Q. What is “Intelligent Communications” and what does it mean for business results?

A. Every business has processes in place to run operations, serve customers, and generate revenue. Processes are the essence of how a company does business. They are defined for an individual company’s logistics, resources, and performance objectives—guiding every department, feeding quality measurements, and driving overall success.

In many processes, communication plays a part: often, there are points in a process where a decision has to be made before the next step can be taken. Delay occurs whenever important decisions aren’t made and the information flow stalls. Salespeople don’t get their quotes in time, an ace candidate isn’t hired fast enough, a customer’s question goes unanswered for too long.

Consider what can happen when a process is automated with triggers for critical information and decision points. Triggers can be used to prompt an action such as a conference call or an instant message. By embedding a communications capability at a trigger point, critical information can be obtained and decisions can be made without delay. As a result, business processes run faster and smoother.

Avaya offers technology and expertise that can help businesses embed communications right into their business processes. We call this “Intelligent Communications.”

Q. What should your IP telephony partner offer as you migrate to a converged network?

A. When you’re the one making the decision on how your company invests its limited technology budget you need assurances that your vendor will be there for you. Enterprise communications are too important to risk without complete confidence in your technology partner. Avaya is ranked number 1 in the world in IP telephony, voice mailbox deployments, contact centers, and proactive communications. You can trust Avaya expertise for advice, implementation, and management for the migration of your traditional communications to a converged voice and data network.

Q. What are the advantages of consolidating call centers with IP telephony?

A. Uniting call centers with IP telephony reduces costs and complexity, and boosts productivity and customer service capabilities. Bring together main locations, branch centers, on-premise staff and virtual workers—in a single region or worldwide—so everyone everywhere is using the same functions and has the same operations support.

An IP contact center deploys sophisticated applications and engages all of your enterprise’s resources, both technical and human. Branch or remote sites can provide seamless global coverage and respond to spikes in call volume, all through a connection to the central hub. IP telephony enables a virtual call center and supports agents working from anywhere, including their homes. This capability has become a cost control strategy for many contact centers.

Q. What's the difference between IP Telephony and VoIP?

A. Many in the communications industry use IP Telephony and VoIP (Voice over IP) synonymously. Clinical definitions often say that VoIP is just the use of a protocol to deliver a conversation.

At Avaya, IP Telephony is used to describe the much more valuable experience of communicating effectively, reliably, and with quality using the same TCP/IP protocol that enables the Internet. In IP Telephony, VoIP is exploited, given the user-friendly features and productivity enhancing aspects of business communications applications as well as the network management tools that make it an enterprise-wide asset.

Q. Can Avaya IP Telephony Solutions work on my Cisco Network? What should I know?

A. Yes, Avaya has designed its portfolio of IP Telephony Solutions to be interoperable with most vendors' voice and data networks, including Cisco. By using open industry standards Avaya infrastructure and software is incredibly flexible when deploying in a mixed vendor environment. Quite often a total enterprise solution requires a mix of components from multiple vendors, which may also optimize your existing investments in network infrastructure.