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  • Radvision Unveils eVident and Scopia Elite 6000 MCUs

    Unveiled by Avaya's Radvision, the software-based multipoint control unit (MCU) Scopia Elite 6000 Series, is the newest monitoring tool available for video networking and video conferences.

    This MCU supplies 1080/60fps double channels that provide content and video, with synchronized H.264 high profile bandwidth effectiveness, and H.264 video coding. The unit operates on an Intel server, and provides an interoperable, multi-stream, engaging telepresence system.

    Centered on hybrid architecture the MCU offers 40 ports with live video resolutions up to 1080p from one 1U system. Users will also be able to regulate meetings through a series of on screen menus compatible with the Scopia iPad application, and other equipment.

    Bob Romano, the global vice president of marketing at Radvision, reported to Fierce Enterprise Communications that, "there has been a real trend toward desktop mobility and BYOD" among the video conference market. Romano feels that potential customers want the ability to join a conference remotely without having to consider what type of device they have.

    Ramano goes on to say, "What we are seeing is a real desire for more capacity because as you extend video conferencing out to mobile and desktop users, that draws on a bigger user base". With Radvisions new Scopia desktop and mobile platform, plus the new MCU support, remote involvement is now possible.

    Also launched this year by Radvision is the eVident video monitoring tools set. These tools allow the administrators to ensure that their networks are ready for video conferencing preceding operation. The tools including Prevideo, RVMON, and VQInsider, provide measurement and analysis of quality monitoring, audio and video metrics, and codec parameters.

    Even though 1,000 influential firms interested in the mobile conferencing market agreed that they would embrace desktop video conferencing, the revenue produced in the market fell by 6 percent in the second quarter. Service providers must find innovative ways to encourage firms that the use of video conferencing is necessary, or these enterprises will look for other options.

  • Net2Phone’s SIP Trunking Solution Now Rated “Avaya Compliant”

    Net2Phone, one of the largest distributor-based VoIP providers in the world, today announced that its SIP Trunking solution is compliant with key small and medium enterprise solutions from Avaya, a global provider of business collaboration systems, software and services.

    The Net2Phone SIP Trunking solution helps businesses reduce their overall telecommunications costs while providing high-quality call origination and termination. The application is now compliance-tested by Avaya for compatibility with Avaya IP Office 8.1.  It is supported for use with both IP Office 500 and IP Office Server Edition.  

    “Net2Phone's Business VoIP solution enables Avaya customers to make outbound and receive inbound calls from anywhere across the globe using their existing Avaya IP Office system,” says Jonah Fink, senior vice president, Net2Phone. “Our solution is based on open, standard-based platforms, which helps business customers incorporate new technology easily and cost effectively and uncover new possibilities for getting more out of their communications infrastructure.” 

    Net2Phone is a Technology Partner in 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 Technology Partner, Net2Phone is eligible to submit products for compliance testing by the Avaya Solution Interoperability and Test Lab. There, a team of Avaya engineers develops a comprehensive test plan for each application to verify whether it is Avaya compatible. Doing so enables businesses to 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.  

    “Technology partners like Net2Phone are helping Avaya by providing VoIP services to our customers, helping them to reduce inefficiencies and complexities in their networks,” said Eric Rossman, vice president, developer relations, Avaya. “This enables organizations to be more productive and responsive, and helps accelerate operational and development processes.”

    About Avaya
    Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centers, networking and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visit www.avaya.com. For more information on the Avaya DevConnect program, visit www.avaya.com/devconnect.

    About Net2Phone
    Net2Phone provides a full suite of VoIP solutions in over 160 countries.  As the largest distributor-based VoIP provider in the world, Net2Phone routes millions of minutes daily over data networks, offering high quality voice services and saving consumers and businesses up to 90% off international calling rates.  For more information about Net2Phone’s products and services, please visit www.net2phone.com. Net2Phone is a subsidiary of IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT).  Through its Telecom division, IDT provides telecommunications and financial services.  IDT Telecom’s retail products allow people to communicate and share financial resources around the world while its carrier services business is a global leader in wholesale voice termination.  For more information, visit www.idt.net.

