Legacy Nortel users now have a clear path for migrating to updated and upgraded communications systems with the introduction of Avaya IP Office 7.0, which provides compatibility with Nortel Enterprise Solutions IP and digital phones.

“IP Office 7 is a single converged platform that supports form the low end to the high end of the small and medium enterprise market and can provide a smooth migration path from legacy devices and infrastructure into a new IP Office environment,” said Alan Baratz, senior vice president and president of Avaya Global Communications Solutions, during an unveiling event in New York.

IP Office 7 also includes a data migration tool that enables partners to transfer a company’s existing communication data such as extensions, voice mails and softkeys to its new system, avoiding downtime or extra time spent reconfiguring phones.

With the latest version of IP Office, former Nortel partners now have a solution to offer their end user customers that won’t involve a complete rip and replace. “This latest version supports the same feature set as the Nortel legacy equipment,” Baratz said. “It migrates over everything including voice mail messages.”

Also as part of the new lineup, Avaya has introduced a color touchscreen desktop phones and a new line of conference phones — technology Avaya gained in its acquisition of Konftel in January 2011.

For partners, Avaya has created an EZ Demo iPad solution that can be used as a sales aid or an end user training aid, demonstrating all the features and capabilities of IP Office 7.0 and providing a multimedia environment to show off those capabilities, Baratz said.

During the event, Avaya highlighted some of its more high-profile customer wins, including case studies of customers The Agency Group, a global concert booking agency, and Carlo’s Bakery, home base of Buddy Valastro, star of the TLC program “The Cake Boss.”

Tom Mitchell, senior vice president and president of Avaya Go to Market, noted Avaya’s partners are critical to the company’s success as it moves even further into the SME space. “It’s important to understand our go-to-market strategy in this space is 100 percent partner-driven,” he said. “It’s key to everything we do. We love hearing about our partners’ ability to expand on our innovation.”

Avaya also laid out its roadmap for IP Office 7.0, including a cloud-based offering to enable service providers to offer IP Office functionality on a per-user, per-feature basis.

During the second half of 2011, Avaya plans to roll out enhanced management applications, web-management capabilities and better mobility functions to IP Office 7.0, and in 2012 the company is planning on offering a hybrid cloud version of IP Office, which would enable companies to have IP Office on premise, pay for it as a hosted service through service providers, or a combination of both scenarios. Additionally, Avaya plans to enhance its Flare Experience to include more mobility capability for the SMB space.

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