Verizon Business Offers Interoperability With Avaya PBX to Extend IP Solutions

Verizon Business next month will begin taking orders from customers using Avaya PBX gear that want IP-based versions of its contact center services and VoIP solutions. Features of those solutions include IP toll-free service; IP IVR, an interactive voice-response system for contact center services; and new IP trunking options.

The IP toll-free and IP IVR features are compatible with Avaya Inc.’s Communication Manager with SIP enablement services (SES) 3.1 software and other leading SIP-enabled endpoints. Verizon Business VoIP services also work with Cisco Systems Inc.’s Unified CallManager and Unified CallManager Express products, for which support was previously announced.

Jim Tyrrell, executive director of advanced voice services at Verizon Business, said the company is among the first to IP-enable its network-based contact center solutions. IP-enabling a call center, he added, allows the customer to put its call agents wherever they want, rather than locating all 300 to 500 agents found in a traditional call center in one location. “So it’s really redefining the way contact centers work,” he said. Added Michael Barnes, director of contact center services: “It’s integrating outsourcing with home sourcing.”

Verizon IP toll-free routes incoming toll-free calls over IP to enable greater efficiency and support multiple-contact media, such as phone calls, e-mail or IM. The service enables contact center agents to transfer calls using capabilities inherent to SIP. This network-based service frees customers from having to invest in their own gateways, because IP call conversion happens in the Verizon Business network cloud.

Verizon IP IVR, meanwhile, includes various call-routing and processing features and terminates incoming calls to both TDM and IP endpoints, allowing customers to adopt IP technology at their own pace.

Verizon Business’ IP trunking delivers VoIP access and features to locations with as few as 200 and as many as 1,000 or more end users. It enables companies that have already invested in Avaya IP phones to now connect on a single, converged access line for both internal and external traffic. While Verizon Business has offered outbound IP turnking for almost a year, the interoperability with Avaya is new, said Tyrrell.

According to Verizon Business, which uses IMS to support all these services, IP can lower a customer’s access costs by up to 20 percent; SIP transfer can save more than $.05 per call because some customers may be buying a network-based call transfer capability for around a nickel a call but this SIP transfer feature is offered as part of the Verizon Business IP toll-free inbounding trunking service; and the Toll Free Network Manager feature of Verizon Customer Center can save thousands each month in change fees because it allows customers to manage their own routing plans through a Web portal, meaning they don’t get charged for changes.

Avaya Inc. www.avaya.com
Cisco Systems Inc. www.cisco.com
Verizon Business www.verizonbusiness.com

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