  • Infonetics: Cisco is the Ruler Among PBX Vendors

    According to a recent market study made by Infonetics Research, the third quarter of 2012 saw a few positive changes in the leading business PBX telephony systems. Cisco was found to be the leading PBX business phone system vendor, followed closely behind by Avaya.

    Cisco has managed to keep this top position for the last five consecutive quarters. Both Cisco and Avaya hold firm control of about 50% of the PBX business telephony market. Following in the footsteps of these two corporate giants, NEC has climb to third position with double digit growth over the quarter, and regretably, Siemens has slipped back into fourth place.

    According to further studies made by Infonetics, the high roller in the Unified Comminications (UC) market is Mcrosoft, with a rise in revenues of approximately 40% over second quarter profits. Other top UC contenders are traditional telephony vendors such as, Cisco, Avaya and Siemens. "The UC market continues to experience general growth, but Microsoft seems to outpace other vendors in the market, " says Dian Myers, a renown analyst in the VoIP and IMS industry for Infonetics.

    Other areas of enterprise telephony seem to be on a downturn with declines continuing for this third quarter.

    At the same time, the enterprise telephony market continues to struggle in some aspects, with year-over-year declines continuing in the third quarter. This slowdown comes as a result of the tough economic times which have slowed business upgrades, and caused many to hold onto existing platforms. "However, market studies show that the market will move back into positive growth over the next year," says Myers.

    The global PBX market, including TDM, hybrid and pure IP PBX systems, has seen an approximate six percent decline in this third quarterdue to continued market softness in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, bud did see a 2.8 percent increase over prior quarters, according to the Infonetics telephony study.

    Over the third quarter the average revenue seen by each new PBX line fell well below $200, an event that has not previously happened. Revenue continues to drop for now.

  • Unified Communications Market Has Strongest Quarter Since 2008

    Dell’Oro Group reported that the Unified Communications market expanded to its highest level since 2008 in the third quarter this year. Strong second half seasonality helped offset weakness in Europe as the Unified Communications market expanded 7 percent sequentially.

    “The market rebounded strongly in the third quarter due to robust seasonal quarters from several of the larger vendors, especially in North America, which was able to offset weakness in Europe” commented Alan Weckel, Director at Dell’Oro Group.

    “Despite pockets of weakness reappearing, we believe that the Unified Communications market will expand significantly in 2010 as existing vendors continue to invest and expand their software offerings and Microsoft begins to actively push Lync,” Weckel added.

    Also, according to the report, vendors continue to migrate their installed base over to IP lines, although the process may take another decade to complete. The top eight vendors in the quarter that accounted for more than 80 percent of IP line shipments were: Aastra, Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco, Mitel, NEC, Shoretel, and Siemens.

  • Avaya Expands Business Collaboration for Small and Medium Enterprise Market

    Avaya introduced the new version of Avaya IP Office—the company’s flagship communications solution for small and medium-sized enterprises.

    According to the company,  Avaya IP Office Release 6.1 delivers a host of business collaboration and customer service enhancements "that can improve ease-of-use and worker productivity for SME workers, and generate significant new efficiencies for businesses."

    Avaya IP Office has been recognized for its total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits, delivering savings of approximately 25% in acquisition and ownership costs when compared with a competing vendor solution.

    The new version of Avaya IP Office expands upon its TCO strengths by enabling installation via a single DVD containing the open standards-based Linux operating system (OS) and key communications applications. Formerly, the OS and IP Office applications had to be installed via several sources and multiple DVDs.

    "This new approach can cut down software installation times by as much as 75%,2 saving on labor costs while simplifying installation. Additionally, when compared to other OS environments, Linux does not require user licenses, driving further savings for Avaya IP Office users," as the company claims.

    Other advancements introduced by Avaya include:

    * Flexible Avaya one-X Portal for IP Office: The solution’s dynamic Web-based desktop communications interface for remote, mobile and office workers features a newly-designed, customizable interface with drag and drop application gadgets. The solution—which lets users manage calls, instant messages and e-mails from one PC-based portal—is more flexible, allowing users to place gadgets (i.e. Directory, Call Log, etc.) wherever they want on their screen. Further customization includes ‘skins’ and branding with a business’ name.

