There’s no doubt that the Apple iPad is the “The Tablet for the Enterprise.” A large number of enterprises worldwide view the iPad as the enabler for anytime anywhere access. The iPad is already being projected as the next preferred endpoint for the Unified Communications (UC) industry and it’s no surprise that all major vendors are working actively to broaden the availability of their solutions to tablets and specifically the Apple iPad.

To that effect, Avaya yesterday announced the launch of an iPad app for its Flare Communicator communications and collaboration systems. While the iPad version of Flare Communicator does not support video, I strongly believe it’s a massive first step in deploying Flare Communicator on tablet devices.

Even though the Flare desktop device runs on Android operating system, Apple’s “explosive growth” in the enterprise segment meant Avaya preferred to debut the Flare mobile app on the Apple iPad. Interestingly, the Flare desktop device is widely perceived as a competitor to the enterprise-grade Cisco Cuis tablet, but I believe the comparison is unfair as the former is a touchscreen master controller that is used in conjunction with the phone and can’t be used outside office premise.

The Flare Communicator iPad app lets users find business people via a contact card, and start an instant message, voice call or email, simply by touching on that contact.  The Avaya Flare Communicator is powered by the Avaya Aura UC architecture and it provides an enterprise grade solution for enterprises to communicate and collaborate securely through WiFi or 3G connectivity. Avaya claims enterprises can leverage the Flare Communicator application to reduce mobile expenses and avoid roaming charges.

“With Avaya Flare Communicator on iPad, enterprise users have a seamless mobile collaboration experience that integrates various methods of communication all at their fingertips. As the mobile workforce continues to grow, applications like Flare Communicator ensure that the tools they use simultaneously provide the consistency and flexibility needed for these workers to be truly effective,” said Nidal Abou-Ltaif, vice president Emerging Markets, Avaya.

The Avaya Flare Communicator for iPad tablets is a free download for users from the Apple App Store. Businesses with Avaya Aura 6.1 or later can obtain up to 50 Avaya Aura client access licenses at no cost to connect users to Flare Communicator during an introductory offer from January 24 through April 30.

Avaya says it plans to introduce video functionality in a follow-up release for the Flare Communicator for iPad. The company also plans to bring the Flare Communicator app to other platforms later on in 2012, including for Windows desktop environments and Android-based tablets.

Next question is, when will this become available for the Avaya IP Office. Release 8 of the IP Office supports the new Avaya One X Mobile, the first step to making the apps on the IP Office more closely resemble the Aura platform. Rumor is that the Flare will become available for the IP Office in an upcoming release, perhaps the IP Office Release 9? The IP Office client base is certainly ready for this app, and the product is very mature; at this point it’s not a question of if, but when.

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Written by: Gaurav Kheterpal. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.comby:RSS,Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

An excerpt from the Digitcom press release regarding its new distinction as an Avaya Partner in Customer Excellence: Digitcom Canada Inc., a leading Canadian business phone systems and data networks distributor, was recently recognized as an Avaya “Partner in Customer Excellence,” a newly created designation that identifies and rewards channel partners who achieve significantly higher scores in their customer satisfaction surveys.

As a recent winner of Avaya’s prestigious SME Canadian Business Partner of the Year award—for which eligible companies must achieve sterling 90 percent customer satisfaction rating, demonstrate industry leadership and outperform key strategic goals—and one of a few select Avaya “SME Expert” dealers in North America—a certification that honours both a company’s high level of customer satisfaction and unrivalled technical expertise—this new distinction as an Avaya “Partner of Excellence” once again demonstrates Digitcom’s longstanding commitment to customer satisfaction and its continued excellence in customer service…and it’s an honour that I couldn’t be more proud of.

“Partner in Customer Excellence”

Looking for ways to better recognize and reward its outstanding channel partners, Avaya developed several initiatives designed not only to acknowledge those who exceed the standard but to help all channel partners know where they stand in comparison with others.

As Avaya’s Vice President of Worldwide Channels Jeremy Butt explains, “We [at Avaya] are removing obstacles and improving accessibility, making it easier for the best and the brightest to do business with us. Avaya retains its laser focus on enterprise communications and open standards and we remain committed to educating and authorising partners who share our passion and vision. With commitment of this level on both sides I’m sure that the year ahead will be our best yet.” 

