Avaya and Skype Sign Strategic Agreement for Business Communications and Collaboration Solutions

Agreement includes plans for industry-first federation between Avaya and Skype communication platforms

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. and LUXEMBOURG – Avaya, a global leader in enterprise communications systems, software and services, and Skype today announced a strategic agreement to deliver innovative, real-time communications and collaboration solutions to businesses of all sizes. The multi-phase deal includes both go-to-market and an industry-first, joint technology integration that seeks to enable businesses to lower costs and expand how employees, customers, partners and suppliers communicate and collaborate with greater convenience and efficiency.

In the first phase of the agreement, Avaya customers in the U.S. market will have access to Skype Connect™, a product which adds Skype calling to IP-based enterprise communications systems, providing a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) communications channel between Avaya communications systems and Skype. Customers with Avaya Aura™ Session Manager or Avaya Aura SIP Enablement Server, CS1000, Avaya IP Office, or BCM systems can use Skype Connect to place calls globally for increased reach, while aiming to save on international calling. Enterprise-level security and features such as tracking, recording, regulatory compliance, and more are provided by the Avaya system.

Skype reported 124 million average monthly connected users during the second quarter of 2010. Now, Skype users can make inbound calls to Avaya customers in the U.S. market for free or at a low cost. Calls will be treated with Avaya's routing, conferencing, messaging, mobility and contact center capabilities, as well as other collaboration services. For example, businesses can:
Establish Skype Click & Call buttons for inbound calling from Web sites
Establish Skype Online Numbers for inbound calling from landline and mobile phones

Route inbound calls from a Skype user to an enterprise extension

Avaya customers in the U.S. market who are interested in Skype Connect can speak with their Avaya sales representative or an Avaya Connect channel partner contacts beginning in October.

In the second half of 2011, Avaya and Skype plan to deliver integrated unified communications and collaboration solutions for enterprises within the U.S. The integration is intended to establish federation between Avaya Aura and Skype communications platforms and both user communities, so that an Avaya end-user and Skype user can engage and interact via presence, instant messaging, voice and video. A business, for example, could use Skype to access an Avaya-based contact center in a simple and highly integrated way to quickly and efficiently resolve customer service issues. The integrated solutions will also allow enterprise IT managers to manage and control the inter-connectivity between end users to meet their corporate IT policies.

"Avaya and Skype have been working along parallel paths to offer, innovative, scalable, low cost, SIP-based communications to our respective markets," said Alan Baratz, senior vice president, Avaya and president, Avaya Global Communications Solutions. "Now, the two companies will work together, striving to improve collaboration and customer service by federating Avaya and Skype solutions for a common user experience that delivers unique benefits for businesses and their customers who are Skype users."

"Our relationship with Avaya is expected to expand the footprint for Skype Connect into more enterprises in the U.S. market, while allowing us to help Avaya's customers benefit from Skype's cost savings and access to Skype's global user base,” said David Gurlé, vice president and general manager of Skype for Business. "We believe our integrated solution in the second half of 2011 is expected to offer the benefits of Skype to a growing number of businesses and open up new ways for people to communicate and collaborate."

Mobile data surpasses voice

March 25, 2010 Written by James Middleton

Global mobile data traffic surpassed voice during December of 2009, after growing 280 per cent during each of the last two years. According to Swedish vendor Ericsson, which published the figures, global mobile data traffic is forecast to double annually over the next five years.

Ericsson said that the crossover occurred at approximately 140,000 Terabytes per month in both voice and data traffic, while traffic on 3G networks also surpassed that of 2G networks.

As discussed in our recent feature on the network capacity crunch, this stellar growth in mobile data is causing a major headache for operators both financially and technically. And from a technology angle, femtocell proponents are pushing their technology and the most effective solution.

This week the Femto Forum announced research into the use of femtocells in LTE and WiMAX networks, which found that “femtocells provide the best possible LTE user experience and improve the operator business case for the new networks while also offering alternative rollout models and supporting new services.”

The group claims that the addition of femtocells to the network allows users to consistently receive much closer to the headline LTE/WiMAX data rates than those connected to macrocells even when using the same channel as the macro network when suitable mitigation techniques are adopted.

The study also found that the MIMO (Multiple In Multiple Out) technology built into LTE and WiMAX performs well in an indoor environment with femtocells, improving the user experience yet further. By giving away free femtocells to early LTE/WiMAX subscribers, operators could provide the best possible experience indoors, which could be funded by implementing a delay in macrocell buildout by deferring 4 per cent to 10 per cent of the planned macrocell sites, depending upon the scenario.

“The vast majority of usage is going to be in homes and offices. Trying to service this need with the outdoor network is the equivalent of trying to improve the experience of reading in bed by making lampposts outside brighter instead of installing a bedside lamp,” said Simon Saunders, chairman of the Femto Forum.

In related news, the 3GPP2, CDG, and the Femto Forum also announced the formal publication of specifications for femtocell devices that incorporate CDMA2000R 1X and HRPD (EVDO) radio access technologies.

Google as a service for everything. Where will it stop?

When i read a really thought provoking read from Brian Pinnock / Justin Spratt - see http://tinyurl.com/yczw265 - today, it really made me think about where the tech world is going with software, voice and convergence.

All i can say is that wherever we think its is going we will probably be lucky to be vaguely right.

Take the time to listen to Eric Schmidt on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHxub_yQfig - I found it very thought provoking on what the future could hold for business, for voice service providers and even for telecoms expense management vendors.

Fascinating....

Peter Walsh
JHB - 17th Nov 2009