    * Improved Contact Center Reporting: Now, an SME can gauge the success of a customer campaign through location-based business intelligence that analyzes the calls flowing into a contact center, and makes them viewable on a geographic map. This capability provides a visual report of the volume of customer interaction based on each customer’s location.

    * Expanded Video Options: Avaya IP Office expands upon its videoconferencing capabilities, going beyond Softphone-based video to now offer more advanced multi-point HD videoconferencing with up to 4 parties.3 Additionally, it enables video integration with selected third-party SIP phones.

    * Multi-site Management: SME owners can now manage multiple office sites using one consolidated interface and a single log-in. This lets users view and manage all of the key communications parameters (i.e. user rights, hunt groups) of multiple locations (up to 32).

  • Avaya and Skype Team Up to to Collaborate on Unified Communications

    Avaya and Skype have announced a strategic agreement to deliver communications and collaboration solutions to businesses of all sizes. The multi-phase deal includes both go-to-market and a joint technology integration.

    In the first phase of the agreement, Avaya customers in the U.S. market will have access to Skype Connect, a product which adds Skype calling to IP-based enterprise communications systems, providing a SIP communications channel between Avaya communications systems and Skype.

    According to Avaya, Customers with Avaya Aura Session Manager or Avaya Aura SIP Enablement Server, CS1000, Avaya IP Office, or BCM systems can use Skype Connect to place calls globally “for increased reach, while aiming to save on international calling.” Enterprise-level security and features such as tracking, recording, regulatory compliance, and more are provided by the Avaya system.

    Skype reported 124 million average monthly connected users during the second quarter of 2010. Now, Skype users can make inbound calls to Avaya customers in the U.S. market for free or at a low cost. Calls will be treated with Avaya’s routing, conferencing, messaging, mobility and contact center capabilities, as well as other collaboration services.

    For example, businesses can:
    • Establish Skype Click & Call buttons for inbound calling from Web sites
    • Establish Skype Online Numbers for inbound calling from landline and mobile phones
    • Route inbound calls from a Skype user to an enterprise extension.

    In the second half of 2011, Avaya and Skype plan to deliver integrated unified communications and collaboration solutions for enterprises within the U.S. The integration is intended to establish federation between Avaya Aura and Skype communications platforms and both user communities, so that an Avaya end-user and Skype user can engage and interact via presence, instant messaging, voice and video.

    According to the companies, a business, for example, could use Skype to access an Avaya-based contact center “in a simple and highly integrated way to quickly and efficiently resolve customer service issues.” The integrated solutions will also allow enterprise IT managers to manage and control the inter-connectivity between end users to meet their corporate IT policies.

    "Our relationship with Avaya is expected to expand the footprint for Skype Connect into more enterprises in the U.S. market, while allowing us to help Avaya’s customers benefit from Skype’s cost savings and access to Skype’s global user base," said David Gurlé, vice president and general manager of Skype for Business.

    "We believe our integrated solution in the second half of 2011 is expected to offer the benefits of Skype to a growing number of businesses and open up new ways for people to communicate and collaborate," he added.

    Related news
    Skype Launches Channel Partner Program in the U.S.
    MZA: Avaya Continues to Lead PBX Market
    Skype Connect 1.0 Officially Launched
    Avaya Introduces New Products at Interop 2010

  • MZA: Avaya Continues to Lead PBX Market

    The latest figures released by analyst firm MZA have shown that the Corded PBX market (excluding Micro PBX products) increased by 16% in Q2 2010 compared to Q2 2009 at a global level.

    According to MZA, these results show mixed fortunes depending on the sales region and point towards a turbulent road to recovery with fragile growth rates.

    The report finds that Western Europe, for example, which represented more than one-quarter of the overall global market, showed only weak levels of growth as volumes here increased by a meagre one percent in comparison to Q1 2010.

    One of the major contributing factors to this was the result for the UK market, ordinarily the second largest in the region, which declined in Q2 2010 by 5% compared to Q1 2010. However, in a reversal of fortunes, Germany demonstrated growth of 8% in Q2 2010 compared to Q1 2010 after it previously had dropped by 12% sequentially. According to analysts, both of these results illustrate the extremely volatile nature of the recovery in Western Europe.