Over the past several years Avaya has dedicated significant resources to improving its Connect Channel Partner program. As the Avaya press release explains, the evolution of this program—including the addition of this new Customer Excellence designation– reflects the ever-changing channel dynamics and will enable Avaya partners like Digitcom to better deliver “the broadest possible solution sets to customers.”

With an expansive worldwide network of channel partners, customer satisfaction has become a critical element in how Avaya determines partner level status. This new designation recognizes those who excel in this field, highlighting them in Avaya’s Partner Locator. While this designation means a great deal to Digitcom–and to me personally–it is truly a reflection of our entire corporate focus on customer service, a dedication that pervades our entire organization and one that is only maintained through the hard work and caring of our fantastic staff.

Beyond this new designation, however, Avaya has developed a benchmark tool, allowing channel partners like to assess how they compare to others in this field. For me, being able to see how others approach customer service is an invaluable tool to helping us here at Digitcom in our continuing drive towards better customer service and increased customer satisfaction.

Aside from iniatives that recognize the channel partners themselves, from a customer perspective I think Avaya’s new initiatives will allow potential clients to find the channel partner that will best serve their business communication needs. For more information about Digitcom and its wide range of products please visit www.digitcom.ca.

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Written by: Jeff Wiener. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

1. The Battle for Control of our Technological Future

As history has shown us, today’s technology, telecommunication, and mobile success stories could soon be tomorrow’s flops, their current domination saying nothing about their ability to continue their momentum into the future. Thinking about this trend I began to wonder, what will the technology market look like in 2050?

Will Apple be able to continue its market dominance? Will Microsoft emerge as a true mobile competitor or simply fade away? Will Google continue its Android success, or will its disparate focus lead the company astray? Will Facebook morph into some SkyNet-like project that ends up controlling the entire world?

Who will win the fight for the technological dominance of our future?

2. Telecom Complaints Double In a Year, That’s what ‘Healthy Competition’ is all About?

When studying Economics there’s one primary lesson ingrained in every student’s head: Competition leads to high-quality products and services, thriving innovation, reduced prices and last but not the least – improved customer service. Although I’ve applied the same rule with great success in a number of industries, the Canadian wireless segment continues to defy my hard-earned conventional wisdom.

Despite several new players joining the fray last year and the so-called ‘cut throat’ competition in the Canadian wireless market, one thing hasn’t changed – the number of customer complaints continues to rise exponentially with every passing year. In fact, complaints from Canadians about their telecom (mostly wireless) services more than doubled in a year.

3. No End in Sight: RIM’s Troubles Continue

Optimists have tried to suggest that Waterloo’s Research in Motion may be ready to put the last six months behind it. A few unacceptable quarters, listless sales and trouble transitioning to BBX have all helped RIM’s reputation weaken over the last while, but some glass-half-full folks have argued that the company can and will recover.

But with JMP Securities downgrading RIM, with a resultant 5% dip in stocks, and RBC Capital Markets’ Mike Abramsky cutting his per share profit estimate to $1.20 from $1.28, setting a share price target of $23 (down from $29) the trouble is that the odds continue to be stacked against RIM.

4. Spectrum Blues: Wind Mobile Threatens Boycott

The Canadian wireless spectrum auction circus is now in full swing. The drama officially began in March when the CRTC announced the deadline for submissions to Industry Canada as to how to handle the event. Back then perhaps the most pressing question facing Industry Minister Tony Clement about this whole thing was whether or not he should be setting aside spectrum for the new entrants.

While the new entrants have been requesting the Government to set aside a portion of the 700 MHz, the Big Three have been lobbying to preserve their vested interests. As things stand, the battle for “beachfront” property of the airwaves in the upcoming wireless spectrum auction is getting uglier with time.

5. AT&T Faces FCC Opposition

It would be an understatement to say that the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger has been unpopular. While its clear that AT&T was supremely confident in its chances of getting the deal approved, going so far as to agree to pay T-Mobile $3 billion if the deal fell through in addition to promising several billion in assets and spectrum, it wasn’t long before the voices of opposition starting the seemingly endless stream of lawsuits.

