Avaya Adding Broader Support for Microsoft Users

Enables "click-to-communicate" from buddy list and provides telephony presence status with desktop presence information; Delivers deep call control integration for access to rich telephony conferencing and messaging applications; Provides Avaya one-X Mobile business communications features and functions on Windows Mobile 5.0 powered devices

Avaya Inc. today announced additions to its Unified Communications portfolio that make it easier for Microsoft users to communicate and collaborate from the application, location and device that works best for them. These new applications extend the Avaya strategy to provide flexible, powerful solutions that improve responsiveness and enable workers to be effective anywhere.

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 in May, allowing calls to simultaneously ring the desk phone and mobile device 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" - Avaya.