Avaya Introduces New Unified Communications Client for Advanced Desktop Communications

VoiceCon Booth 801 -- Avaya Inc., a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services, today announced Avaya one-X(TM) Communicator, a new flagship, unified communications client application that gives users access to a broad range of the most commonly used communications tools from a single interface.

Avaya one-X Communicator provides full telephony features, desktop video, visual voicemail, rich presence, email and instant messaging, conference bridge integration, directories and contact history. From a single application, a simple click can launch virtually any form of communication, including applications from different vendors and protocols. The new, easy-to-use interface is designed to maximize convenience and employee productivity.

Avaya one-X Communicator supports both H.323 and SIP communications protocols, enabling employees of businesses with mixed communications environments to participate in the same voice and video call or session. The multi-protocol support also allows companies to evolve to SIP at their own pace.

"Avaya one-X Communicator offers a highly flexible, powerful solution for businesses and employees," said Mary Dunlop, vice president, Unified Communications Product Management, Avaya. "A single desktop application brings the workforce together and allows users to make more accurate, effective choices for how they communicate at any given time."

Avaya one-X Communicator also delivers the aggregated, rich presence information to the desktop supplied by the Avaya Intelligent Presence Server (IPS), also announced today. The initial release of one-X Communicator combines telephony presence from Avaya Communication Manager with Instant Messaging presence from Microsoft Office Communications Server; future releases of Intelligent Presence will integrate additional presence sources. In addition, an Avaya one-X Communicator tab within Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 provides direct access to advanced telephony capabilities including mobility, call recording, transfer, and many more.

The Avaya one-X Communicator continues Avaya's tradition of making video conferencing as practical and as easy as a phone call, enabling embedded desktop video to be treated with features such as transfer, forward, conference, hold and call coverage. The application drives video through Avaya Communication Manager to help preserve bandwidth and provide class of service control. Avaya Strategic AlliancePartner and DevConnect member, Polycom, provides the video processing technology that powers one-X Communicator's point-to-point video communication. With the addition of Polycom's multi-point conferencing unit, one-X Communicator can support several participants in the same video conferencing session.

"Polycom's integration with the Avaya unified communications environment makes visual communications as easy as making a phone call," said Joe Sigrist, senior vice president and general manager of video solutions at Polycom. "Video now becomes a practical, powerful extension of the Avaya communication tools that people use in their jobs everyday through an intuitive user experience that is managed within the broader Avaya unified communications environment."

Additional features in one-X Communicator include visual multimedia audio conferencing, which enables workers to see who's joined an Avaya Meeting Exchange(TM) conference call and who is speaking, providing important context to a discussion. Moderators can identify noisy lines or music on hold, and mute or drop the line from the call. Visual voice mail enables employees to see and manage voice messages based on a user's priorities. Employees can also initiate an instant messaging session or launch an email from the one-X Communicator interface.

Avaya one-X Communicator will be globally available in May and is included in the new Avaya Unified Communications for Teleworkers and for Mobile Workers solutions which were also announced today, and as part of the Avaya Unified Communications Standard Edition. Avaya and Lenovo are will also launch a new version of the Avaya Mobility Edition for Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops based on the new one-X Communicator being announced today. The updated solution reinforces the strategic alliance between the two companies by enhancing the powerful security and notification features pioneered with the integration of IP Softphone on Lenovo PCs.

Avaya one-X Communicator joins the one-X suite of clients, including Avaya one-X Portal, a browser-based Unified Communications client that provides access to telephony, visual voice mail, audio conferencing, and now adds rich presence. Users can access one-X Portal using Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari on PCs running Windows, Linux, or Apple operating systems. The web-based capability of one-X Portal offers IT departments an alterative solution for deployment and business continuity purposes for different types of users.