Now, already reeling from the news that the Department of Justice is pursuing legal action to block its intended merger with T-Mobile, AT&T may have received the knock-down blow as FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski officially weighed in on the controversy, stating that the merger is not in the public’s interest and should be voted down.

I received the following notice this morning:

Avaya strives to provide solutions of the highest quality for our Channel Partners and customers. Our flagship solution for small and medium sized enterprises—Avaya IP Office—is no exception. To ensure the upcoming launch of Avaya IP Office R8.0 meets those rigorous standards, the general availability (GA) date will move from November 30, 2011 to December 12, 2011. While we recognize this may be an inconvenience, it demonstrates our commitment to providing you with a solution that adheres to the strict quality standards we maintain.

For more information, please contact your Avaya DCAM.

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Written by: Jeff Wiener. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Several weeks ago I wrote a brief introductory piece on the new Avaya IP Office Release 8, but at the time I was unfortunately not able to expand on the details or discuss the new features because of Digitcom’s non-disclosure dealer agreement with Avaya, which understandably prohibits divulging the details of such confidential information.

Now, however, with the new Avaya IP Office product set to launch on November 30th the veritable gag order has been lifted and I am in a much better position to write a review of what you’ll find in the latest release.

The biggest change with Release 8 surrounds the mobility apps and the overall direction Avaya is taking the IP Office product suite. The next few years will see the rapid decline of the desk set—as I’ve long predicted—as users migrate to alternate mediums for their talk path. While that migration will include, to a lesser extent, increased communication via PC, to a much larger extent it will mean the emerging dominance of mobile devices.

The challenge for Avaya, and every other phone system manufacturer, is to ensure its continued presence, and for that matter its continued existence, as the cellphone becomes the ubiquitous mode of communication.

I came across an interesting statistic a few weeks ago that by the end of 2012 over 50 percent of communication in the corporate world will be done through a device other than the desk set, the most dominant medium being the cellphone. True? It’s tough to say, but it certainly speaks strongly to a changing marketplace, and with such an evolution taking place manufacturers will need to respond.

The changes in IP Office Release 8 are geared specifically towards this change, emphasizing enhanced mobility, office convergence and more importantly, providing full office functionality on one’s cellphone.

Here are some of the changes you will find on IP Office Release 8:

NOTE: Digitcom is hosting an Avaya IP Office Release 8 sales update being done via WebEx on December 8th at 10AM. To register click here:

1) The new One-X Mobile Preferred solution will provide integrated presence, IM, visual voice mail and conferencing on the Android phone (with the iPhone and Blackberry to follow in early 2012). It’s like having your office phone completely available on your mobile device. While it sounds like twinning, a service I’ve written about extensively before, it’s truly much more than that!

2) New embedded Voice Mail Pro C110UC module –an alternative to the external PC running Windows XP, 7, Server 2008, this C110UC card will consume a full slot in the IP Office V2 cabinet and provide full advanced app capability on a card. No more need for a separate server. Available in early 2012 only.

3) New browser-based administration – This will be available on the Basic Edition to start (formerly Essential Edition), and will extend to the Preferred Edition at a later date.

4) New Microsoft Outlook Plug-In – This will provide federated presence inside Outlook. You will now be able to see the status of all of your users (busy, available etc…) from within the Outlook screen.

5) Salesforce.com Plug-In – Make and receive calls from within Salesforce.com, do screen pop-ups, and place calls on and off hold. Finally!

6) Enhanced One-X Portal. It looks like my personal favourite app is getting even better, and YES, it does currently work on my MAC (that’s the reason it’s my favourite in the first place!). Beyond that, Avaya is adding Google calendar mining, presence, and an iGoogle style widget that will become available inside the One-X screen.

7) New Reports in CCR: Agent performance, an agent time card report, and custom reports with Microsoft Report Builder are all now included. While still a preliminary review of this feature, the screen looks like the product has matured in look, feel, and usability. In addition, both the coaching and the silent intrusion features should help companies with improving call centre efficiency.

While I likely say this every time we see a new product release, Avaya Release 8 is probably the most significant one yet. Avaya has created a competitive, feature rich product that, at this point, surpasses every comparable communication suite on the market. Sure Cisco, NEC (which we also sell!), Panasonic, and Mitel are out there, but frankly they are all playing catch-up.

