Avaya Upgrades IP Office for SMB, Adds Module for Mobile UC

Avaya has officially unleashed IP Office 8.0, a revamp of its ubiquitous unified communication software suite, completely designed for ease of use and mobile device integration. I spoke to Joe Scotto, the global director of SMB Marketing at Avaya, about the new features and got a nice view of Avaya’s channel perspective. Details follow …

Scotto described IP Office 8.0 software suite as “unified communications in a box,” for VARs, because the solution enables them to serve the entire small to midsize space, he said. “You can approach a business with as few as 10 users.” And because Avaya offers four different software editions with IP Office 8.0, VARs don’t have to worry about the 500-seat ceiling — the systems scales to accommodate up to 384 users and up to 1,000 users in a network with pay-as-you-grow application and feature add-ons as needed. With this approach, Avaya hopes to be a true differentiator for resellers when it comes to selling UC — making it easy while lowering costs.

Avaya is also focusing on the mobile UC space with its new mobility application for IP Office 8.0, one-X Mobile Preferred for IP Office. This Android (and soon to be iPhone) software provides an immersive and complete UC experience on an Android phone, with geo-presence, visual voice mail and more. Avaya built the app for Android and iPhone first because “that’s 70 percent of smartphone sales today,” Scotto said, adding Avaya hopes VARs will see it as something “sexy” to sell. Adding to that “sexy” factor is IP Office 8.0 “federated” status, which allows for integration with Google Talk, SalesForce.com and Microsoft Outlook.

Avaya also plans to launch a pre-configured appliance aimed at the bigger SME space by the end of Q1 2012. The C110 unified communications module runs Linux on a specialized Avaya IP 500 chassis card and comes pre-installed and pre-configured with IP Office, so VARs or IT admins can essentially plug and play into their existing Avaya IP Office 500 box. It has the potential “to reduce installation time by 70 percent instead of installing an external server,” Scotto said.

Avaya is just one player in the unified communications space making some noise. Be sure to check similar mobile UC moves by Polycom with Motorola to ship RealPresence Mobile with the Motorola Xyboard tablet.