    North America, on the other hand, posted an encouraging set of results this quarter, both in comparison to the same quarter of last year (up by 18%) and sequentially (up by 13%), although this still leaves the market adrift of its 2008 average quarterly run-rate of over three million extensions.

    Research by MZA shows that one of the biggest increases globally was recorded in Eastern Europe, where volumes have started to pick up following some of the toughest trading conditions. In Q2 2010, the market increased by 35% compared to Q2 2009. Much of the increase was driven here by Russia, where volumes are normalising but still have a long way to go.

    The second largest growth rate was registered in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan), where an increase of 19% in Q2 2010 was recorded over Q2 2009.

    Avaya continued to lead the world PBX market, growing market share from 13% in Q1 2010 to 15% in Q2 2010. Its leadership position was first attained as a result of the acquisition of Nortel.

    Cisco was in second position with a stable 12% market share while Panasonic moved from fourth position in the last quarter to third position in this, maintaining its 11% share. Panasonic continued to lead in the Below 100 Extensions sector with a steady 16% market share, ahead of NEC in second position and Avaya in third position. In the Above 100 Extensions market, Cisco was the market leader with a 24% market share, followed by Avaya.

    World IP Extensions Market

    The raport also finds that the IP extensions market grew by 27% compared to Q2 2009, which was greater than the 16% rise seen in the total extensions market. The Below 100 IP Extensions market grew by 33%, while the Above 100 IP Extensions market increased by 25%.

    In both instances, increases in the IP extensions market far outweighed the growth seen in the total market and also the growth in the Below 100 Extensions market continued to outpace the growth seen in the Above 100 Extensions market as the adoption of IP to the desktop becomes more widespread.

    Cisco maintained its leadership of the IP extensions market with a 33% market share, followed by Avaya at 21% and NEC with 10% market share.

  • Avaya Introduces New Products at Interop 2010

    Avaya today at Interop 2010 unveiled new data products that are specifically designed to support the growing needs of today’s bandwidth-hungry video and unified communications applications.

    These products address the main challenge that enterprises face today: how to cost-effectively add the bandwidth needed to position them for growth.

    The products introduced at this year’s Interop include:

    • Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 8800: helps enterprise campuses and data centers boost capacity to embrace UC, virtualization and unified wireless solutions. It is especially suited to support bandwidth-hungry video applications. According to Avaya, the solution provides more than a 150 percent increase in memory while using approximately 33 percent less power compared to existing 8600 options.

    • Avaya Wireless LAN 8100 Series: an advanced Enterprise Class 802.11n wireless solution that “easily and seamlessly” extends UC applications to mobile users. Its ‘split plane’ architecture helps eliminate the inefficiencies and bottlenecks of overlay wired/wireless networks with a solution optimized for voice, UC and video applications. It provides a full 802.11n solution including a wireless controller (WC 8180), 802.11n wireless access points (WAP 8120), management software and partnerships for enhanced application support.

    • Avaya Configuration and Orchestration Manager (COM): is a real-time, web-based, multi-user network configuration management solution. It is part of the Unified Communications Management (UCM) solution that can manage multi-user configuration, provisioning and troubleshooting for a wide range of enterprise technologies. Acting as a unified configuration management platform, COM delivers an extensible architecture allowing it to support pluggable device add-ons through data-driven development models and loadable software components.

    • Avaya Advanced Gateway 2330: a flexible SIP gateway providing cost-effective, survivable voice services for branch locations. It can provide local branch connectivity to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) as well as SIP survivability in case of IP wide-area network failure or service outages. It’s also upgradable to support a full suite of routing and WAN services.

    According to Kevin Kennedy, Avaya President and CEO, the days of the ‘one size fits all’ network solutions are over.

    "The Avaya Data Solutions business is positioned to play a critical role in Avaya’s growth as we lead the industry to ‘Fit for Purpose’ data and SIP-based communications technologies that will redefine the IT value proposition and offer the best return on investment for business communications," he said.

  • VoIP Investment Remains Strong, IP Line Penetration Rose to 40% in Q3

    According to the recent Canalys report on IP telephony, investment in enterprise telephony remained restricted in EMEA in Q3 2009, with call control line shipments down 17.5% compared with the same period in 2008.