In the meantime, Avaya is playing catch-up as well, not with its direct competitors but with an ever-changing marketplace where the cellphone has evolved into the focus of corporate communications. As I said, the market is changing (FAST!), and Avaya needs to be one step ahead.

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Written by: Jeff Wiener. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Avaya recently released extensions to its ERS (Ethernet Routing Switch) 4000 series switches. The 4000 series switches have been designed to simplify the convergence of data, voice and video, and to aid enterprises in network optimization for collaboration. The stacking bandwidth has been increased from 320G to 384Gbps, which is one of the main features of the line.

Last year the company unveiled a blueprint of VENA (Virtual Enterprise Network Architecture) to enable enterprises to optimize the network for services through virtualization and business applications, and the 4000 series switches are compatible with it. VENA, a software enhancement, supports the developing IEEE 802.1AQ SPB (Shortest Path Bridging) standard for setting up several active paths in a data center switch fabric.

SPB has not been extraordinarily successful. However, according to the company, clients are opting for VENA components like enhanced SPB, switch clustering, network access control, network management and wireless networking. While releasing switch extensions Avaya indicated that the response from data centers and campuses to its virtualized networking architecture was positive. The company also rolled out new software along with the switches. One of the many features of the software is the support for PoE (Power over Ethernet) and PoE+.

According to Avaya Networking global general manager Jean Turgeon, VENA based switches have been picked up by numerous customers, who are happy with the direction in which the company is headed. He further added that momentum for the architecture is building and the company’s long term strategy is a success.

But these claims fail to convince the principal of ZK research Zeus Kerravala. He opines that all fabric architectures present in the market including VENA need some real accounts displaying operational lift or quantifiable value to convince customers. The claims of most of the players in the industry are currently based on theory rather than on actual client deployments. Apart from Avaya, other major companies offering fabric architecture and network virtualization include IBM, Dell, Extreme, Brocade, Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent and Enterasys.

Although SPB in particular has not generated a lot of interest, Turgeon has cited VENA strategy launch as one of the most successful launches in the company’s history and that the message is resonating with potential customers. At present VM mobility and data center present the biggest challenges for enterprises and Avaya manages to tackle these successfully. With the need for per box provisioning, the company is offering new services across the campus.

The company’s efforts for expanding the fabric to campus edge have been appreciated by Kerravala as it will help bring down latency and enhance the working of applications. But the company is finding it difficult to generate interest outside the base of Nortel Enterprise Solutions. Even the telephony base, which is Avaya’s traditional base, is yet to be milked. Avaya acquired Nortel’s Enterprise Solutions group for $900 million last year. The company has been successful in pushing its products in Nortel base and the traditional phone base should be their next focus area.

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Written by: Yuyutsu Sen. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

After years of growth and change executives at Avaya’s Evolutions 2011 were promising channel partners, well, more of the same. While I unfortunately had to miss last year’s Evolutions event, and thus was unsure of what to expect there this year, I quickly discovered that Avaya is clearly evolving, coming of age in an ever-changing telecommunications market.

At this year’s event Digitcom had the privilege of being an exhibitor, allowing me to meet with current and prospective customers, and with Avaya reporting 1,200 people in attendance, there were plenty of both. Beyond that, however, I was also afforded the invaluable opportunity to hear from Avaya in regards to the current state of the market and to gain some insight into the future roadmap of the company.

The first glimpse of Avaya’s ongoing evolution came early in the day, with Rob Daleman, Marketing Leader Avaya Canada, and Ross Pellizzari, President of Avaya Canada, announcing that the heavy lifting from the post Nortel acquisition is now over and is already producing some excellent end results, including a new revitalized dealer base and a large Nortel customer base that is slowly migrating towards an integrated Avaya/Nortel roadmap.

In addition, we heard that Avaya is the number one player in the SME and Enterprise voice market in Canada, hardly a surprise considering the Nortel integration.

Following that we heard from Phil Edholm, VP of Technology, Strategy and Innovation, who discussed the changing face of communication using technologies like the Avaya Flare Experience. The key point to his message, surprise surprise, is that communication is changing, with Edholm suggesting that by the end of 2012 over 50% of office users will be using their personal devices to communicate in the corporate market. But not to worry, Avaya has solutions in both the SME and Enterprise markets to support the changing face of the market, but more on that shortly.

