Avaya: Small Business is Big BusinessAvaya: Small Business is Big Business

Overall, the IP Office system is maturing. Support of enterprise features and functions on a small platform makes users more competitive with larger enterprises.

Avaya has sold over 200,000 IP office systems, according to Dr. Alan Baratz SVP and President, Avaya Global Communications Solutions, speaking at the recent Avaya "Think Big" event. The event included an announcement of the IP Office Release 7.0, and the event presented some interesting information.

Nortel Migration
IP Office Release 7.0 allows Nortel customers with the Business Communications Manager (BCM) and Norstar phones to use their Nortel phones with IP Office. This retains the customer's phone investment, saving 40% to 60% of the cost of implementing IP Office with new phones. Release 7.0 of IP Office supports the Nortel 1100 and 1200 series IP phones that are supported by the BCM and the associated Key Expansion Modules using SIP. The Avaya IP Office also supports Nortel T7000 and M7000 series sets, Audio Conferencing Unit and Digital Mobility Solutions.

The process of configuring IP Office when all the information is located in the BCM can be difficult, time consuming and error prone. Avaya also announced and demonstrated the capability to automatically configure IP Office by connecting it to the BCM. The Avaya Data Migration Tool simplifies the process of transferring the configuration information and other data stored on the BCM. Phone extensions and voice mails are all transferred by cable from the BCM to IP Office.

Customer Discussions
Buddy Valastro, the owner of Carlos Bakery--featured on the Learning Channel reality TV show "Cake Boss"--spoke of his selection of IP Office and experience working with Avaya and its partner American Office Equipment. Valastro said, "Our business is growing. The lines at the bakery are getting longer and the call volumes are rising. I realized we needed a communications solution that is powerful enough to handle our rising business and can enable us to serve every customer with as much quality as we put into our cakes and pastries."

Howie Gold, Director of IT of the Agency Group, liked the IP Office solution for its ability to operate at multiple international locations. The Agency Group has 70 agents that are often mobile, representing 1,500 music artists around the world operating from five international locations. The ability to support enterprise communications features and video conferencing made the IP Office solution very attractive, according to Gold: "Avaya has done a great job of bringing the features of our existing Nortel phones to the Avaya IP Office platform, which makes the transition easier."

Partner Support
Tom Mitchell, SVP and President-Go To Market, spoke of the support that Avaya provides for its partners. Avaya IP Office is sold 100% through partners, of which there are 9,000. The partners have 11,000 credentialed SME personnel supporting their implementations. Avaya spends over $20 million on partner training. In addition there are 6,000 service personnel at Avaya.

Mitchell led a panel discussion with six partner representatives, including one connected by video from the U.K., who presented their views of the IP Office 7.0. A major theme of the partners was the simplicity of the IP Office as well as the Nortel-to-Avaya migration. This reduced the labor when transitioning to IP Office and reduced the possible errors and truck rolls.

Hybrid Cloud
Dr. Baratz also spoke of the concept of IP Office in a hybrid cloud solution. Small businesses are looking for cost reduction and the cloud looks favorable. However for various reasons, the SME is not ready to commit all of its communications requirements to the cloud. Baratz suggested that some low risk functions such as voice mail archiving could be cloud based. Some SMEs have seasonal requirements like retail sales that only need some services part of the year. These services could be partially supported by IP Office, with the overflow supported in the cloud.

Overall, the IP Office system is maturing. The support of enterprise communications features and functions on a small platform make the IP Office owner more competitive with the larger enterprises.