DiVitas Scores Big with Avaya DealDiVitas Scores Big with Avaya Deal

A joint agreement with Avaya will be a significant boost for DiVitas and will plug a hole in Avaya's product line as well.

Avaya announced that they have selected DiVitas Networks as their preferred dual-mode mobility solution partner, and that Avaya will now be marketing the DiVitas' Wi-Fi/cellular mobile UC solution. Avaya has a long history in the dual mode game, having partnered with Motorola and Proxim to introduce the first such product, dubbed Seamless Convergence, back in 2004.Avaya had been marketing their own dual mode solution under the name oneX-Dual Mode, but for the past several months they had mostly been steering those prospects to third-party providers like DiVitas. Phil Klotzkin, Senior Product Manager, Unified Communications at Avaya notes that they will still offer the cellular-only FMC offerings, oneX-Mobile UC and oneX-Telephony.

According to CEO Vivek Khuller, DiVitas has been a member of the Avaya DevConnect program since 2007 and upgraded to Platinum Status in 2008. Inherent in the DiVitas solution is single number reach and single voicemail, and mobile users will now be able to activate in-call features on the Avaya Communications Manager and SIP Enablement Services. Through integration with Avaya's Modular Messaging, DiVitas users will also get message waiting indication, visual voicemail, and the ability to download voicemail messages to the DiVitas handset where they can be played later (e.g., when the user is on an airplane flight).

The DiVitas solution supports a variety of Nokia E- and N-Series smartphones and a handful of Windows Mobile models including HTC's TyTN II; as with all of the dual mode solutions, there is no support for any BlackBerry devices. While the term "mobile UC" comes up a lot in the announcement, presence is not on the list of immediately available features. It is promised for 4Q09. This is not all that surprising given that Avaya doesn't provide presence notification on any of their oneX mobile solutions.

With this joint agreement, the Avaya sales force and some of the major Avaya distributors will now be marketing the DiVitas solution. In the announcement they pointed to CSX Railroad as one of their first joint customers. CSX dispatches 1,200 trains per day and provides intermodal and rail-to-truck services over a network that spans 21,000 miles and connects 23 Eastern states with more than 70 ocean, river and lake ports. The trial involves 25 users and is now ramping up to 100.

Analysis
 Dual mode solutions are a rather specialized market, where the mind space has been dominated by DiVitas and archrival Agito Networks. Siemens also manufactures their own dual mode solution called Mobile Connect, and lesser-known Varaha provides a dual mode FMC product. Unfortunately, most of the ruckus has revolved around who does the best hand-off rather than who provides the best mobile UC solution for the user.

Agito grabbed the brass ring last year when they were selected by Cisco as a partner in their Motion Architecture announcement. To date, Agito is the only dual mode vendor that supports the Mobile Intelligent Roaming (MIR) feature of Cisco's Mobility Services Engine. They claim MIR will provide a better decision as to when a call should be handed off from Wi-Fi to cellular, but the whole argument seems largely irrelevant to user features. In the bigger picture, Agito's use of inband signaling limits the UC functionality they can deliver. If the only signaling capability you have is DTMF, then visual voicemail, presence, and the other mobile UC features are effectively off the table.

A joint agreement with Avaya will be a significant boost for DiVitas and will plug a hole in Avaya's product line as well. However, the bigger problem facing the entire fixed mobile convergence/mobile UC space is the inability to get the customers to buy off on the whole solution they are offering. Extension-to-cellular can get the user's cell phone to ring simultaneously with the desk set, but that's as far as most customers seem to go in terms of mobile integration. For those in the TDM PBX environment, simple call forwarding can also get the job done.

However, for functions that go beyond ringing the cell phone, the customers are largely ignoring the PBX vendors' mobile UC offerings. The user's mobility requirements are being addressed with a BlackBerry/BES or equivalent smartphone solution; if the user doesn't need smartphones, the PBX can ring a basic cell phone as well. The PBX seems to be playing Lily Tomlin's part in this skit.

In the mobile UC environment, dual mode remains a special case in that it can reduce in-building cellular costs significantly. Of course that assumes that the customer has a wireless LAN (WLAN) that covers the entire facility, and that the WLAN is engineered for the anticipated volume of voice traffic. Even then, dual mode users have to give up their BlackBerries, and that's a big price to pay.

It's good to see that the PBX vendors are keeping the idea of mobility in front of the customers, but they have to establish a bigger role in the value chain if they want to win in the long run. Otherwise, Avaya and the other PBX vendors will be standing at the station when the mobile UC train pulls out.A joint agreement with Avaya will be a significant boost for DiVitas and will plug a hole in Avaya's product line as well.