Let me state the obvious one more time, the communication world is changing; what was once a TDM world is moving rapidly towards a world of open standards SIP. Frankly, SIP is allowing for never before seen inter-compatibility between disparate devices from different manufacturers, and with open standards like SIP trunking and SIP stations, the way the world communicates has been forever altered.

To the point, I’ve been preaching for years about the imminent demise of the office desk phone, a casualty of a move towards an open standards device agnostic market where everything is integrated. To observe this paradigm shift towards open standards one need only to look at Avaya Flare, which now works on the iPad and various Android devices, or Avaya Aura or IP Office, both  advanced middleware product suites designed to support this next generation of integrated device agnostic telecommunications.

There was some discussion about Avaya’s data network, switches, and routers; this product line coming, of course, from the old Nortel. Avaya can now support an end-to-end solution: call control server, switch, and phone on the desk, although ironically the phone on the desk is becoming obsolete and is being replaced by software apps at the desk. It’s a new generation, a paradigm shift in technology.

At the Evolutions event we were also introduced to Avaya’s new slogan, “The Power of We.” To illustrate the message Avaya brought out a chorus of singers–one singer singing alone produces a lonely tone, but together, when everyone sings a chorus, music euphony is created.

The message, as best as I understand it, is this: We’re all best served when we work as a team. Together we are stronger than one person alone. How exactly does that relate to Avaya? According to Renzo Dipasquale, who I spoke with about this very issue, “We’re in an era where we need to collaborate for success, both at the corporate and at the technology level. When WE work together WE produce results. That’s the POWER OF WE.”

The day ended with a one hour session hosted by Don Tapscott, an author, speaker, and advisor on Media, Technology & Innovation; a very appropriate conclusion to an eventful, information packed day.

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Written by: Jeff Wiener. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

I’ve been involved with the Avaya IP Office for 6 years now and have seen the product mature from the early IP Office 406 days to the very fully featured current and upcoming Release 8, and each release brings some amazing new features and enhancements.

NOTE: We have published a more recent post on the IP Office Release 8 including the features with screen shots. You can read that post, click here.

Avaya has spent the last 18 months focusing on integrating the Nortel Norstar MICS and BCM product portfolio into the IP Office brand, and now that they have completed most of the transition they can focus on significant product enhancement.

The fist release of One-X Portal was somewhat lacking in features. The second release which was introduced with IP Office Release 6 was a significant improvement in speed, responsiveness, and more importantly stability. I was disappointed enough with One-X on it’s first release that Digitcom didn’t sell more than a handful of seats. One-X on release 6 forward provided the stability and somewhat improved feature set that was encouraging, and since that time we have sold hundreds of seats.

And based on a quick cursory look at Release 8’s One-X it seems that the product is now coming to maturity and is one of Avaya’s focal points with this upcoming release of software. I must admit that since Digitcom wasn’t a beta site for Release 8 I can’t speak first hand to the stability or performance of the version.

NOTE: We have published a more recent post on the IP Office Release 8 including the features with screen shots. You can read that post, click here.

In addition, since, at the time of writing this post Avaya IP Office Release 8 hasn’t been formally released and isn’t expected until the end of November, I am held to Avaya’s standard confidentiality policy and can only touch briefly on some of the features from a very high level perspective

So what can you expect to see from IP Office Release 8?

Probably the most significant release I can remember in many years, and this release will definitely position IP Office as an even bigger threat in the SME space.

In a nutshell, you can expect to see:
- Significant improvement to the mobility offering. I consider this to be the biggest selling point of Release 8
- Significant improvement to One-X Portal. The new release definitely raises the bar
- A new plug-in for Microsoft Outlook
- No big changes to the Avaya Phones

And for those of you that didn’t know, Avaya was recently awarded the Frost & Sullivan European Product of the Year Award for 2011 for the IP Office. You can read more about that here.

Again, unfortunately I’m not giving you much info here on Release 8 … the purpose of this post is to let our readers know that Release 8 is expected on November 30th, 2011 at which time I will write a full review and provide screen shots and explanations, so stay tuned.

