of ports and revenues for LAN telephony, Converged Telephony and IP Phones. The data in this announcement was drawn from port data for EMEA enterprise IP telephony as a whole and for EMEA converged telephony.
2Q1 2004 Enterprise Voice EMEA Forecast"
About AvayaAvaya Inc. designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than 1 million businesses worldwide, including 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. WWW.AVAYA.COM To contact Avaya MENA
Roger El Tawil
Avaya Middle East and North Africa
Dubai,
UAE
Tel: +971 4 4048100
Fax: +971 4 4048140
Email:reltawil@Avaya.com
Agency contact:
Iman Ghorayeb / Prem Ramchandran
ASDA'A Public Relations
Dubai,
UAE
Tel: 00-9714-3344550
Fax: 00-9714-3344556
E-mail: info@asdaa.com
© Press Release 2004
