Avaya Unifies the UC Experience with Latest one-X Upgrades

Avaya is taking aim at non-unified unified communications with a set of enhancements to its one-X soft client that enables users of pretty much any mobile devices to access the features of the Avaya Flare Experience UC application.

“The mainstream adoption of mobile solutions is key in the enterprise, but until now each device and capability outside the Flare Experience is separate,” said Nancy Maluso, vice president of Avaya’s unified communications product marketing. “We want to get to a place where users can bring together all the communications devices and applications they have and have them provide a consistent user experience.”

The latest versions of the one-X Mobile and Communicator technologies enable such consistent experiences, she said. Specifically, one-X Mobile now works with Android-based devices as well as Apple iPhone 3GS and 4G and RIM/BlackBerry touchscreen devices. One-X previously supported only Symbian and Windows-based OS devices.

The latest version offers mobile presence for all devices, and offers Android and BlackBerry devices the ability to have calls routed over the Avaya Aura communications platform via its Call Intercept feature, saving companies money by reducing cellular roaming charges. Apple iOS users, meanwhile, have the ability to run calls over WLAN, WiFi and cellular data/3G networks.

What’s more, Avaya has released a version of one-X Communicator that supports Apple Mac OS, giving users the same functionality on either PC or Mac-based machines. And the latest version of the traditional one-X Communicator – version 6.1 – offers video- and audioconferencing, instant messaging and visual voice mail to Windows, SIP and H.323 environments.

“These enhancements enable any user with any device to work together,” Maluso said. “They provide that single, consistent, unified experience so critical to a unified communications environment.”

Maluso added that one-X and the Avaya Flare Experience “will begin to come together in a roadmap and we will be integrating the backend capabilities of the two over the next 12 months.”

For partners in the unified communications space, Avaya’s moves to address the mobility space is a step forward for the company and the technology in general. But Avaya isn’t the first vendor to realize the potential for UC in mobile devices – Mitel recently signed on to provide its UC feature set on the BlackBerry PlayBook, while Polycom and Motorola have teamed to provide telepresence – one facet of UC – on the Xoom tablet. Such deals show a continued maturation of the industry and proof to partners that unified communications is a technology worth introducing to their customers.

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