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Written by: Jeff Wiener. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Avaya announced it has been awarded the ‘Frost & Sullivan European Enterprise Product of the Year Award, 2011’ for Avaya IP Office, the company’s flagship communications solution for small and medium-sized businesses.

The companies evaluated for ICT Europe’s 2011 Awards were selected by Frost & Sullivan analysts who assessed companies’ revenues, market share, capabilities and overall contribution to the industry. Those that made the short-list of candidates were presented to an independent panel of judges consisting of industry executives from various ICT industry communities including leading IT and communications service providers, telecom vendors and CTOs/CIOs of large corporations.

The panel selected Avaya IP Office as the ‘European Enterprise Communications Product of the Year 2011’ based on value for money, features and benefits, Go-to-Market strategy, market potential and customer adoption.

Quotes:
“With IP Office, Avaya introduced role-based bundles, thanks to which small businesses no longer need to select from various application options. This removes the complexity of choosing the right communications solution for their particular needs. In Europe in particular, products designed for working on the road, for example, ‘mobile worker’ and ‘power user’ targeted at executives, are the top best-selling solutions.”
Dorota Oviedo, Industry Analyst, Frost & Sullivan

“In today’s tough economic environment, small and medium businesses need the best tools available to collaborate and compete more effectively. Avaya IP Office represents the best in advanced communications for this market, providing multiple unified communications and customer service capabilities, with a focus on simplicity and savings. We appreciate the recognition from a leading industry analyst firm – and its independent panel of judges – as well the recognition we receive from our customers, who have made Avaya IP Office the top product in its category.”
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1. REPORT: Avaya Planning to Go Public

A global leader in business communications, Avaya has always been known for the innovation and advanced technology in its much sought after phone systems. Now the company is hoping the strength of its name will bring success on the open market, because while the details aren’t yet public, it looks like Avaya soon will be.                  

The Wall Street Journal has reported that the phone systems maker could file for an Initial Public Offering in the very near future, looking to raise $1 billion before it hits the open market. But will Avaya be able to turn its IPO into a gold mine, or will it follow the likes of Mitel and others, struggling with slumping share prices and disgruntled investors as it tries to right its suddenly sinking ship?

2. Apple will Deliver Faster iPhone come September

It looks like September is officially the new month for Apple fans to look forward to, as recent reports corroborate persistent rumours that Apple’s iPhone 5 will be released at the end of summer. But will the new iPhone 5 be worth the wait?

With news that the phone will be powered by a faster dual core processor and feature a new camera and, of course, iOS 5, I would hope that these are but a few of the new features we’ll see with the new iPhone 5. Regardless, it’s sure to be the tech event of the later summer.

3. RIM Shares Drop as Job Cuts Announced

Things keep going from bad to worse to even worse for Waterloo’s Research In Motion. The BlackBerry maker has been in a slump as of late, to put it mildly, and has struggled to stop the bleeding. Market share has been dropping like a stone and the company is now in full retreat mode.

Shares in RIM fell on Thursday after the corporation announced that it planned to cut jobs. Along with this, RIM revealed fiscal numbers that were below expectations. Profit outlook was slashed up as a result and many believe that the once dominant company is on its way down in flames in a royal hurry.

4. Rogers to Launch LTE Network In Ottawa This Summer

Although a little late to the 4G party, its looks like Canada will finally be introduced to next generation wireless networks as Rogers has stated its intention to begin the rollout of its LTE network in Ottawa this summer, with coverage to most of Canada’s major metropolitan areas by 2012.

That said, it looks like Rogers will be the first Canadian carrier to get its LTE network to market, putting to rest the debate of who really is Canada’s fastest network…for the time being at least.

5. Hackers Stole Classified Information in Canadian Government Attack

After a slew of devastating cyber-attacks, one might say that June unofficially became “Hacker Awareness” month. Among the many high profile attacks, however, came the news that not even governments were safe from the online onslaught, as hackers gained access to both Canadian and American government websites and information. But is there any chance of stopping these hackers?

Aside from them quitting, it looks like the answer is ‘no,’ as the hackers take their business very seriously, always seemingly three steps ahead of current security protocols

6. Will Shoddy Wireless Networks Darken the Cloud?

It may be the wave of the computing future, but cloud technology and services may suffer if wireless networks struggle to handle the increased data load.  The reality is that even with the continued rollout of next generation 4G LTE wireless technology; carriers are barely able to find the bandwidth or achieve the network stability needed to keep up with the exponentially increasing data demands of today’s mobile users.