    The research shows volume declined 21.5% in Q1, while Q2 was down 18.6%. In total, 4.8 million lines were shipped in the quarter, a 4.4% sequential increase. IP line penetration increased to 40%, up from 35% one year earlier, as businesses continued to replace aging TDM infrastructure and expand trial projects.

    Canalys claims aggressive cash-back, fixed price, minimum spend and competitor trade-in promotions, as well as 0% financing offers have helped prevent greater reductions in shipments during 2009.

    Alcatel-Lucent, Siemens and Aastra continue to lead in EMEA, with Cisco gaining ground.

    ‘Alcatel-Lucent has been a stable performer in the region over the last eight quarters, overtaking Siemens as the market leader in 2008,’ said Alex Smith, a Research Analyst at Canalys.

    ‘During the recession, it has managed to maintain its market share, though its Q3 shipments were hit by the holiday season in its core markets, particularly France, Spain and Italy,’ Smith added.

    Siemens remained the second largest vendor with a market share of 13.5%, though this has steadily eroded over the last two years. Overall, Siemens is continuing to invest in growing its indirect business, but shifting direct accounts to the channel will take time, according to Canalys.

    In September, it announced plans to accelerate this process by selling its direct sales organisations in 27 non-core countries to Netlink, a deal worth €204 million ($308 million), more than the original €175 million ($275 million) the Gores Group paid Siemens AG for its 51% stake in the overall business.

    Aastra was the third largest vendor in the region, with a market share of 13.0%. During the quarter, Aastra benefited from competitor cash-back trade-in promotions in France, while investment in direct-touch activities helped it improve its German business, finds the report.

    Cisco continued to grow its market share during the recession, primarily driven by gains in Western Europe, particularly in Germany where it has invested heavily in marketing and sales resources. It accounted for 11.6% of total shipments, compared with 11.2% in Q2 and 10.3% in Q3 2008.

    Avaya, which grew its shipments by 4.2% over Q2 with strong sales in the UK, catalysed by the release of IP Office R5, won the auction for the Nortel Enterprise business. Canalys says new entity has the potential to emerge as the leading vendor in EMEA.

    ‘Shipments for the final quarter of 2009, typically the largest in EMEA, are expected to grow sequentially but will still be down annually as many businesses set budgets earlier in the year when economic conditions were worse. Year-on-year growth is expected to resume in 2010, though volumes will still be lower than in 2008 as economic recovery is expected to be slow after the worst recession for decades,’ said Matthew Ball, a Senior Analyst at Canalys.

  • Empirix VoIP Monitoring Now Avaya Compliant

    Empirix, a provider of VoIP monitoring solutions, announced that its products are now compliant with key contact center solutions from Avaya.

    The Empirix Proactive Communications Assurance solution is now compliance-tested by Avaya for compatibility with Avaya AuraTM Communication Manager on Avaya S8700 servers with MCC1 Media Gateways and Avaya Proactive Contact with PG230RM.

    The company says this solution gives organizations the ability to test their outbound contact center from end-to-end thus enabling companies to ensure performance, a high quality end-user experience and compliance with government regulations.

    Empirix is a Platinum 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 Platinum member of the program, Empirix is eligible to submit products for compatibility testing by the Avaya Solution Interoperability and Test Lab in Basking Ridge, 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, the company says.

    “Earning the Avaya compliance accreditation is important because it gives customers a cost effective, comprehensive approach to ensuring the performance of the Avaya solutions in their unique environments from end-to-end,” said Tim Moynihan, vice president, marketing for the enterprise business unit at Empirix.

    “Combined with innovative products, such as Avaya Proactive Contact and Avaya Aura, Empirix Proactive Communications Assurance gives organizations confidence that their business-critical outbound infrastructures will deliver the most business value in the least amount of startup time,” he added.

    According to Eric Rossman, vice president, developer relations and technical alliances, Avaya, the companies that are members Avaya’s DevConnectprogram 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.”

    Widely acclaimed Empirix Hammer Test Engine, with more than 30 patents, is the acknowledged global standard for validating the quality of IP networks, systems and applications.