Avaya Telephone Systems

Avaya (formerly Lucent, formerly-formerly AT&T) has been producing telephone systems for many years. Hundreds of thousands business use this platform, with the most widely installed system being the Avaya Partner. Avaya produces a quality product, with advanced features.

Today Avaya has several lines – The Partner, IP Office, and Communications Manager. The Partner and IP Office vie for the small business market with the IP Office edging northward into 400+ phone installation. The Communications Manager is the server-based offering that aims at the enterprise, with the ability to scale downward into the SMB market as well.

Avaya has recently acquired Nortel, and has announced that it will be integrating the Nortel handsets into the existing Avaya platforms. Along with this announcement, Avaya has also stated that the core Nortel systems will no longer be produced.

On the Positive: The Avaya solutions provide a fit for most businesses. The different platforms provide customers with the choices that they need. The technology is reasonably current, integrating with your network and email systems on some levels.

On the Negative: First and foremost, Price. Depending on how you configure the system, options such as voicemail add a hefty percentage to the overall cost of the system. Many of the features are licensed in addition to the hardware, so be careful in choosing what features your business needs to deploy.

In Summary:  The Avaya solutions offered today – Partner, IP Office, and Communications Manager – offer powerful features.  Check out the information at www.avaya.com for more complete details.