Add to that the cloud’s constant connection with third party servers and it means a significant increase in data traffic, an issue that has left wireless carriers wondering if the cloud means that there’s a serious storm on the horizon.

Apparently Avaya has had some issues with the Avaya 9608, 9621G, and 9641G operating on the IP Office, and has put a temporary stop ship on these models of phones running specifically on IP Office.

The Avaya press released contained the following:
Avaya is postponing the GA of the Avaya 9608, 9621G and 9641G IP Deskphones for IP Office solutions until the needs of our SME market are satisfied. An IP Deskphone software release suitable for IP Office will be available at a future date. In the meanwhile we will continue to offer the previous equivalent phones.

It appears that this hold could be on for a couple of months at least, although Avaya is working hard on rectifying this problem to have the handset back to market sooner.

A global leader in business communications, Avaya has always been known for the innovation and advanced technology in its much sought after phone systems. Now the company is hoping the strength of its name will bring success on the open market, because while the details aren’t yet public, it looks like Avaya soon will be.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that the phone systems maker could file for an Initial Public Offering as early as this week, seeking an initial valuation of approximately 1 billion dollars. The decision to go public comes amidst a flurry of such technology sector IPOs in recent months, with many of those seeing mixed results and with lots more still to come.

But will Avaya be able to turn its IPO into a gold mine, or will it follow the likes of Mitel and others, struggling with slumping share prices and disgruntled investors as it tries to right its suddenly sinking ship?

There’s no question that taking Avaya public again is a gamble, as recent filings have had mixed results for technology companies. Chip maker Freescale Semiconductor Holdings filed last month, and faced a weaker than expected debut, while Linkedln watched its shares more than double on its first day of trading later in May.

Furthermore, the move comes at a time when the public market is infatuated with Internet companies, evidenced by the fact that e-commerce company Groupon filed for an IPO that could see the company valued as high as $20 billion. What this means is that despite Avaya’s strong history of market dominance, it may not see the initial success that more technologically cutting edge companies are seeing.

The difference in Avaya’s case, however, may be twofold: It has already been a publicly traded company in the past, and it’s a recognized and established global brand that has seen no hint of decline in its profits or popularity.

It was back in 2000 when Avaya first hit the public market, a spinoff from technology company Lucent—now of Alcatel-Lucent. It was publicly traded until 2007 when it was acquired by private equity firms Silver Lake and TPG Capital for $8.2 billion, who have owned the company ever since.

Further, the Journal has reported that the company may be valued as high as $5 billion, and likely plans to file for an IPO of $1 billion, underwritten by such banks as Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. CitigroupInc., Barclays Capital and Credit Suisse Group.

One is clear, though, this is a turning point in Avaya’s long and storied career as a globally recognized telecommunications brand, and for those like Digitcom who are closely linked to Avaya, the hope is that the company executives will be able to navigate the public market with the same confidence with which they have led the company in recent years.

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Written by: Matt Klassen. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Over my 20 years in the Telecom business almost everything has changed, as telecom technology continues to advance at a rapid rate. One of the things that had never changed, however, was the presence of the Nortel product line in the market place. Nortel’s once innovative Norstar product was introduced sometime in the late 1980’s, and its fantastic twenty year run was cut short last May 2010. And yesterday Avaya announced the end of the Nortel BCM, Nortel’s flagship SMB phone system.

I would classify the BCM as one of the more widely sold phone systems in the market which propelled Nortel to the #1 position in the worldwide market share concerning small and medium business space.

The product was feature rich, well-priced, and easy to install. Our company sold the Nortel BCM for many years with the unshakeable sense of confidence that Nortel once had.

But, as the old adage says, all good things must come to an end, and with that I’m sad to announce that BCM has reached the end of its impressive run.

When Avaya took over Nortel’s telecom assets they didn’t hide the fact that both the Norstar and BCM would be discontinued sometime in the near future, and the impending official announcement came on May 31st, 2011 with the following Avaya press release regarding the BCM being discontinued:

As part of the previously announced convergence strategy and the launch of Avaya IP Office Release 7.0, Avaya is announcing the End-of-Sale (EoS) for new systems of Avaya Business Communications Manager 50 (BCM 50) and Avaya Business Communications Manager 450 (BCM 450) products, nine (9) months from the date of this announcement, effective March 1, 2012.

Products required to upgrade, expand and maintain existing BCM systems will continue to be offered for another three (3) years to March 1, 2015. This includes software authorization codes, terminals, media bay modules, expansion units, replacement parts, and upgrades to the latest release (BCM R6.0).

Avaya will make every effort to have supply of these products available for all orders, but cannot guarantee product availability through their End of Sale dates. Avaya reserves the right to manage and/or limit order quantities, or to cancel orders if supply is no longer available. Customer orders will be fulfilled on a first?in, first?out basis. If supply is exhausted prior to the targeted End of Sale dates in this notice, Avaya will issue an updated notice and accelerate removal of the applicable product codes from price lists and associated order entry systems.

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Written by: Jeff Wiener. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Although I have been using the old Nortel M & T series phones on the IP Office for a couple of months, and have written a series of blog posts on the new Avaya IP Office Release 7, I finally got around to making a YouTube video showing the M/T (M7310, T7316e) series functionality and how the Avaya IP Office features function using the old Nortel phones.

Generally many of the old feature codes have been carried over, but, these sets are of course paper based phones which limit some of the systems usability. The product has been out for only 2 months, but, we’ve now sold in excess of 1,000 ports of IP Office systems using the old M & T series phones. We’re doing our first large deployment this week with many more to follow over the next 45 days, so, we better get our act together. Stay tuned, I will let you know how it goes.

What’s the difference between unified communication vendors Avaya and Cisco these days? Well, to put it simply, the former is clearly “Fit for Purpose,” while the latter suffers from a distinct “Lack of Purpose.” Its been no secret of late that Cisco’s traditional command-and-control management structure has left many talented executives feeling incredibly frustrated, resulting not only in a veritable valuation nosedive for the company, but the mass exodus of key staff as well.

In an effort to quell the discontent, however, Cisco promised to overhaul its entire management structure, reorganizing sales, services, and engineering operations in an effort to make Cisco more productive again. But as the company struggles to regain its corporate focus, the reorganization failed to prevent one more key departure, one that will undoubtedly hurt the company deeply; the departure of Telepresence Vice President Phil Graham.

Put aside for the moment that Cisco’s new strategy is focused primarily on improving its video telepresence solutions for business communications, a project that is now leaderless, Graham’s departure hurts the most because of where he ended up…at the top of Avaya’s own Telepresence division.

While Avaya has come under fire for its ambitious Flare experience of late, the communications vendor clearly thinks that its innovative platform is where business communication is heading, and to that end the hiring of Graham is a veritable market coup, robbing the now-struggling Cisco of one of its key Telepresence executives.

Graham, for his part, was relatively mum about his reasons for leaving Cisco, stating only that Flare was a main reason for his transition, and that the software platform is a “very interesting paradigm of mixing information with applications. And then at the center of that experience is communications.” If he was one of the many disgruntled former Cisco executives, he certainly wasn’t letting on.

With its most recent hiring, Avaya wasted no time in placing Graham in a position of utmost importance, naming him Vice President of Research and Development Endpoints, stating that he will, “play a key role in expanding Avaya’s focus on next-generation endpoints that improve the user experience and effectiveness of business collaboration.”

The oversight of all Avaya endpoints will leave Graham with some huge responsibilities, as his focus will be on everything from the top of the line Desktop Video Device tablet that the company’s Flare experience had its debut on several months ago to the ubiquitous desktop phone that’s no doubt staring at you right now.

That being said, Graham’s passion is clearly enterprise video communications, and it’s in this area that I would expect Avaya to succeed conversely as Cisco continues to struggle to establish a Telepresence foothold.

For Cisco, it’s clear that loosing Graham hurts, more so given the fact that he ended up at Avaya, a move that will almost certainly skyrocket Avaya to the forefront of burgeoning Telepresence solutions. Will Cisco be able to recover? Perhaps, but only if they’re able to sort out their in-house discontent first.

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Written by: Matt Klassen. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.